Ben Apfelbaum

THE SHALOM GAMARADA PROGRAM @ SHALOM COLLEGE KENSINGTON

A number of students of the program spoke at the function and here are photos of three of the students.

Featured image- Two students from the Shalom Gamarada program with the world at their feet. Images by Ben Apfelbaum.

The SHALOM GAMARADA program is eleven years old and started through the tireless energy of co-founders Ilona Lee AM and Professor Lisa Jackson-Pulver AM. Its patron is Professor The Honourable Dame Marie Basheer AD CVO, former Governor of New South Wales.

SHALOM GAMARADA combines the meaning of the two words: the Hebrew Shalom which can mean both hello and goodbye as well as peace, tranquility, harmony and Gamarada, a word in the Eora language meaning friend or comrade.

The SHALOM GAMARADA indigenous residential scholarship program at Shalom College aims to provide healthy meals and safe accommodation to enable indigenous scholarship holders to pass every exam and assignment throughout their university career. To date, 77 students have been supported and of the 25 graduates, 16 are medical graduates. In 2015 the pass rate was 100%.

To celebrate these achievements Ilona Lee asked State Deputy Opposition Leader Walt Secord if he could host a reception in the Jubilee Room of the New South Wales State Parliament which was held on the evening of August 24. In his words, ‘I immediately accepted’.

At the reception, three of the successful medical graduates, Luke Walker, a Wiradjuri Man, Jason Sines, a Bundjalung Man, now in their fifth year of residency, and Dr Josef McDonald, a Koori Man, spoke of their struggles to gain an entrance into University, mainly due to distance and socio-economic disadvantage, and expressed their profound gratitude to the program and to the Principal of Shalom College, Dr Hilton Immerman. They particularly stressed that after a hard day at the University and the occasional racist occurrence, Shalom College was a peaceful and safe haven so that they could clear their minds and study to their full potential.

Walt Secord MP recounted a similar tale of hardship to the indigenous graduates present. His mother was a First Nation Canadian woman of the Mohawk tribe and he grew up on an Indian reservation. The only person who was not racist at the reservation was a Mr Silver, a holocaust survivor. Like many of them he was the first to graduate from high school and then University. He said  that he wished there was a scholarship program like Shalom Gamarada in Canada when he entered University studies.

As a result of the candour and sincerity of his speech the graduates students flocked to him to hear more and possibly gain a bit more wisdom and inspiration. There was much joy and laughter amongst them.

One of the benefactors, The Adolph Basser Trust, said of this wonderful program, ‘these  humane and far-sighted donations will effectively change the life of the scholarship holders, and benefit their family and community. If past experience is a guide, and we think it is, we know that the recipients of this kindness will do everything in their power to honour the trust that will be placed in them.’

http://www.shalomgamarada.org.

 

 

 

 

 

Published by Ben Apfelbaum

My photography began when my father handed me the proverbial brownie box camera as a child. As cameras developed I went through Fujica and Olympus range finders graduating to my first single lens reflex camera, the Minolta SRT101, the latter being the greatest facilitator to my growth as a photographer. Digital photography has only added to this. I was a regular contributor to Camera Craft magazine (Australian Camera ) for over three years. During Australia’s Bicentennial year (1988) I made it a personal project to document the celebrations. This culminated in the creation of a book of my photos which was published in 1989. The book was called CELEBRATING AUSTRALIA and came with an accompanying calendar. My works have appeared in a number of publications including the coffee book entitled MY AUSTRALIA (1989), publisher Robertsbridge Severn. This book had a preface by the then Australian Prime Minister Bob Hawke. I was a co-photographer on a book entitled SYDNEY- DISCOVER THE CITY with text written by Robert Treborland. Major Mitchell Press was the publisher. Also for two years I was the photographer for calendars celebrating Sydney’s multicultural communities. The two calendars were entitled MULTICULTURAL SYDNEY. My work appeared in a group exhibition held at Sydney’s Town Hall pertaining to the diversity of life in South America to raise money for orphanages there. I have over one hundred photos stored in the New South Wales State Library archive. I had a solo exhibition held in 2007 entitled Ben’s Lens at the Sydney Jewish Museum which celebrated the vibrancy of the Sydney Jewish community. Some of these photos are on the Museum’s permanent display. I have exhibited internationally firstly at the Spruill Gallery in Atlanta Georgia, united states, and in an exhibition entitled Kosher and Co at the Jewish Museum in Berlin. Currently I am a regular contributor to J-Wire and this esteemed publication.