This is Archie

I can remember meeting him for the first time on an orange chair on a hot and humid day in Lockhart River. Ben - from our HQ team - had been taking Archie's photo for more than two hours and I couldn't figure out why. I went to have a closer look and that's when it hit me - every time Ben put the camera down, Archie went back to scratching the sores on his arms and legs. Ben was simply distracting him.

Two years ago, Lucas and I were in Melbourne standing in the back of a room filled with medical practitioners. A doctor got up behind the lectern and said, "Australia has an epidemic and we are not talking about it. Two out of three kids before the age of one are contracting scabies in Indigenous communities, this is higher than any third world country. Scabies is preventable, all you need is, education, hygiene (including clean clothes) and a readily available ointment."

This shocked us, but it also got us thinking about how we could help (after all, we knew a thing or two about laundry). 

A few months later, thanks to the incredible generosity of a local philanthropist, our talented HQ team and the welcoming community of Lockhart River, we had our first ever service up and running in an Indigenous community. 

This week is NAIDOC Week and the theme is 'Voice. Treaty. Truth.' The theme comes from the Yolngu concept of Makarrata, which captures the idea of two parties coming together after a struggle, healing the divisions of the past. Makarrata is a word from the language of the Yolngu people in Arnhem Land. It is about acknowledging that something has been done wrong, and it seeks to make things right.

When I look at the photo of Archie, I can't help but be reminded and inspired by our mission to positively connect communities. We know that clean laundry can have an incredible impact, but we hope that by providing a place for the community to come together and connect, we are providing a voice to a culture that is more than 65,000 years old. 

Orange Sky operates at more than 235 locations every week - including Lockhart River and now Palm Island - and I would like to acknowledge and pay respect to the elders past, present and emerging of these lands.