Women

But Christmas 2019 saw the Spirit of Christ stir the heart of Rita Okai to request to be reinstated as a church worker.

On 5 April, Pantjiti Unkari McKenzie from Docker River was presented with the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) by the Administrator of the Northern Territory, Her Honour the Honourable Vicki O’Halloran AM.

The Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir has received a Special Achievement Award at the recent National Indigenous Music Awards (NIMAs).

A portrait of Docker River Lutheran Beryl Bell entitled ‘Beryl and Jesus’ has won this year’s  $10,000 Australian Life photography prize. Amy Jean Harding took the photo of Beryl in April 2016.

When Rita Okai graduated from her Certificate III course in Christian Ministry and Theology in 2017, she was quite possibly the first Indigenous Lutheran in central Australia to have ever graduated with a tertiary theological qualification in the 140-year history of the FRM.

Sunny days, crisp nights, and not a drop of rain – the April weather was perfect for our Bible study camp this year!

On 14 January 2018, Kunpry Peipei was installed as a parish worker by Pastor Hezekiel Jingoona and Mark Reid at Mutitjulu Lutheran Church where she regularly leads Sunday services, and assists with Holy Communion.

A 90-minute independent documentary entitled ‘The Song Keepers’ will premiere at the Melbourne International Film Festival in early August 2017. 

On 25 June 2017 ladies from six different communities got together for the 2017 Finke River Mission Women’s Bible Study Camp at Ti Tree, 200 km north of Alice Springs.

The story of the Central Australian Aboriginal Women’s Choir is now a feature-length documentary, The Song Keepers – soon to premiere in Melbourne.