Rites of Passage
An opportunity for change
My 13 year old son has just returned from a 5 day school camp.
He’s been out bush, as we say, here in Australia.
Their camp site an outback station converted into a tourist centre and facility for school groups, like my son’s. Hiking by day in the hot sun, cooking his own meals, sharing stories around a campfire and sleeping under the stars.
This camp comes off the back of a 10 week program called Katitjin that his school has been running for 15 years. Katitjin is an Aboriginal term meaning to listen and to learn, and the program takes these pubescent boys out of the classroom, bases them in our city centre and the focus is on self awareness, personal growth, teamwork and leadership, and social justice. It was ground breaking when the school first introduced it, although now, such rites of passage programs are more common.
As a sideline observer of the program I can’t help but think about change. Change happens quickly and slowly, big and small.
Every element of the program changes these boys in some way. For some that change is immediate. For others the change lands in months, even years.
As Eckhart Tolle states, “Awareness is the greatest agent for change”
