Indigenous Community Volunteers

ICV volunteer Belinda Pratten spent a few days sharing her skills with participants of the ‘The Strong Young Mums’ initiative in Narromine in regional NSW. The program supports teenage mothers in the community who leave school because of pregnancy.

The program has an early intervention focus but also supports young Indigenous mothers who’ve quit school to study and achieve their Year 10 accreditation and prepare for work.

“I travelled to Narromine, western NSW, to embark on a photographic journey with some of the local Narromine community. Having lived for a year in western NSW in 1996/97, Bourke and Brewarrina, I was really looking forward to heading west again.

I have been a professional photographer for nineteen years, including working for the Fairfax group as a photographer and deputy picture editor for seven years. Currently, I freelance from my studio in Canberra.

ICV teamed up with Centacare’s dynamo Jane Kemp who organised for me to run a photography workshop for the Strong Young Mum’s programme. The first day we had a picnic by the river and talked about natural lighting situations.

Day two was in the office. The group learned how to import and process images in Lightroom software. This software is good for making your images look better, and is also a good for sorting and cataloguing pictures, which is highly necessary in this digital age.

It was an awesome few days and I was really impressed with not only the talent of some photographers but also the drive of some of these strong young mums, one who had a camera in one hand and little fella in the other!”

The ICV project with Belinda’s help, enabled these young mums to explore their creative side. They returned home inspired with a great sense of pride and accomplishment. The young mothers were keen to start taking photos of their children to send to extended families. Their new skills will be used within the community to take photos of elders and their environment.