Dust Up 2025

Since 2023 Prepare Produce Provide (PPP) has had the honour of catering for the Ngaanyatjarra Lands Schools’ annual Dust Up event, which is held approximately 2,000km from Perth in the community of Warakurna.

The event involves eight communities, consisting of around 350 students, teachers and support agencies, coming together over three days for a sport and cultural carnival. The role of the PPP team is to prepare and provide morning and afternoon tea, lunch and dinners for everyone involved.

This is a huge undertaking! Facilities at the Warakurna school are limited and it has been challenging in the past to prepare the food onsite. This year we decided to cook and package our range of menu items in Perth with metropolitan students, through Community Cooking Workshops with PPP Head Chef Tanya Healy. Watch Metro Cooking Workshops Featured in 7 Regional News 2025. These workshops were held at Foodbank and provided an opportunity for four metro schools seeking Cert II hospitality experience to participate over four days. We would like to thank Foodbank for hosting these workshops; and Alinta and Harvey Beef our sponsors and contributors.   

After lots of cooking we hit the road! Our small PPP team included Tanya Healy – Head chef, Daniel Lydon – indigenous chef, Catherine MacDougall – PPP founder and her superstar hubby Calum MacDougall, Joanna Wilkinson - another superstar volunteer; and Richard Ward - Principal Advisor — Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Training, North Metropolitan TAFE.

Before heading to Dust Up, the team spent a week visiting various communities including Warburton, Jamison/Mantamaru, Blackstone/Papulankutja, Wingellina/Irrunytju and Warakuna. We held culinary workshops at each of these schools along the way, tailored specially to connect students to fundamental cooking skills, and incorporating traditional cooking methods and bush ingredients.  

We would like to thank the people of the Ngaanyatjarra Lands - communities, Elders, students and teaching staff - for allowing us to be present in the schools over our two-week visit. We’ve formed some amazing friendships and can’t wait to see you all again next year!

Richards Story:

“I volunteered for 14 days with Prepare Produce Provide (PPP). This was my second year travelling with the PPP team of six (including Catherine McDougall her husband Callum, Tanya - head chef, Jo Wilkinson - volunteer, Young Dan Lyndon — Indigenous chef, and myself).

We started from the McDougall household and drove to Kalgoorlie for an overnight stay, then continued to Tjukayirla Roadhouse, the most remote roadhouse in Australia. From there we visited Warburton (initial visit), Jameson, Blackstone, Wingellina - near the Surveyor-General’s Corner, stayed at the Nico Mine, visited Singing Rocks, and then to Warakurna for five days to take part in the Dustup Festival and extended community activities. 

Our purpose was simple and profound: to support school communities through culturally respectful cooking programs, feed local staff and students, and provide practical assistance where needed. Across the trip we ran cooking classes at every school we visited, prepared meals for students at Warburton School, and cooked an evening staff meal for Warburton staff. Tanya and Dan led the kitchens with extraordinary professionalism and care; their work was consistently outstanding and deeply appreciated. 

I roomed with Dan for much of the trip and saw firsthand his commitment and capability as an Indigenous chef. 

 In addition to our cooking and teaching, Callum and I performed a number of maintenance tasks that help the schools operate: fitting a toolbox to a trailer, doing general maintenance, mowing lawns, and other small but important jobs. We acted as drivers and vehicle custodians, ensuring the safety of the team and equipment over long distances and rough conditions. We also helped with serving, washing up, running barbecues and the many small tasks that keep a mobile program functioning in remote places. 

As a senior Indigenous man in a leadership role, I attend this journey because it is deeply meaningful to my heart, soul and spirit. The trip is a way of giving back to community and of passing knowledge and values to the next generations. Time spent with respected local elders especially Miss Daisy and Dr Lizzy this year replenishes my spirit and strengthens my commitment to education as a powerful tool for our people. Meeting and working alongside these elders, the principals, and school staff reminded me that being a school staff member in remote Australia is not a 9–3 job: it is a full, 24/7 responsibility to the community. I offer my strongest thanks and respect to those people who live and work in these communities year-round. 

A few small reflections: The journey is physically demanding with long dusty days, lots of driving along the Great Central Desert Road and stretches of the Gunbarrel Highway, close quarters in vehicles and accommodation (this year three men and three women) and the cramped spaces and intense schedule bring challenges but also humour and camaraderie. Small things: - people stopping to photograph every roadside sign or flower, spontaneous hugging of trees became part of the story of the trip and kept morale high. I also want to acknowledge the tireless coordination of Cath; her planning and logistical work are remarkable and essential. 

I would like to highlight one practical cultural detail I feel deserves recognition and — one day — formal inclusion in training materials: what many consider a simple breakfast task  “making toast”  carries cultural values for me when working in the Central Desert. For remote communities, food is not merely fuel; it is connected to land, to native ingredients, to the processes of harvesting and preparation, and to care. I did not see providing toast as an incidental job. Even when supplied with packaged bread, I approached breakfast with ceremony: attention to grain, to the warmth of the bread, to the timing and care as each slice was buttered and presented. The community recognised this small act of care - there is even now a piece of toast on the Warburton School pin-art board as a light-hearted sign of respect. These small rituals matter. 

In closing, I am honoured to have volunteered again with PPP. The program makes a real difference — not just in delivering meals or classes, but in nurturing relationships, supporting elders, and reinforcing the lifelong work of education in remote communities. Tanya and Dan’s leadership in the kitchen, Cath’s coordination, Callum’s practical support, Jo’s volunteer work, and the openness of the communities we visited all combined to make these 14 days very special. 

I look forward to continuing to support this work. 

P.S – 

 In the spirit of the road trip  a short sarcastic, humorous note about toast: 
Yes, I am aware that some people think toast is “just toast.” To those people I say: you have never truly lived until you have watched me prepare sacred desert toast — lovingly selecting the imaginary grain, summoning ancestral millers, coaxing the bread into varying shades of golden perfection, and buttering within the first seventeen seconds. The Warburton pin board will forever prove that my toast is both an art form and diplomatic mission. Also, for the record: the women’s tree-hugging and the coordinator’s consumption of Cheezels and Burger Rings are both accepted cultural practices on long trips”. 

Richard Watson, Principal Advisor — Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Training, North Metropolitan TAFE 

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