Martell is salt of the earth, with a magnificently adventurous spirit

Martell Dunn leads by example. As the reigning NT Primary Teacher of Year, she’s helping our young kids find their way. READ HER STORY.

Martell at King Canyon back in 1992. Picture: SUPPLIED

MARTELL Dunn leads by example. As the reigning NT Primary Teacher of Year, she’s helping our young kids find their way.

Modern society, supercharged by social media, and the speed of information, can be a complex world for any of us to navigate. Let alone our kids.

Thank God, we have people like Martell to help bring us back to the key values of life: kindness, sincerity and respect.

Martell has led the way for her own wonderful kids- her pride and joy- Eli, Noah, and Ava.

Martell is salt of the earth, with a magnificently adventurous spirit.

A spirit her own Mum and Dad helped to grow.

She grew up in Bundaberg, with mum Josepha, dad Geoffrey, sisters Lowanna and Justine, and brothers Mitchell and Wade.

“We were the family that went on adventures. As school kids, at Christmas holidays, we’d pack up the car, pack up the trailer, we took a 13x18 foot tentlike a circus tent!” Martell told the NT News.

“There were some times where I think Dad didn’t have a plan where we were going … we’d just go!”

Martell says her Mum inspired a strong sense of family.

“The whole family rotated around Mum, even as we grew up. And she was the same for her nieces and nephews. We were all around the sun, which was Mum,” she said.

One June 1st just passed, it was the 30th anniversary of Martell arriving in Alice Springs.

“It was 1991, I was 22, a friend of mine, Nick Bennett, had been to Alice and come back to Bundy, and he was about to return to Alice,” she said.

Martell Dunn. Great lady, great mum, great teacher. Picture: SUPPLIED

“He said, ‘Do you want to come too?’

“I said, ‘Oh! I’ll come on an adventure.’

“Dad said, ‘Go! Zoom off!’. He was a traveller as a young person too.

“So, I packed my Toyota Celica hatchback and zoomed off!”

Martell fell in love with the town at first sight.

“With Alice, you are either a person who really likes it straight away, or you don’t,” she said.

“What struck me was that great expanse of blue sky. That’s the part I love the most – the air is clean, the sky is clean. You can wake up every single day and know there is a brilliant blue sky out there.

“When we were driving here, I remember thinking, ‘Wow, it’s remote.’ But then you get here and there is this little hub practically in the middle of nowhere and it’s alive with a whole bunch of amazing people!”

Martell’s first gig was at the Territory Motor Inn, before she saw a job going at the YMCA.

“That job was it! The Y gave me the connection to people- lifelong friends,” she said.

“The Y was … this sounds corny, but it’s true … a family.

“That’s the other special part of Alice Springs, that because people come from everywhere else, you form those great friendships.”

In the mid-90s Martell met her now former husband, and father of their three beautiful children, Andy Dayman.

“Andy was a traveller too. He came up here, and was working for the Adami’s at Piccolo’s,” she said.

“Then we ended up working there together and we ran that for quite a number of years.”

Their three wonderful kids are Eli, Noah and Ava.

“Before Covid, Eli had been in Canada working at the snow at Whistler. He’d been there for six or seven months, and then made the heartbreaking decision to come back, when the borders were shutting,” she said.

“He is about to head down to Perisher for the snow season. He’s been overseas a few times. He’s a traveller. He’s got that in him.

Martell on Mother’s Day with her three kids, Ava, Noah and Eli. Picture: SUPPLIED

“Noah works as part of the support staff at Braitling Primary. He has seen the experiences of young kids, who are not necessarily as privileged as many others. He is really great at his job!

“He’ll probably find another career path, an electrician perhaps.”

“Ava is in Adelaide, still being a netball superstar!

“We actually played together in the same team for Rovers! That was really unique, it was quite amazing.

“She was still playing Under 16’s, but she could come up and play in my team.

“I remember the first time she played in our team, she said, ‘Should I call you Mum or Martell?’

“The three of them are great kids, and they have great futures ahead of them.”

“Being a Mum is the best job you’ll ever have in your life. It’s the biggest responsibility, but the biggest joy. It’s not for the feint hearted!

“Whether you are a stay-at-home Mum or working Mum- it’s a big job!

“Being a stay-at-home Mum is a big job! If you are working you have that social capacity outside, and that capacity to earn money. If you are a stay-at-home Mum, you can feel disconnected, you can feel isolated. It’s challenging, but in a different way.”

After Martell and Andy went in different directions, Martell reinvented herself.

“In truth, when I left Piccolos, I went, ‘Holy! I get to have another career’,” she said.

“’What do I really want to do? What am I good at?’

“I used to volunteer at OLSH when the boys were little.

“I remember Eli sitting at the kitchen table, and he was reading the back of the tomato sauce bottle. He said, ‘Mum, I can read!’

“I remember thinking about that look he had on his face!”

Martell was inspired to be a teacher.

She completed a four-year course in three years, working full-time, and raising three young kids.

“It wasn’t easy, but when you do something like that, your kids get to see their mum being committed and dedicated, and that hopefully puts them in good stead for the future,” she said.

Martell started her teaching career at Larapinta doing relief work, before branching out across Alice as a relief teacher.

Martell then took up her first full time position at the iconic School of the Air.

Martell says she loved the role, working in the interactive teaching studio, connecting with kids right across the Territory, then being able to fly out and visit them at home.

After five years in that role, the next step was Braitling Primary, where she has been for the past four years.

Martell accepting her NT Teacher of the Year Award 2020. Picture: SUPPLIED

“I love it at Braitling. There isn’t a day I don’t like my job,” she said.

“It’s not for the feint hearted, let me tell you! There is no such thing as ‘teachers leave at three’.

“You have to be dedicated. There are so many dedicated teachers in this town who truly go the extra mile.

“When you become teacher you love those kids like your own.”

Martell Dunn is one of the finest teachers you could imagine- last year she was named the NT Primary School Teacher of the Year for the central region.

“That was a huge honour and surprise. It felt amazing, but it was also kind of a bit like- ‘It’s just me doing my job’,” she said.

“But when you get that nod, you do feel proud, and your children get to see that.”

When asked about her advice for kids, Martell says:

“Don’t get caught up with what’s out there, because it’s not truth,” she said.

“Your truth is your close friends and family who support you.

“As daggy as it sounds- practice kindness.

“Kindness and good manners- you’ve got it all covered!

“To be genuinely kind to someone doesn’t cost you anything. And then to not expect anything in return.”

When asked about the online world that parents and kids must navigate, Martell says:

“Social media is part of how kids live now,” she said.

“With technology, it’s opened up a huge amazing world. We can celebrate the fact we can now access the whole world.

“But the speed of how that happens, can cause issues for kids, comparing themselves to other people.

“Everything needs to be instant!

“My advice for kids is to take your time, and be patient.”

Martell’s great out is her netball.

“I blame Sally Rodda, the President of Rovers,” she said.

“One day I was watching Ava play, and Sally said I’ve got a uniform for you in this bag. It was an Under 15 uniform.

“I said, ‘If it fits me, I’ll come back at 1:30 and play.’

“It fitted! So why not start playing when you’re old and have a crummy knee.

“When my knee goes fully, I’m done!

“But I play C-Grade and I love it! The friendships. The camaraderie.”

“This biggest thing at the end of my life, when you’re standing there at the Pearly Gates, I want to be able to say I did some good things, that I gave it a pretty good crack!

“You want to contribute!”

Martell has done just that, and our town, and our kids are richer for it.