Hitting the road again with joy

Published: 6 November 2011
By: Robin Williams

No disaster here: Sr Julianne Murphy ponders ways to engage students with a joke about the ambiguous signage on her Travelling Roadshow van door Picture: Robin Williams

IF there is one thing Josephite Sister Julianne Murphy knows, it is that kids love a good joke.

So when she realised the Mary MacKillop Foundation's Travelling Roadshow van was a good subject she was quick to utilise the material.

Sr Julianne, as she has become known to more than 28,000 school students, has just completed an epic journey taking the foundation's message of its "Small Life-Changing Grants" program around Australia.

The foundation launched the Travelling Sisters Roadshow - Disaster Recovery project in March and it didn't take Sr Julianne long to catch on to the sign writing anomaly.

"From the driver's side the sign on the van reads 'Travelling Sisters Roadshow' then underneath 'Disaster Recovery' but when you go around the other side and open the door the writing becomes 'Travelling Disaster'," she said.

"The kids love it and it is always guaranteed to get a laugh, but the trip has been anything but a disaster, it's been a great success."

Getting that laugh and interaction with students comes naturally to a woman who has spent a large proportion of her life and ministry teaching.

Sr Julianne grew up in Adelaide before completing a computer science degree at Adelaide University then becoming a teacher.

At that stage she had little knowledge of the Josephites or the extent of the work they did.

"I went to a Mercy school in high school but my first teaching appointment was Mary MacKillop College in Adelaide," she said.

She said that, during her first several years teaching, she thought about entering religious life and finally became a Josephite "about" 22 years ago, but not before letting slip her lack of knowledge about their foundress.

"When I finally decided to enter the Jos-ephites I had an interview with the provincial at the time and we talked about the things we needed to talk about," she said.

"As she led me out we went down a passageway and she pointed to a picture on the wall and said 'we have this lady to thank' and I said 'oh, and who is that' and she said 'Mary MacKillop'; it was an image I hadn't seen before."

Sr Julianne said St Mary MacKillop had only become well known in recent years.

"My awareness of them (the Josephite ministry) was teaching, mainly because that was my profession, but when I came to Sydney to do my novitiate I became aware of sisters in more ministries, but I don't think over the last 20 years I realised how many until I had done this job," she said.

This job of course was to visit schools and communities throughout Australia and raise awareness of and funds for, the Mary MacKillop Foundation that provides up to 40 small life-changing grants each year.

Since 1995, the Mary MacKillop Foundation has funded more than 350 "small life-changing projects", responding to the needs of rural and isolated communities, indigenous groups and people with disabilities.

It is a job that has taken Sr Julianne on a 27,118km journey, visiting 107 schools, 31 "other places", seen her deliver 451 presentations to 28,351 children and taken more than six months.

Sr Julianne said the time was right for the foundation to implement such a project.

"Following on from the canonisation (St Mary of the Cross MacKillop) was an opportunity to raise awareness of the foundation - continuing Mary's legacy - and then the floods occurred and the cyclone and there was obviously an immediate need in Australia," she said.

"The foundation would still support the 40 projects for the year, but undertook to also raise enough money to fund an additional 40 projects."

Although where possible a second sister accompanied Sr Julianne for parts of the journey, it was still a huge undertaking for someone who admits to having limited travel experience.

"Because I've taught in rural areas the travel doesn't faze me at all, but I didn't realise Australia was as big as it was because I hadn't travelled very far," she said.

"Driving across the Nullarbor the landscape changes all the time and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

"The sisters have shared the driving when there has been another one with me which has been great but sometimes you just do an assembly and you are in the same place and have a free day the next day, but other times you might travel two hours in the morning, do five or six sessions and then you have another two hours' travel to the next town and that is really full-on, but there has been variety too.

"Sometimes you have had groups of 20 kids and sometimes you have had an assembly of three to four hundred - you just adapt to the group."

The first Travelling Sisters Roadshow may have been a huge undertaking for Sr Julianne, but it certainly hasn't been a daunting experience.

It has been so enjoyable that she has already signed up to do it all again next year.

"I have already been asked (for next year) which has been a real privilege and I am happy to do it and we will visit schools that didn't have a visit this year," she said.

"It will be more or less the same presentation but I will present the new projects and tell them that is where the money will go next year."

Sr Julianne said Australia's love and passion for St Mary MacKillop made her proud to be a Josephite.

"They want to tell you their story and their connection with the Sisters of St Joseph," she said.

"It might be through a grandmother or a husband, it might be their child is being cared for by a Josephite connection and you just feel so proud on behalf of the whole order.

"She is so well known and I have only had one person I met that didn't know Mary MacKillop."

Sr Julieanne said if St Mary was around today she would probably be humbled and embarrassed by the attention.

"But probably just thrilled that the focus is in a way off her and continues on in a legacy with these young people and you would hope as they move into adult life if they are in business or something then maybe the foundation would be their charity of choice," she said.

She said the Mary MacKillop Foundation had a wonderful team who had ensured the trip was a success, providing details such as locations phone numbers and contact names.

"They have given me exactly where I need, I have had no mix-up with bookings and they have all been expecting me," she said.

Sr Julianne's final word was a tongue-in-cheek thank-you to her "best friend" Karen.

"I've got a GPS in the van that has been my best friend," she said.

"You select the voice and the voice I had was 'Karen' and she has helped me along the way and always let me know where I needed to be and when."