Two Aboriginal Women Visit Our Play Centres by Betty Brown An interesting development in a crosscultural relationship programme initiated by the Adult Education Department of the University of Sydney, was the establishment in 1967 of Aboriginal Family Education Centres in Box Ridge, Tabulum and Woodenbong. Maori mothers, trained in play centre techniques, helped Aboriginal mothers organise their own pre-school centres, the foundation of the Education Centres. Despite many handicaps and expected fluctuations in performance, these experimental groups have been successful. Aboriginal Welfare Board officers and members of the Sydney University staff, long accustomed to Aboriginal apathy, have been pleasantly surprised at the changes in the women. An unexpected competence in organising and carrying through to completion the tasks they had undertaken, gave them confidence. To give further incentive and encouragement and to extend their training, the Sydney University and the Aboriginal Welfare Board sponsored two Aboriginal women on an eight-week tour of New Zealand. Dorothy Knight and Olga Yuke were chosen because both had been connected with the Box Ridge A.F.E.C. since its inception, had completed the first stage of supervisor training and had received the Northland Play Centres Association Helpers' Certificate. Dorothy, a vigorous, articulate sixtyeight, born of an Aboriginal mother and a white father and married to a white man, has lived most of her life, and is happiest, on or close to the Aboriginal reservations. She lives in the town of Coraki with her daughter and grandchildren, but most of her social activities are spent with the Aborigines on the Box Ridge station about two miles from the town. Olga, a full blooded Aborigine, lives with her small son at Box Ridge, an area set aside for the Aborigines where the housing is slightly superior to that in other stations and roughly equivalent to the poorest Maori Affairs Department housing in New Zealand. Always quiet and preferring to remain in the background, she was receptive to new ideas and had an intense desire to help her people. It was aimed to provide them with a better understanding of play centre techniques by seeing fully operating centres, Some would be in conditions similar to their own and others quite different. Although Dorothy and Olga had a good basic knowledge of play centre observation procedures, because of the ‘helper’ training, they lacked fluency. It was hoped that they could carry their observations further and in greater depth by working with more experienced mothers in the centres. It would be demonstrated that equipment made from the natural material of the environment could be a source of learning. In addition, there was a need for them to see racial co-operation and receive help in some way, to develop the enlightened leadership that would be needed when they returned to Australia. The itinerary was arranged by Mr A. Grey, now of the University of Sydney, in co-operation with the New Zealand Play Centre Federation secretary, Mrs M. Edwards, and the Associations concerned. They were to spend several days in each locality under the guidance of the local play centre officers. The itinerary was: Monday, 25 March: Arrive in Auckland and travel to Whangarei. Train with the Northland P.C.A. until April 11. 13–14 April: In Rotorua visiting centres and sightseeing with the Rotorua P.C. Association.