Field notes · Northern Territory
Tennant Creek
A relationship built through return
Goods has kept returning to Tennant Creek. Elder Dianne Stokes received a bed and came back within two weeks requesting twenty more. Norman Frank called asking for three beds in maroon after his daughter tried one. Dianne later gave the washing-machine prototype its Warumungu name: Pakkimjalki Kari.
Dianne named the washing machine "Pakkimjalki Kari" in Warumungu language
Key people: Dianne Stokes, Norman Frank, Kristy Bloomfield
In their words
“Working both ways — cultural side in white society and Indigenous society.”
Dianne Stokes · Warumungu and Warlmanpa Elder, named and designed the Pakkimjalki Kari washing machine
“We've never been asked at what sort of house we'd like to live in.”
Linda Turner
“They truly wanna a washing machine to wash their blanket, to wash their clothes, and it's right there at home.”
Patricia Frank · Aboriginal Corporation Worker, Oo Tribe, White Cockatoo clan
“You got to get health messages across.”
Cliff Plummer · Health Practitioner
Photos
Fund what's next in Tennant Creek
Goods on Country works on long-term partnerships, not one-off charity. Here's where support goes furthest in this community right now.
Back the Pakkimjalki Kari trial
The washing machine named here in Warumungu by Elder Dianne Stokes is in prototype. Funding extends the trial fleet and telemetry.
Support the trialSponsor the next beds
Every sponsored Stretch Bed goes to a family in Tennant Creek — flat-packed, washable, built to last 10+ years.
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Washing machine trials, on-country manufacturing and community storytelling all need long-term partners.
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