Jack Adams, Winston Churchill Travelling Fellowship 1997, talks about the way he made the most of the opportunity given him by the Trust. Not only did he stay in Australia for 3 months on the original Fellowship study but he returned in June 1998 and again in November 1999. Attempting to understand an issue across a cultural divide poses all types of problems, when those issues then involve disaffected youth then the complexities are further multiplied. Jack felt that to truly get to grips with the issues he was investigating he had to be prepared to go beyond the work in the initial fellowship and take the study further. Especially where indigenous peoples are concerned, they are very used to white people coming to "study" them for a few weeks and then leaving to follow their careers, simply trying to arrive, get your stuff and go is not an acceptable or in any way useful approach. You need to put a bit more effort in and gain not only trust but some level of respect before you have any chance of really learning anything of any real value. This is probably one of the great aspects of a Travelling Fellowship, if you so choose it can be a beginning of a long journey.

See Aunty Maureen Watson