Volunteers taking a break from helping build a stone yurt near Goulburn that still stands on the farm today. Photo: Rita Warleigh.
Instead of talking about senseless wars and the intractable poverty of Australian Aboriginal people, a group of volunteers came to Goulburn in the early 1990s to do something.
Among the group was Rita Warleigh, subsequent founder of the popular Goulburn Farmers Market and organiser for six years of international volunteers for the Goulburn Show.
Rita became a peace volunteer after attending work camps overseas and agreeing to begin them in Australia. Knowing nothing about organising groups, she enrolled at university in a social ecology course.
This inspired her and like-minded volunteers to bring 10 First Nations children from Redfern to the frosty paddocks and yabby-filled dams of The Yurtfarm at Gunningbar, 23 kilometres northwest of Goulburn.
During Rita’s university studies a guest lecturer who was Koori had urged his audience to make a space for Aboriginal people in their lives.
“I took that back to International Volunteers for Peace – they became involved with the Redfern Aboriginal community,” Rita said. They turned to The Yurtfarm and its founder, Mike Shepherd, who was teaching children practical skills outdoors. A week before the inner-city kids turned up, volunteers from Germany, Italy, Monaco and Denmark came to the farm to prepare for five days of outdoor learning.
They hired a bus to bring the children out from Sydney. “A couple of parents came with them and saw that everything was alright, went back and left us with the kids,” Rita said.
“They were really wild when they arrived, but going back they were like little pussy cats.”
Over five days the youngsters collected firewood, learned to change a tyre, catch a sheep, ride a horse, collect eggs and gather berries to make blackberry jam. They made bread and helped build a stone yurt.
Rita and her volunteer colleagues belong to International Volunteers for Peace, an affiliate of Service Civil International, which provides an alternative to national military service. They lobby governments to accept conscientious objection, and bring people together from all over the world to work on projects, from building toilets for villages, caring for the aged and people with disabilities to bush regeneration and helping underprivileged children.
Attending work camps, the volunteers learn tolerance, form friendships and create pathways to peace. Years ago, the movement was gathering momentum, building a database and publishing an annual book about people, places and their projects.
But shifting all their information online invited such strong interest it was the beginning of their decline because commercial operators saw an opportunity to make money from people’s desire to travel and learn.
“There are a lot of tourism companies now with a lot of money and glossy advertising; you pay thousands of dollars and everything is done for you and you do a little bit of volunteering here and there,” Rita said.
Adding a layer of stonework to a yurt northwest of Goulburn, these volunteers were among a network across the world advocating peaceful alternatives than military service, and using their actions rather than words to bring about change. Photo: Rita Warleigh.
Rita’s handful of volunteers are becoming known for getting things done.
Approached by the Tallong Apple Festival east of Goulburn, they will help organise the event next year.
“I have this little sense (peace volunteering) is starting to grow again,” she said. “One of our problems is, I’m ancient, a volunteer from Canberra is pretty ancient, we have an ageing committee,” she said. “We have been actively recruiting and have three young people taking on aspects and sticking with us. It’s hard to get people to stick at it. If you have been on one of these projects you can just feel how much good it is doing in the world.”
Deeds not words is the motto of Service Civil International, and when it notched up its 100th anniversary in 2020, Rita made a short film, Creating Pathways to Peace featuring Australian volunteers sharing their extraordinary, sometimes life-changing experiences.
One of them left Brussells, travelled to Warsaw and then to another town, notching up 36 hours without food. Waking the next morning, his guide turned up with a coupon for breakfast. “I ended up marrying that guide; I think food makes a big difference in one’s marital adventures,” he said.
One of the women volunteers found herself surrounded by 80,000 refugees in a camp at Nairobi.
Broadening their knowledge about overseas cultures, they all agreed they learned just as much about themselves and all say this has enriched their lives.
If you would like to join International Volunteers for Peace email Rita Warleigh: [email protected]
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