In the red dust country of Northwest Queensland, where the earth meets endless sky and history runs deeper than the ancient waterways, a revolution of the spirit is taking place. Not with banners and slogans, but with campfires and yarning circles, with sweat and muscle, with stories older than memory yet newly awakened in the hearts of young people who had forgotten how to belong.

This is CAMPFIRE – not just a program, but a passage. A journey of remembering, of becoming, of transformation that begins with a single question: what happens when we approach wounded young people not as problems to be solved, but as fires waiting to be kindled?

The Birth of CAMPFIRE: From Personal Wound to Community Healing

The story of CAMPFIRE cannot be told without first understanding the journey of its founder, Brodie Germaine. A Pitta Pitta, Wakka Wakka man born to the red earth of Kalkadoon country in Mount Isa, Brodie's early years were textured with both possibility and pain.

"I existed between worlds," Brodie reflects, his voice carrying the weight and wisdom of this liminality. "Seen as too white by some in my community but deeply connected to my Aboriginal heritage. The landscape of my childhood was complex: housing commission homes, family members cycling through the justice system, and the constant presence of violence and substance abuse."

Yet within this complexity, a gift emerged – athletic prowess that offered the first glimpse of a different future. Football became Brodie's language of possibility, carrying him to Queensland representation, even captaining the state side – "a profound moment for a boy from the bush," as he recalls with quiet pride. This athletic promise opened doors beyond Mount Isa, leading to Ignatius Park College in Townsville on a rugby league scholarship.

But at 18, standing at the threshold of opportunity, Brodie encountered drugs for the first time. "What followed was a descent that cost me my football contract and disconnected me from my values and identity. I spiraled through a period of addiction, regret, and lost purpose."

The redemption in this story came through an unexpected invitation – a men's camp led by renowned Aboriginal Elder Ernie Dingo. Initially reluctant – having just survived a suicide attempt – Brodie attended only at his partner's insistence. What happened next rewrote the trajectory of his life.

"In a yarning circle on Country, surrounded by 60 men, I found my voice. For the first time, I spoke about my struggles, my shame, my journey. That circle became the birthplace of my mission."

Under Ernie's mentorship, Brodie began facilitating Camping on Country programs throughout the Gulf, supporting men through healing and cultural reconnection. Parallel to this cultural work, his passion for fitness grew. What began as personal training sessions in a shed during COVID evolved into a full gym – Brodie Germaine Fitness – more than just a physical space, but a sanctuary where community members could find strength, connection, and purpose away from lateral violence and substance abuse.

Today, these twin vocations have merged into CAMPFIRE – an integration of cultural immersion, fitness, and mentorship designed to interrupt the cycles of youth crime and disconnection plaguing Mount Isa and surrounding communities.

Beyond Punishment: Reimagining Youth Justice Through Cultural Connection

The context that birthed CAMPFIRE is stark. Mount Isa's watchhouses overflow with young Indigenous people. The dominant narrative reduces these young lives to statistics, to problems, to bodies that must be contained rather than souls that long to soar.

"When people don't understand connection to country, they see it as just going out bush, as having a good time," Brodie explains. "Some don't realise the cultural benefits and aspects around what connection to country is."

This misunderstanding has profound consequences. Government allocates $1.2 billion toward enforcement and incarceration – approximately $1 million per year to keep a single young person in detention – while preventative cultural programs struggle for the fraction of those resources required to create lasting change.

CAMPFIRE stands as a counter-narrative, a living testimony that transformation happens not through punishment but through belonging; not through isolation but through integration; not through breaking spirits but through awakening ancestral strength that has always existed within.

"As an Aboriginal person, I still don't understand how you measure 'healing' on paper," Brodie reflects. "But maybe the way to measure a young person's healing stages would be... if I take them out bush, and then when they return to community, they start to make changes with their personal lives, with their family, the way they communicate, the way they listen."

This is the medicine that no policy document can fully capture – the profound shift that happens when a young person disconnected from their cultural inheritance suddenly finds themselves sitting with Elders under stars that have witnessed the passage of countless generations, learning to make didgeridoos that help with anxiety through breath control, fishing with techniques passed down for millennia, experiencing presence in ways impossible amidst the chaos of town life.

The Three Pillars: Cultural Immersion, Physical Empowerment, Relational Mentorship

The architecture of CAMPFIRE rests on three interconnected foundations, each essential to the whole:

Cultural Immersion: Remembering Who We Are

The centerpiece of CAMPFIRE is the 'Camping on Country' expeditions, where Indigenous youth spend seven-day periods with Elders and traditional owners in remote areas without phone reception or modern distractions. These immersive experiences include traditional hunting, fishing, tool-making, and storytelling, reconnecting young people with their cultural heritage and identity.

"Something about Country, that spiritual feeling that really, really helps the mind, body, and soul when you reconnect to land," Brodie shares, echoing the sentiment of countless participants who have experienced this reconnection.

Each camp is conducted with proper cultural protocols, always involving Elders from the specific Country being visited. This adherence to traditional ways of knowledge-sharing and permission-seeking models for young people the importance of respect, reciprocity, and relationship with land and community.

"As Aboriginal people, we do consultation naturally," Brodie explains. "When you meet someone, it's 'Hey, where are you from? Who are your mob? Who's your totem?' So you start to pick up on those little things."

This natural flow of connection stands in stark contrast to bureaucratic understandings of "community consultation" that reduce profound cultural protocols to tick-box exercises. CAMPFIRE embodies authentic consultation through relationship, through story, through shared experience on Country.

Physical Fitness: Embodying Strength and Discipline

Through his community gym in Mount Isa, Brodie provides structured fitness programs tailored to young people's needs and abilities. These sessions build physical strength while developing discipline, goal-setting abilities, and healthy stress management techniques.

"Exercise doesn't always have to be the gym," Brodie emphasizes. "It can be going out taking your dog for a walk, walking up a hill, or doing anything. The gym is a good tool to get people in the doors, and then from there we can offer a lot more like our on-country programs."

The gym serves as both training ground and community hub – a safe space where young people can belong regardless of circumstances. Physical movement becomes a pathway to mental clarity, emotional release, and embodied confidence. Young people discover that the same discipline that builds muscle can build life.

Mentorship: Walking Alongside on the Journey

CAMPFIRE matches each young person with a dedicated mentor who provides consistent support, guidance, and advocacy. Mentors help participants navigate challenges, celebrate successes, and build practical life skills. The relationships formed often become lifelines for young people with few positive adult connections.

"The feeling I get taking people out on country is overwhelming," Brodie shares. "Being Aboriginal, I'm very passionate about my culture and being able to show people and community my culture, it makes me feel proud. I'm really proud to do this."

This pride becomes contagious, flowing from mentor to mentee, creating a current of cultural strength that carries young people toward new possibilities. The intergenerational exchange of knowledge helps heal historical fractures while ensuring cultural wisdom flows forward, reinvigorating traditional teachings in contemporary contexts.

Beyond Programs: Creating an Ecosystem of Care

CAMPFIRE is not an isolated intervention but part of a broader vision to transform how communities support Indigenous youth. Additional initiatives include:

• School-Based Support: Partnering with local schools to provide in-class mentoring and fitness activities, helping keep young people engaged in education.
• Cultural Exchange: Developing exchanges between Mount Isa youth and urban communities, broadening horizons and building cross-cultural understanding.
• Wellness Center Vision: Working toward establishing a comprehensive wellness centre that combines fitness facilities, cultural programming, and support services under one roof.

All these initiatives employ a trauma-informed approach that recognizes the impacts of intergenerational trauma while emphasizing strength, resilience, and cultural pride as pathways to healing.

"My five-year plan for Brodie Germaine Fitness would be to turn it into a wellbeing centre," Brodie explains. "The dream would be to have a 24-hour gym with classes. I'd also love to have a place for recovery, a place for young people for program delivery, education sessions... a space where people of all backgrounds in the community can go for health and wellbeing, cultural programs, and even a space where they know that if you're feeling low and you need a safe space, you can come."

This vision represents more than infrastructure – it embodies a paradigm shift in how we understand and respond to community needs. Rather than fragmented services that address isolated symptoms, CAMPFIRE seeks to create an integrated ecosystem of care that nourishes whole persons in the context of their culture, community, and country.

Walking Together: An Invitation to Collective Transformation

The story of CAMPFIRE offers profound implications for all who care about the wellbeing of young people, the preservation of cultural knowledge, and the creation of just communities. It invites us to reimagine how we support Indigenous youth – moving beyond punishment toward healing, beyond programs toward relationship, beyond intervention toward cultural empowerment.

For government and funding bodies, the invitation is clear: Invest in prevention rather than incarceration. The economic argument alone is compelling – preventative cultural programs require a fraction of incarceration costs. But beyond economics lies a moral imperative to nurture potential rather than punish pain.

For service providers, CAMPFIRE demonstrates the power of culturally-led, trauma-informed approaches that center the voice and agency of young people. The invitation is to build coordinated networks of support that wrap around each young person with consistent care rather than fragmented services.

For community members, there are countless ways to participate: Volunteer time, skills, or resources. Visit the gym, participate in community events, or contribute to camping programs. Most importantly, challenge the narratives that criminalise youth rather than addressing the root causes of their behaviour.

For fellow Indigenous leaders, CAMPFIRE extends an invitation to collaborate across regions, sharing models and learning from each other's successes and challenges. "Our strength lies in our unified approach to cultural reclamation and youth empowerment," Brodie emphasizes.

For young people themselves, the message is perhaps most powerful: Your voice matters in shaping these programs. You are not merely participants but co-creators of a movement that honours your experience and builds on your strengths.

The Fire That Transforms: From Individual to Collective Healing

In Aboriginal cultures across Australia, fire has always served as both destroyer and creator – clearing what no longer serves, making way for new growth, transforming landscapes to ensure the continued flourishing of all life. CAMPFIRE embodies this dual nature of transformation.

For Brodie personally, the journey continues to be one of healing through service. "Every young person I reach reminds me of my own journey from lost to found, from isolation to belonging," he reflects. "Through CAMPFIRE, I create the spaces I needed when I was young – spaces of cultural pride, physical strength, and unconditional belief in potential."

For the community of Mount Isa and surrounding regions, CAMPFIRE represents a beacon of possibility – demonstrating that even in communities facing significant challenges, cultural wisdom holds the keys to regeneration and renewal.

For the broader Australian society, CAMPFIRE offers a profound challenge to dominant paradigms of youth justice, cultural preservation, and community well-being. It asks us to consider what might be possible if we centred Indigenous knowledge systems, if we invested in cultural connection rather than carceral responses, if we truly believed in the inherent dignity and potential of every young person.

The campfire has always been a gathering place – where stories are shared, where wisdom is passed down, where communities remember who they are and envision who they might become. Today, in the red dust country of Northwest Queensland, these ancient fires are being rekindled. And in their light, young people are discovering – often for the first time – the beauty of their inheritance, the strength of their ancestors, and the boundless possibilities of their futures.

This is not merely a program. It is a passage. A remembering. A revolution of the spirit that begins with a simple invitation: gather around the fire, listen to the stories that have always been yours, and discover that the flame of transformation was never something external – it has always burned within you, waiting only to be awakened.

This CAMPFIRE illuminates a path forward – not just for the young people of Mount Isa, but for all who seek to create communities where healing, belonging, and cultural pride flourish. As Brodie reminds us: "We walk this path together – not as saviors and saved, but as a community committed to creating the conditions where every young person can thrive in the fullness of their cultural identity and personal potential."

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