Malpa

As Deutsche Bank’s Charity of the Year we continue to enjoy significant support.

One staff member went so far as to have his head shaved and raised over $ 4,000. The Final Cut was done in a video link up to Hong Kong, Singapore, Melbourne and London.

A staff collection of medical supplies was donated to the Purple House in Alice Springs for their important culturally based work with renal patients and their families.

Malpa joins the international charity ActionAid Australia to work together with Deutsche Bank staff to raise money for both our Child Doctors project and ActionAid’s objective of supporting girl’s education in Cambodia.

Photo by Gerry Arthur

Launching the program at Deutsche Bank last week meant visiting each of the nine floors in Sydney selling piggy banks for staff to fill with their loose change. Over five hundred were purchased and ‘full pigs’ have already started rolling in. It was fantastic to experience the energy and positivity coming from the staff and we look forward to engaging with Deutsche Bank employees over the next 12 months. Similar activities took place in Deutsche Bank’s Melbourne office.

Speaking at several morning teas to launch the partnership, prominent Indigenous actor Luke Carroll said ”The Child Doctors project is really important because it gives Aboriginal people the chance to take control of their health in a way that respects their culture. ”

In coming months an exciting range of fundraising initiatives will be rolled out. Deutsche Bank staff will be able to walk the famous Larapinta Trail, west out of Alice Springs, with an Aboriginal guide giving insights into traditional culture. Staff will also be able to bid on the opportunity to spend two hours with two friends learning to fly a Boeing 747 in a Qantas Flight Simulator. Qantas has already generously supported the Malpa Project earlier this year and we are delighted that they continue their association by donating this fabulous experience to our fundraising efforts.

The Deutsche Bank staff fundraising ventures are generously supported by the Bank which will match contributions on a dollar for dollar basis.

Don Palmer, head of The Malpa Project, said: “Being selected not only means that we can continue to run our innovative Child Doctor project in Central Australia, but it provides an opportunity for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people to get to know and understand each other as Malpa’s – friends. I have always believed that there is great compassion in the heart of our nation and that Australians are keen to help people help themselves. The Child Doctor project gives that chance to our Aboriginal brothers and sisters and Deutsche Bank’s support is instrumental in making this possible.

Deutsche Bank Charities of the Year 2012 builds on the proven and growing popularity of Deutsche Bank Australia’s established charity programs. It will focus Bank-wide fundraising for an entire year starting March 2012 on the two charities which were nominated and voted for by employees.

We deeply appreciate the opportunity given by the Red Cross Society at Sydney University to deliver their inaugural address as part of Humanitarian Week and to have it broadcast by the ABC’s Radio National on their Big Ideas program.

“The hope was to help non-Indigenous people have some deeper feeling for the extraordinary gifts to be found in traditional Indigenous cultures and to feel that something positive really is really possible” Don Palmer said.

“We sincerely hope that individuals working in governments feel that there are realistic options to current ways of delivering services which will allow Indigenous people the chance to fully participate in our national life and to enjoy the riches of our common wealth.”

The Malpa Project works in collaboration with indigenous communities in the area of health in which there is a particular disparity between the outcomes for indigenous and non-indigenous people. Through this lecture we hoped  to share our experiences and advocate for creative and collaborative action which will lead to positive sustainable change in the health outcomes for indigenous Australians. This can only be achieved through developing real partnerships.

The full audio of the lecture can be found on the Big Ideas website.

A full transcript of the speech can be downloaded here.

The works of Indigenous artist Trephina Sultan Thunguwa’s powerful painting of regeneration Tjanpi Kampanyi [Burning Grass] has been presented to HRH the  Crown Prince Daniel of Sweden by representatives of the Australian Transplant Team. The team was competing in the 18 th World Transplant Games in Goteborg and came third overall.  Trephina, who painted a dialysis machine for the Malpa Project and Transplant Australia, was specially commissioned for this project. It was launched in Canberra by the Prime Minister, Julia Gillard and the Swedish Ambassador  Sven-Olof Petersson.



Darren Ah See has accepted an invitation to be an advisor to the Tjitji Doctor project. Darren is CEO of the highly successful Wellington Aboriginal Health Corporation Health Service which has thirty five staff and three doctors. He is a member of the NSW Clinical Excellence’s advisory group. Darren has a distinguishing record of creative commitment to Indigenous health including his work as a director of the Bila Muuji Health Services.

Malpa is now officially part of the ALLENS ARTHUR ROBINSON’s Matched Funding Program.

Senior Associate Przemek Kucharski announced the initiative which gives their staff the chance to contribute and be involved in our projects.

We thank them for their support and look forward to a long and productive partnership.

Peter Murphy, CEO of Noetic Solutions, has announced that his organisation will develop the all important evaluation guidelines for the Tjitji Doctor project. Organisational staff will have the chance to become involved on the ground.

Noetic Solutions is a nationally respected management consultancy group with an impressive track record in working on a diverse range of projects for government at Federal State and Territory levels. Their groundbreaking work on juvenile justice, including Indigenous juvenile justice, in NSW is regarded as a benchmark in shaping social policy.  Noetic has undertaken a range of evaluations including programs aimed at “closing the gap”.

In mid-November we held our Circle of Hope advocacy event in Parliament House Canberra in conjunction with Transplant Australia. A number of politicians, members of the pharmaceutical industry and others who are involved in the field of Indigenous health attended the breakfast and listened to speeches by Transplant Australia’s Chair Alan Amodeo, Malpa Director Don Palmer, the Hon. Catherine King MP, Parliamentary Secretary for Health and Ageing and Bamaga woman Bethel O’Keefe from the Kidney Support Network. The event was hosted by Transplant Australia CEO, Chris Thomas.

This event was a fantastic way to demonstrate the severe problems faced by Indigenous Australians across Australia in the area of health, particularly kidney health and organ and tissue donation and transplantation, as well as offering some simple solutions.

We were very priveleged to have in attendance, not only Bethel, but also Gregory Williams Tjapangardi and Maureen Walker Nakamrra, artists from Central Australia who were painting a canvas at the event. Gregory, Maureen and Bethel all did a fantastic job in sharing their stories of kidney failure, both personally and in their commuities and it was truly fantastic to have them there. On top of that, most of the attendees signed the artwork painted by Gregory and Maureen on the day in an act of support for the improvement of kidney health and transplantation in Indigenous communities across Australia.

We would like to thank the volunteers who came down to Canberra for the event and without whom we could not have had such a successful event. We would also like to thank Bethel, Gregory and Maureen for travelling all the way to Canberra and sharing their powerful stories.

Finally we would like to express our appreciation towards Transplant Australia for being our partner in this event. All the staff in the office worked extremely hard on the event and did a fantastic job!

Circle of Hope has been made possible by the generous provision of untied educational grants from Baxter, Diaverum, Fresenius, Genzyme, Janssen-Cilag, Pfizer, Roche.

Transplant Australia has received funding assistance for this project from the Organ and Tissue Authority.

Please see Transplant Australia’s website for more information about the event: http://www.transplant.org.au/content.aspx?PageID=27&ItemID=206

Bethel, Amanda, Don, Gregory, Alice, Maureen, Tammy and Jori

This is just a quick report about the Art from the Heart Exhibition which was held at the Gordon Branch of the Westpac Bank.

The paintings, which were  painted by a range of Aboriginal artists in Alice Springs, were on display in the bank for several weeks along with one of the original four painted dialysis machines from the Painting the Future project in November last year.

The launch of the exhibition was a great night with guests from Transplant Australia and Fresenius Medical Care as well as Rabbi Zalman Kastel from the Together for Humanity Foundation and the Reverend Keith Dalby. We also had a fantastic didgeridoo performance by Charlie McMahon, who took us through the musical qualities of various didgeridoos and demonstrated his slide didge.

We would like to once again thank Duncan Payne, Gordon branch manager, and all who attended the exhibition and showed their support towards Closing the Gap.

We have recently returned from a trip to Alice Springs to commission the paintings for the Circle of Hope Project and also to get 4 more dialysis machines painted. We were joined by Margot from Fresenius Medical Care, who sponsored the painting of the machines.

It was a hectic week of travelling between town camps and hostels, meeting artists and providing them with paint and canvases. The artists worked tirelessly to complete the paintings in a short time frame and the work they have produced is beautiful. We have 9 completed canvases in extremely different styles, all telling stories of survival and life in the desert.

The artists who completed canvases (Norah, Gregory, Runa, Rene, Monica, Kenny, Connie, Wilfred, Kathleen, Ida and Rex) as well as the artists who created incredible art on the dialysis machines (Trephina, Ida, Rex, Norah, Pamela and Rachel) did an incredible job under difficult circumstances (the weather in the desert is extremely cold at this time of year, often dropping to zero at night and most of the artists work outside) and we would like to thank them for their hard work.

The canvases will form an exhibition first due to head to Parliament House Canberra to facilitate a discussion around the issues of Indigenous health with Members of Parliament. The painted machines will join the 5 already completed machines and tour the country and the world, sharing the story of kidney failure amongst Indigeous Australians.

Several of our artists are dialysis patients and all of them have been personally affected when family members and friends have had to undertake dialysis. The stories they have shared with us both in their paintings and through conversation have inspired us and reminded us of the huge impact kidney failure, as well as other chronic health problems, such as diabetes, has on a disproportionately large number of Indigenous Australians. This is definitely an issue which needs more attention. If you are interested in getting involved, please get in touch with one of us (contact details on the Contact page).

The pictures below are a small sample of the experiences we had in Alice Springs and the wonderful art which was produced. More to come…