FUSION Australia each year organizes bus tours for young people to visit Uluru in a life-changing, cultural awareness adventure.
Each year the participants return with stories of how the trip changed relationships and inspired and enlightened them.
This year more than 30 people from the Monash area will make the journey. They include youths from the Fusion Youth Housing program who are no longer living with their families.
Young people from Wellington, South Oakleigh, and Monash secondary colleges will also attend.
Fusion youth outreach worker Chris Grundy said the journey encouraged people to reflect on their lives and learn something of Aboriginal culture.
“We call it the Young Ambassadors Program – ambassadors for reconciliation, not just between Aboriginal and white Australians, but also reconciling home life and school life.
“Sometimes people on the bus didn’t get along too well at school, but during the trip they got to know each other and realised they had to change the way they acted.”
The pilgrims visit cultural sites including Ayres Rock where they hear stories about what the rock means to local people, and they study Aboriginal maps.
Two Aboriginal girls attended one trip and Mr Grundy said they were so overcome with emotion at visiting Uluru they could not get off the bus.
Another participant had had an abusive relationship at home and was living in a refuge. After the trip, she decided to do a Fusion course and was now a youth worker. She had also made contact with her family.
For more information or to sponsor those on the trip, phone Mr. Grundy on 95440833 or 0400290001.
Fusion Australia is a youth community organization based at 13 Cooke Street, Clayton.
