Great mates: Truck driver Pte Marie Wilson says goodbye to indigenous mentors she worked closely with on the two-week induction course – Pte Peter Garaiwrrtja, Pte Richard Namarini and Pte James Genghi.
Spearhead: Senior Norforce soldier Pte Trevor Ponto, from the Numbulwar community, reflects on his role as mentor to some of the younger indigenous recruits.
Steady, aim, fire: Army Reserve Recruit Calvin Trace practices his marksmanship principles on the Steyr during his induction course at Kangaroo Flats.
Gather round: OIC Training Squadron Capt John Killen with newly graduated Norforce recruits, who take up a defensive firing pose after undergoing a three-day field phase to complete basic training.
Mentor: Experienced Norforce soldier Pte Richard Namarini, from the Raminging community in Arnhem Land, explores scrub in the Kangaroo Flats Training Area before teaching recruits about the use of night vision equipment in the field.
Set skills: Recruit Renato Numamurdirdi learns how to operate a radio in the field during basic military training at Kangaroo Flats.
Teamwork: Norforce recruit Norman Wilson covers the movement of a colleague during some basic fire and movement drills in the scrub at Robertson Barracks.

The young have always learnt from the old, despite the indifference youth can hold towards the experience of age.

For Norforce recruits from one of the world’s oldest cultures, a respect for the old is a given, an ethos instilled from birth. In an age where the advancement of technology can override the traditions and offerings of the past, the strength of respect for seniority and the untethered honesty of the soldiers from Arnhem Land in the NT is refreshing.

Emerging from a culture and lifestyle so different to that of Australia’s Anglo-Saxon heritage, new indigenous recruits require a different system of basic military training that takes into consideration their cultural backgrounds and the fact that English is often their second or third language.

From a world where hunting still puts food on the table, and the pursuit of an intermittent nomadic lifestyle means many Aborigines move for cultural or seasonal reasons, an expectation of an overnight conformity to regular Army life is unrealistic.

So just as a system of proficiency, tradition and generational change has helped evolve the method of teaching inside training establishments such as Kapooka, Norforce basic training has mastered its own system that merges the experience of many ex-ARA trainers with that of much-respected indigenous mentors.

With an understanding and a passion for the Aboriginal and military cultures, the dedicated personnel of Norforce’s Training Squadron take to the bush at Kangaroo Flats, south of Darwin, at least three times a year to create formidable Regional Force Surveillance Unit (RFSU) soldiers.

The latest two-week basic training course involved 17 young, mostly indigenous recruits. Destined for Norforce squadrons based closest to their home regions, they travelled to Kangaroo Flats to conquer a trial to their military suitability, equivalent to the regular Army’s Kapooka.

As they came from different communities, and thus different linguistics and home traditions, their successful cohesion under the one badge and graduation into the military family as privates is testimony to a working system.

For Norforce to achieve successful border protection operations across northern Australia, an Army Reserve lifestyle that harnesses the unique abilities of the indigenous people who know the land is the only practical solution, and one the ADF has done well to foster.

Important to the success of producing RFSU soldiers are experienced indigenous mentors such as Pte Richard Namarini, from the Ramingining community, who has been a patrolman for 15 years. He has deployed on countless border protection patrols across some of northern Australia’s most remote stretches of coast, and knows all too well what’s required of a Norforce soldier.

“You have to know and respect the way of the land. Our culture and way is different to regular armies, so we bring the boys to Kangaroo Flats for the Army training,” Pte Namarini said.

“The young fellas know bush skills from living in outstations and communities, but don’t know the discipline yet.

“When they have troubles understanding the drill and the writings and the Steyrs, I help them so there are no more troubles.”
When Pte Namarini isn’t jumping in and out of zodiacs, he’s working for his community as a bush mechanic – a very important and respected role given that engine spare parts are hard to come by where he lives.

Assisting this much-respected elder with mentoring duties is a somewhat younger Pte Trevor Ponto, from the Numbulwar community. He has been a patrolman for seven years and personally knew some of the soldiers he looked after on the latest course.

“When I was a young fella doing the training, Richard [Pte Namarini] was the mentor. Now I do the same thing,” Pte Ponto said.

“This is not the home area of the boys from my community. But they know I’m Norforce, and they don’t mind the training much then.”

The presence of mentors such as Ptes Namarini and Ponto is important to a smooth training system, but of great advantage to Norforce induction courses is the military experience some of the ex-regular Army NCOs have to offer. With instructional experience in military schools in Thailand and East Timor, where English is not always the spoken language, their methods of teaching are an invaluable tool to the system.

At the heart of every good training system is a commander who not only follows a program but understands its long-term ramifications. OIC Norforce Training Squadron Capt John Killen has worked as a teacher in indigenous schools and colleges in the NT for many years, and has been with the unit since 1982. He now finds the children of the parents he once taught or trained coming up through the ranks of the unit, often recognising them first through their family resemblances before learning their names.

Capt Killen said that while Norforce had much to thank its indigenous soldiers for, it also had much to offer indigenous Australians in return.

“For some recruits, attendance at this induction course offers a degree of incentive to strengthen their literacy and numeracy skills, aside from the opportunity to acquire military training,” he said.

“It can also afford them a gauge of their education standards, and what might be required to achieve successful employment outside the military in a civilian capacity, if that’s their intention.”

Lt-Col Michael Rozzoli, who took over as CO this year, praised the commitment of Norforce’s soldiers.

“Many of our Reserve personnel have been with the unit for a long time, and the reason they have remained with it for so long is because they believe in what they are doing,” Lt-Col Rozzoli said.

“Norforce occupies a high position in the eyes of indigenous Australia, and maintaining that positive influence into the future is a priority our unit will never stop working for.

“From my perspective of the unit so far, the culture of larrikinism and the much-touted fair go of the Australian soldier is a well-embedded attitude thanks to some of the unit’s longest-serving members. It’s also a strong characteristic that will help keep Norforce working well into the future.”

As the latest graduating course now prepares for their Initial Employment Training as RFSU patrolmen, the mentors look towards their next operational deployment with a confidence that the recruits they have just worked with carry a strong torch for the unit’s promising future in the north.

Video clip