An award-winning cultural immersion experience AnglicareSA has offered carer families is helping forge new friendships and create young leaders.

AnglicareSA has so far offered three of the camps at Iga Warta in the northern Flinders Ranges to families with Aboriginal children and young people in their care, to help the children re-engage with their culture.

AnglicareSA’s Northern Foster Care manager Marsha Lynch said one camp was held last year and another two over the April school holidays.

She said the children had become more engaged than organisers could have hoped for.

"Well, there were no complaints there was no Wi-Fi – we thought we’d get that, but we didn’t," she said.

"Many of the friendships between the children have lasted, but the most amazing thing to me was how they developed as leaders.

"We played on that after the first camp and told the kids they are leaders for the new kids, that they can show the new kids around and take on some responsibility."

The camps last year won the Active Efforts category at the South Australian Child Protection Awards. The category recognises those who have demonstrated excellence in making active efforts to implement the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Child Placement Principle.

We Are.SA is sharing Iga Warta’s story on behalf of the Department for Child Protection (DCP), as nominations are sought for this year’s SA Child Protection & Family Support Awards.

A total of 12 foster families with 28 children attended the first camp last year, while 26 children attended the first this year and 18 the second.

The camps are held at a re-purposed cattle station that has all the amenities families need including sites for vans and camper trailers, cabins, tent sites and a camp kitchen.

While on the week-long camps, families undertake a series of activities including visits with local Adnyamathanha elders to an ochre pit, cave paintings, and places of significance.

Carers also undertake a series of activities, learning about kinship and important Adnyamathanha cultural traditions.

"There were also lots of informal chats around the campfire and reflection among carers," Marsha said.

"Some of the things we did hear was an increased understanding of the Stolen Generations."

Marsha said it was important to distinguish between the Iga Warta camps, which were cultural immersion experiences, and returns to Country where children and young people return to the lands of their elders.

"We know quite a few of the children in our care don’t know what Country they’re from and may never know," Marsha said.

"We want them to come up to Iga Warta and learn about culture. Some of the elder children have since come back and have been interested in finding out more about their Country.

"One girl from Tasmania now wants to go back to Tasmania and find out what it’s like to be in Country."

Nominations for this year’s South Australian Child Protection & Family Support Awards are open until 2 June.

This story was prepared by the Department for Child Protection and is republished here with permission.