{"id":74761,"date":"2014-07-17T18:05:26","date_gmt":"2014-07-17T08:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=74761"},"modified":"2020-11-27T16:23:16","modified_gmt":"2020-11-27T06:23:16","slug":"toms-building-bridges-of-understanding","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/07\/17\/toms-building-bridges-of-understanding\/","title":{"rendered":"Tom’s Building Bridges Of Understanding"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
Tom Kirk is a proud Aboriginal man who walks easily in two cultural worlds (Photo: Marcus Priaulx)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

July 17, 2014<\/strong><\/p>\n

by Marcus Priaulx
\n<\/strong>Barambah PaCE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Tom Kirk lived on bush tucker, failed school but made a life for himself by facing challenges, taking a step at a time and learning as he went.<\/p>\n

Today he runs cultural awareness workshops in Cherbourg and across Australia. He is man who helps people walk in two cultural worlds.<\/p>\n

Tom’s mum always told him \u2018go on to school now, get educated so you can help your people\u2019.<\/p>\n

His dad hunted in the surrounding Brisbane bushland for kangaroo, fish, porcupine and a host of other tucker for the family to survive on.<\/p>\n

\u201cDad was a furniture machinist by trade from Cherbourg but there wasn\u2019t much money in those days and we relied on bush tucker a lot,\u201d Tom, 52, said.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe weren\u2019t the only ones. There were quite a few Aboriginal people who lived the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom\u2019s mum Lynette was from Woorabinda and worked as a secretary with the skills she gained from going to school at Rockhampton Girls Grammar.<\/p>\n

When the city life became too much for her, the family moved to Duaringa west of Rockhampton.<\/p>\n

Tom went to school every day and loved it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt suited my personality,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

At the age of 12 his parents separated but remained friends. Tom went to board at Rockhampton Boys Grammar.<\/p>\n

He loved the social life and got involved in everything, but a language barrier meant he achieved little academically.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had English but it was broken with a mix of Aboriginal words,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But he is thankful for school.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt had a lot to do with the building of my character,\u201d Tom said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt allowed me to have a lot of cross cultural experiences.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had a lot of friends but I withdrew in class. I\u2019d just sit in the background during lessons.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom graduated from Year 12 in 1979 but “failed” school. He headed to Canberra where his father Tom (senior) now lived.<\/p>\n

Tom Snr was keen for his son to work so got him a government public service traineeship shortly after his arrival.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe didn\u2019t want his son to be unemployed,\u201d Tom said.<\/p>\n

He recalled it was an exciting time when Aboriginal rights were being fought for and won.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a lot going on,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He admitted he told a few fibs about the success of his high school education to get better work around the country, which involved negotiating Native Land Title claims and other government policies.<\/p>\n

Tom also did a TAFE business course. He got honours and scores of more than 90 per cent for every subject he did.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThis told me I was bright but just had a language barrier at school,\u201d Tom said.<\/p>\n

It gave him confidence and in 1992 he did a course that taught him how to host cultural awareness workshops.<\/p>\n

After hosting his first one, Tom thought the work wasn\u2019t for him.<\/p>\n

\u201cI found some people\u2019s attitudes quite confronting,\u201d Tom said. \u201cAs a facilitator you can\u2019t say \u2018you\u2019re an idiot\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n

So he returned to the Queensland public service but found that work left him feeling flat.<\/p>\n

He attended a cultural workshop as part of his duties and thought it was rubbish … he knew he could do better.<\/p>\n

So Tom rang Chip Morgan, the man who was his original mentor for cultural awareness programs, to say he wanted to begin running such workshops as a business of his own.<\/p>\n

That was 15 years ago and Tom hasn\u2019t looked back.<\/p>\n

* * *<\/strong><\/p>\n

I took part in a recent Cross Cultural Communications workshop Tom did at Cherbourg, and it was brilliant.<\/strong><\/p>\n

This feeling was mutual amongst both the Indigenous and non-Indigenous participants.<\/p>\n

Tom\u2019s style is engaging and non-threatening. He puts historical events in context, diminishes cultural myths and helps people understand why they, or others, behave in the way they do.<\/p>\n

You could hear pennies drop in people\u2019s heads throughout the day and there was plenty of humour.<\/p>\n

In a nutshell, it was enlightening.<\/p>\n

Tom said people\u2019s attitudes had changed over the years.<\/p>\n

He has learned to deal with opinions he doesn\u2019t agree with and stresses everybody is free to express their own values.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was doing a workshop in NSW and we were discussing what people thought it meant to be Aboriginal,\u201d Tom said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOne non-Indigenous participant said \u2018it meant you got more money from the dole if you had dogs\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cEven though you know this statement is incorrect, as a facilitator you pass no judgment. People have to be free to express themselves otherwise we can\u2019t have the opportunity to explore where this myth came from and why the person believed it to be true.<\/p>\n

\u201cAt the end of the workshop I asked everybody to tell me one thing they would do differently when they left.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere were a couple of Indigenous people in the course and they said \u2018Brother, we\u2019re going to load our ute with dogs and head down to Centrelink\u2019.<\/p>\n

“It was funny.\u00a0Everybody laughed; Indigenous and non-Indigenous alike.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tom will present a workshop for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people at the Cherbourg Aboriginal Shire Council training rooms on August 26.<\/p>\n

People who would like to attend can book by phoning Council\u2019s community services co-ordinator Edwina Stewart on (07) 4168-1866.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Cherbourg Council community service co-ordinator Edwina Stewart is organising a Cultural Awareness Workshop for its service providers with Tom Kirk … she\u2019s pictured with council housing officer Sherry Sandow and South Burnett PCYC Indigenous community sport and recreation officer Max Harvey, who\u2019s already done Tom\u2019s workshop (Photo: Marcus Priaulx).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Tom Kirk lived on bush tucker, failed school but made a life for himself by facing challenges, taking a step at a time and learning as he went.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":20,"featured_media":74780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[3],"tags":[1135],"yoast_head":"\nTom's Building Bridges Of Understanding - southburnett.com.au<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/07\/17\/toms-building-bridges-of-understanding\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tom's Building Bridges Of Understanding - southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Tom Kirk lived on bush tucker, failed school but made a life for himself by facing challenges, taking a step at a time and learning as he went.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/07\/17\/toms-building-bridges-of-understanding\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"southburnett.com.au\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-07-17T08:05:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-11-27T06:23:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/20140717tomkirk1.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"620\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"385\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Anne Miller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/07\/17\/toms-building-bridges-of-understanding\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/07\/17\/toms-building-bridges-of-understanding\/\",\"name\":\"Tom's Building Bridges Of Understanding - southburnett.com.au\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-07-17T08:05:26+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-11-27T06:23:16+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/07\/17\/toms-building-bridges-of-understanding\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/\",\"name\":\"southburnett.com.au\",\"description\":\"Kingaroy and South Burnett News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae\",\"name\":\"Anne Miller\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Tom's Building Bridges Of Understanding - southburnett.com.au","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/07\/17\/toms-building-bridges-of-understanding\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Tom's Building Bridges Of Understanding - southburnett.com.au","og_description":"Tom Kirk lived on bush tucker, failed school but made a life for himself by facing challenges, taking a step at a time and learning as he went.","og_url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/07\/17\/toms-building-bridges-of-understanding\/","og_site_name":"southburnett.com.au","article_published_time":"2014-07-17T08:05:26+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-11-27T06:23:16+00:00","og_image":[{"width":"620","height":"385","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/20140717tomkirk1.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Anne Miller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Anne Miller","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/07\/17\/toms-building-bridges-of-understanding\/","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/07\/17\/toms-building-bridges-of-understanding\/","name":"Tom's Building Bridges Of Understanding - southburnett.com.au","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-07-17T08:05:26+00:00","dateModified":"2020-11-27T06:23:16+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae"},"inLanguage":"en-AU","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2014\/07\/17\/toms-building-bridges-of-understanding\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#website","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/","name":"southburnett.com.au","description":"Kingaroy and South Burnett News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-AU"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/#\/schema\/person\/d43a5027bdddc95f54e9c6274d8a57ae","name":"Anne Miller","url":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/author\/anne-miller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74761"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/20"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74761"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74761\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":287854,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74761\/revisions\/287854"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74761"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74761"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74761"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}