Project Description
Matthew Hayden, co-founder of the Tiwi Garden project, faced off against former teammate Adam Gilchrist in this year’s Tiwi Ashes.
Competing teams of local children in Pickataramoor are led each year by former starts of Australia’s cricket team.
This year pacemen Michael Kasprowicz, Glenn McGrath and fomer Wallaby Matthew Burke joined Matt Hayden and Adam Gilchrist.
Team Gilchrist went on to take the Tiwi Ashes by ten runs this year, with the real winner the Tiwi college which now teaches in the region of 80 indigenous students.
We are delighted that the Hayden Reynolds Tiwi College Project has benefitted from corporate sponsorship, raising $2million during the last five years.
Engaging the children on the day is fantastic, but everyone at The Hayden Way is really excited about the long-term benefits that come from day to day life at the college – that is what is really making the difference.
Guy Reynolds, co-founder of the project had this to say about the origins of the project five years ago. “A statistic that dragged us in was that, of the 2,500 people in the Tiwis, half were under 25, but only one boy had a job within the islands.”
Matthew Hayden had first visited the island on a fishing trip. Along with Guy Reynolds, the two wanted to do something about the island’s cycle of unemployment and welfare dependence. Combining this with Matthews love for sustainable gardening, they decided to focus on education, with specific attention on gardening, fresh food and cooking.
The garden now presents indigenous children with the opportunity to grow and harvest their own fresh produce and collect chicken eggs, duck eggs daily. Further investments have been made in laptops, indigenous literacy and a substantial educational focus is placed on nutrition, hygiene and hospitality.
More information on the 2014 Tiwi Ashes can be seen here in this https://au.news.yahoo.com/a/25294242/tiwi-ashes-pitches-matthew-hayden-against-adam-gilchrist-to-help-indigenous-school-kids/) Yahoo News article.
Further information has been published here (http://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-10-19/ashes-on-the-tiwis/5823058) at ABC online.