Northern exposure: Ella Rzempowski serves up paella to visiting students Simone and Nerissa at Barwon Heads on Tuesday.
By Ben Saunders
A GROUP of 10 indigenous secondary students from the Northern Territory have sampled Spanish food in Barwon Heads.
Ella Rzempwski’s Corason cafe hosted the middle school students this week, giving many their first taste of Spanish cuisine.
The students came from a small, remote community, Nganmarriy, with a population of about 400.
Ms Rzempwski said she first met the indigenous children when she participated in a charity event that sent her to the Northern Territory last year.
She travelled to their remote community, about four hours from Darwin, to teach residents how to cook basic meals such as fried rice.
“It was the best experience of my life.”
Ms Rzempwski said she felt compelled to invite the students for lunch when she heard they would be in town.
Accompanying teacher Joe Hewett said the students were in Victoria for 11 days as part of a government school program.
“The program aims to give them an experience of how the rest of Australia lives outside of their community,” Mr Hewett said.
