Outback Kids (ATOM Study Guide)

250 kilometres south of Darwin, long after the bitumen has been left behind for the unsealed red-dust roads of the Northern Territory, is the Brahminy Group's main facility. Its isolation is both its main asset and the point of its existence.

Since 2004, the Group has brought 150 young people – troubled teenagers and young adults, street kids and spoilt rich kids, drug addicts, young prostitutes, self-harmers, chromers and petrol sniffers – to this remote spot. They've all come here in the hope of finding a way out of the pain and mess of their lives.

The Brahminy Group takes its name from its founder Allan Brahminy, a white man with an adopted indigenous family who renamed him after the Brahminy Kite, a bird of prey that was circling above when they met. As a young man Allan had joined the RAAF, serving in the dog unit in Darwin. Later he joined the Salvation Army in Melbourne to become a youth worker. During his time as a youth worker his desire to establish his own program to assist troubled youth began to grow and in 2004 Allan, his wife Natasha, and his adopted indigenous brothers, Gilbert and William, established their own facility to rehabilitate troubled youth.

This series follows the teenage clients participating in the Brahminy program over several months in 2010. The Brahminy program consists of many things: simple daily chores, wildlife management, community work, one-on-one therapy sessions and controlled meetings with the young people's families, to name but a few.

Outback Kids is an observational documentary that explores this unique and dramatic snapshot of Australia today. This series tackles an issue that is both contemporary and critical, but which is also at the heart of determining the future health of our country and its culture.

Curriculum Links

This study guide is mainly aimed at middle- and upper-secondary school levels, and has relevance to English, Media and Film Studies, SOSE/HSIE, Health and Human Relations, Legal Studies, Civics, Philosophy and Ethics, Psychology, Indigenous Studies, and Personal and Interpersonal Development. At tertiary level, the study guide may be useful for Education Studies, Psychology Counselling and Social Work.