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Faces of the Burdekin: Kelsey Shand
Marina Trajkovich
WORKING at Wilmar has been quite a career change for Kelsey Shand, who got her start in the fitness world, but it’s a job she’s found a passion for.
Having lived in the Burdekin her whole life, working in an industry so synonymous with the region is something that fills her with pride and satisfaction, but it’s her love of health and fitness that helps her find balance.
The Wilmar administrator has recently found herself back in the fitness industry, running group fitness and yoga-pilates classes at Nrgize Fitness.
“I’m based at the Pioneer Mill and work Australia wide with the cane industry in my job, a bit of everything. I actually love my job,” says Kelsey.
Before working with Wilmar, Kelsey trained as a personal trainer, working at a local gym before moving to an administrative and eventually managerial role with an Ayr based physiotherapy practice.
She says that after a fiveyear break from working in the fitness industry, running classes again has been a welcome change.
“It’s absolutely a way of life, and I don’t exercise to lose weight or achieve certain things. I exercise for me, to feel good, and for my brain to feel good and happy, and I think everybody should do that,” says Kelsey.
Her ‘restore’ classes at Nrgize combine her love of yoga and pilates, and she loves the opportunity to help others unwind.
“Pilates is always something that I’d really enjoyed. I like that it’s a gentle type of exercise but also bloody hard. You’re able to isolate muscles, and everybody can do it from any fitness level. You don’t have to be a marathon runner to do it,” says Kelsey.
“It should be that you want to exercise, and I’m very focused on, let’s find something that you do enjoy doing so you feel happy within your body and your mind.
“I have specialised in mat pilates, back pain and pilates, and I’m currently studying pre and postnatal pilates,” she says.
Fitness has always been a huge part of her life, and she’s passionate about using exercise to advocate for mental health awareness in the community.
When she’s not training at Nrgize or working with Wilmar, she’s going on multiday hikes in the region or taking part in community fundraisers.
She’s a co-organiser of the End of Harvest Golf Classic, raising money for local charities and is about to begin a Run for Life fundraiser, running 100km throughout July for Reach Out, a charity focused on youth mental health.
“I started running for my mental health. I was suffering from anxiety a few years ago and running was a way for my brain to switch off. It’s become a big part of my life,” says Kelsey.
“Mental health is a big thing, and it’s important for everyone to talk about, to look after our own mental health but to also look out for the people around us as well.”
Aicey’s creating art again
Marina Trajkovich
ARTIST Aicey Zaro attributes his love of painting to his father, who he used to watch draw as a child from his Jarvisfield home.
His father is from Mer or Murray Island in the Torres Strait Islands, and his mother is a Juru woman from the Burdekin and South Sea Islander, and it’s these stories from his upbringing and culture that come through in his artwork.
“I guess I’ve been drawing since I was very young. My father used to draw, and I used to like watching him. Mum did some drawing, too,” says Aicey.
“After high school, I did get to go to Murray Island. There’s no electricity up there, but it was a good time to learn more about us and our culture,” he says.
Aicey honed his love of artmaking into a business in 2004, creating a gallery in Home Hill to display his work alongside his wife and manager Bernice.
He created privately commissioned artworks for clients or conducted art and culture workshops in schools through the business.
Although painting on canvas is his preferred form of artmaking, Aicey also creates sculptures, paints on silks and creates lino prints, drawing inspiration from the stories from both his mother and father’s culture and the natural environment.
“I just love art. It’s a part of who we are. Art, music, it’s all part of our culture. I love our country. I love the reef.”
Aicey describes some of his work from the Gudjuda Deck Cafe, where some of his paintings are on display.
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He explains how he painted the sizeable crocodile painting that hangs beside the door of the cafe entrance to honour the lives of two young indigenous children found in the Ross River in 2019, a loss that shocked the Townsville community.
“The crocodile represents the Ross River, and the two barramundis I painted represent the two kids,” says Aicey.
“A lot of the time, I’ll base paintings not just on traditional stories but the stories of older people, their memories and experiences.”
Although the Zaro Cultural Gallery closed ten years ago, he’s returned to his work as an artist after a five-year hiatus, alongside his work as a disability support worker with Flexi.
He’s currently working with East Ayr Primary School on a new wearable art project, helping students create their wearable art garments that reflect the stories and history of aspects of local indigenous cultures.
He’s also returned from a collaboration with the Girrigun people of Cardwell, something he thinks strengthens his practice by learning about neighbouring indigenous cultures.
“I’ve only recently started to get back into art. It is something I really enjoy.”
“It’s about getting our stories onto the canvas.”
30 years of tagging turtles
Birri Gubba Juru elder, James ‘Jim,’ Gaston has been monitoring local sea turtles and looking after the environment for thirty years.
Marina Trajkovich
BIRRI Gubba Juru elder, James ‘Jim,’ Gaston is no stranger to the sea, having worked to protect and monitor sea turtle species off the coast of Bowen for over thirty years.
At an energetic 68 years old, the Gudjuda Reference Group Ranger describes the rush of strategically launching at a sea turtle’s shell, on the crystal blue waters of the region’s coast, in what he calls a ‘sea turtle rodeo.’
It’s an activity he’s honed through years of experience on land and in the water, drawing on knowledge and an understanding of the local marine environment that’s tens of thousands of years old.
“What I love doing most is the ‘turtle rodeo,’ and I’ve been doing it for thirtyodd years,” says Jim from the office of the Gudjuda Reference Group at the Home Hill Showgrounds.
“If you ever want a hit of adrenaline, try to jump on a turtle. You’ll get addicted to it. I think that’s what keeps me going. My brain tells me I’m eighteen; my body tells me I’m sixty-eight,” he says.
The expeditions off the coast of Bowen are part of the Gudjuda Reference Groups sea turtle conservation efforts and ranger program, in collaboration with marine biology students at James Cook University.
“We swap our traditional knowledge with their scientific knowledge,” says Jim.
“The Juru region goes to the South of Bowen out west to the ranges, up to the Burdekin and out to the continental shelf. What we’ve got to remember is that 20,000 years ago, it would have been land out to the continental shelf. Our country is land and sea. It’s all one,” he says.
Once a sea turtle has been found, it’s up to the Gudjuda rangers to catch it, bringing it onto the research vessel for tagging and data collection and measuring before it’s released back into the ocean.
“We measure and weigh them, we tag them and release them and keep documentation on our database, the state and national database and international database,” says Jim.
“We record all sorts of things. It’s a long tail for male and a short tail for female. When the eggs are hatching, if they’re really hot, they’ll be female, and when it’s cool, they’re male. I always say hot chicks and cool dudes,” he says.
Jim grew up in a small community in Bowen, able to learn from his elder’s knowledge and traditional customs, he’s been able to pass down to future generations in the Burdekin.
“I was lucky enough to be able to sit back with my elders back in the day, and they taught me and passed things on to me. The smoking ceremony was passed down to me, and only people who have been showing by elders can do the smoking,” says Jim.
He’s a recognisable face throughout the Burdekin, but many might not know that in his youth, Jim served in the Royal Australian Navy, transporting troops to Vietnam on the HMAS Sydney.
“An old fella said to me once, ‘what are you doing up here?’ I said, ‘I’m serving my country,’ and he said, ‘no, you’ve got to go home to your country. Where’s your home?’ I said, ‘Bowen.’ He said, ‘you’ve got to go home, look after country over there,’ says Jim.
In Bowen, he eventually became involved in marine conservation efforts with the Marine Park Rangers at Airlie Beach working to protect marine life in the Whitsunday Islands.
Now, he works as a senior ranger with the Gudjuda Reference Group in Home Hill, of which he’s been a board member for over twenty years.
“We do everything, working on country, natural resource management, fire with traditional burnings. We regenerate areas with natives and have a lot of partnerships. To do anything, you need partners,” says Jim.
He’s also involved in mentoring local indigenous youth, passionate about passing on the knowledge his elders gave to him, working with schools or conducting smoking ceremonies to educate and pass on aspects of Juru culture throughout the region.
“It’s about trying to show the wider community aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander customs and our heritage,” says Jim.
“Some of this stuff you’ll never learn at university. That’s the best thing about growing up an Aboriginal person. You have real experience passed down by elders.”
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