By LS Rachel Irving

CO CMDR Brad Wheeler demonstrates the art of yo-yoing to a local youngster when Arunta paid the Hermannsburg community a visit.

Local kids revelled in their new Navy yo-yos when Arunta’s ship’s company visited the Hermannsburg community.

Photo: LEUT Sharpe

Arunta’s ship’s company enjoy the spectacular passing of the midday sun at Standley Chasm, 40 kms west of Alice Springs. The chasm is named after Ida Standley, Alice Springs’ first teacher who worked at the nearby Jay Creek settlement in 1928/1929.

LSMUSN Hina (RNZN) on exchange with the RAN Band, meets the local kids after HMAS Arunta conducted a Freedom of Entry into Alice Springs last month.

Working parties from the ship helped their charity of St Mary’s Family Services by completing a variety of tasks at the campus and at the Charity’s houses in town.

Arunta’s men donned the footy shorts for a game of Aussie Rules against a much stronger local side, the Bulldogs. The Bulldogs won 13.9.87 to 2.4.16.

ABWTR Kylie Robson and ABCIS Adam ‘Disco Stu’ Stewart sing stirring renditions of Advance Australia Fair, My Island Home and We are Australian with the local Arrernte people at Hermannsburg.

Arunta’s MEO LCDR Carl Oberg kept the local Hermannsburg children occupied playing Aussie Rules while the women played softball. The locals, district champions, proved too good for the ship’s company.

All photos unless otherwise stated, by LSPH Kaye Adams.

Thousands of miles from the sea in any direction, Ship's company of HMAS Arunta traveled to Alice Springslast month to meet the Arrernte people.

With swords drawn, drums beating, band playing and colours flying, a 70-strong contingentled by Commanding Officer Commander Brad Wheeler and 20 members of the RAN Band, marched through the Todd Mall to the Alice Springs Council chambers.

Afterwards, the RAN Band entertained during a morning tea on the Council lawns.

And while a Freedom of Entry is always a spectacle of colour, it was the visit to the Arrernte (pronounced Aranda) people at Hermannsburg and the work the ship’s company performed for their charity, St Mary’s, which really made their visit special.

Hermannsburg, 130 kilometres west of Alice Springs, was the first Lutheran mission established in the indigenous communities and central Australia’s first township.

Today the original buildings of the mission, including the church and school, are museums and art galleries. The town itself is a dry community of around 600 people.

After lunch at Hermannsburg it was time for the crew to meet the locals and really get to know them - on the dirt sporting fields.

The Aussie Rules oval was just red dirt, distinguishable only by the goal posts. In hot conditions, the locals, the Bulldogs, who have won the Alice Springs local competition three times, were simply too good and the first half was a write off for the ship, who had rallied a team together at the last minute.

In the spirit of great sportsmanship and acceptance, the Bulldogs players happily traded guernseys with some of the Arunta players at half time to even things up, and although the damage to the scoreboard had already well and truly been done, it certainly made for a more even contest. The Bulldogs ran out winners 13.9.87 to 2.4.16.

The women took to the softball field next but again the Arunta women found themselves up against premiership winners, the Hermannsburg ladies having won last year’s Alice Springs competition.

Even with local lady Enid pitching for them, the ship’s company was outgunned, with big hitting and precision catching taking the locals to a convincing victory and impressing the vocal crowd.

After the games, the ship’s company and the community wandered down the street where a BBQ dinner for all was waiting. Directed by David Roennfeldt, seven members of the Ntaria ladies choir, which has performed at the Sydney Opera House, gave a spine-tingling version of Amazing Grace in both the Arrernte and English languages.

ABCIS Adam Stewart and ABWTR Kylie Robson sang with the locals and the RAN Band with renditions of Advance Australia Fair, My Island Home and We are Australian.

The next day members of the ship’s company gave some very special people in the Alice Springs community a dose of much needed help.

St Mary’s Family Services is a division of Anglicare and is Arunta’s chosen charity.

It provides, among other services, housing for indigenous children from remote communities while they attend schooling in Alice Springs.

There is also on-campus housing for children with multiple and profound disabilities who require a high level of support.

An adult program for men and women who require medium to high levels of support provides group housing in town with carers. Arunta’s ship’s company was divided into work groups.

Between them they dug and leveled the ground, mixed concrete, laid concrete slabs, trimmed trees, washed windows on all of the houses, built a beautiful pergola at one of the adult houses and knocked down a cockroach-infested poolside wall.

Director of Anglicare’s Independent Living, Mr Jim Holland, was delighted to have the help from Arunta’s crew. “The visit is very important to us.

The funds we receive are for services so our maintenance and development depends on the goodwill of others. The Arunta has always been a strong
supporter of us in that area,” Mr Holland said. CO CMDR Brad Wheeler said, “The last few days have been fantastic.

Our most important aim was to gain an understanding of our namesake, the people and the country. “There is no one I have spoken to who didn’t get a lot out of the visit to Hermannsberg and who hasn’t been impressed by the hospitality and generosity of the people.

I think it will have a powerful impact on the ship as a whole.”

Meeting the Arrernte people, if only briefly, meant a lot to those who visited but it will remain a significant memory for those behind in Alice.

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Step back in Dreamtime

By LS Rachel Irving

Anwerne Mparntwearenye tyerrtye mapele arrenhantherre welcomeileme apmere anwernekenhe- werne. Anwerne ahentye-aneme arrantherre akaltye-irremele respectemiletyeke apmere nhenhe.

“We, the people who belong to Alice Springs, welcome you to our country. We hope you will learn about, and respect our country. We, the people who belong to Alice Springs.” This is the language of the Arrernte pronounced Arunda) people, the people after whom HMAS Arunta has been named. The Arrernte people are also referred to as Aranda, Arunta, Arrarnta and other spellings.

The Central Arrernte people are the traditional owners of Mparntwe or Alice Springs.

The traditional land of the Eastern and Central Arrernte people includes the area of Alice Springs and East MacDonnell Ranges.

Their neighbours are the Western and Southern Arrernte people, the Luritja, Anmatyerr and Alyawarr.

Aboriginal families were still coming out of the desert, meeting white Australians for the first time as late as the 1960’s.

In fact the last family did not emerge from the Gibson Desert until 1984. In the dreamtime, the Alice Springs landscape was shaped and formed by wild dogs, caterpillars, two sisters, traveling boys, euros and other ancestral figures.

Many important areas of the modern landscape remain significant places for the Arrernte people, including Emily Gap (Anthwerrke), the place where the caterpillars, the creative ancestors of this area, first gathered.

The land of the Arrernte people is some of the most spectacular country in Australia but It is also some of the harshest land with crippling droughts and extreme temperatures.

There are five Arrernte language dialects: South-Eastern, Eastern, North-Eastern, Northern and Central. The most widely spoken dialects are Eastern and Central Arrernte.

The Hermannsburg Mission, originally known as the Finke River Mission, was established in 1877 by German Lutheran Missionaries Friedrich Kempe and Wilhelm Schwarz.

It is 130 km’s west of Alice Springs at the base of Mt Hermannsburg. The mission’s aim was to provide Aboriginal people with religious instruction, education and employment.

The Arrernte people taught the missionaries their language and in turn learnt German.

Despite early problems, the mission eventually became relatively successful with a school, mess house and church.

Hermannburg’s most famous son is artist Albert Namatjira, born and baptised in the mission. Namatjira’s paintings reflect the landscape of his homeland.

The Lutherans handed the mission back to the Arrernte people in 1982 and today the mission is a tourist stop, the church now a museum. HMAS Arunta, F151, is the second ship to bear this name.

The ship holds a flag presented by the Arrernte Council displaying a perrente lizard (the ship’s mascot), an animal of significance from the dreamtime.

HMAS Arunta also sponsors a perrente lizard at the Perth Zoo.

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