7:30 Report ABC TV Transcript 12/07/1999 Weipa youth stage second Croc Eisteddfod MAXINE McKEW: The Rock Eisteddfod is a well-established event on school calendars throughout Australia's big cities. 40,000 pupils from 400 schools perform their music and dance routines each year, culminating in eight TV specials which are viewed by one in three teenagers. The events promote alcohol and drug education, well and good, of course, if you go to school in the big smoke, but what about young people in remote areas? Well, a little-known spectacle called the Croc Eisteddfod was born last year in Weipa, on the far west coast of Cape York. It's an event with a positive lifestyle message pitched at indigenous kids. After a nervous launch, a second successful Croc has just ended. Murray McLaughlin reports. MURRAY MCLAUGHLIN: They travelled huge distances to get to Weipa, by boat, bus and light plane, from remote communities in Torres Strait, Cape York and Far North Queensland. 750 children from 23 schools. But unlike its big-city counterpart, the Rock Eisteddfod, this Croc Eisteddfod is not a competitive event. PETER SHOWQUIST, EXECUTIVE PRODUCER: The challenge was just to get here and to put on a show, which was great. So in effect, that they're being challenged to do their best within the context of a 100 per cent tobacco, alcohol and drug-free environment. That's what's worked and we're just delighted with the outcome. MURRAY MCLAUGHLIN: No 20-hour bus ride on bumpy dirt roads for the swag of VIPs who came to Weipa for the festival. As diverse as the festival acts were the messages from Aboriginal Affairs Minister, John Herron, and Federal Court Justice Marcus Einfeld, who each opened a night of events under the stars. JUSTICE MARCUS EINFELD, FEDERAL COURT JUDGE: We continue to deny indigenous people the very equal opportunity to a fair chance in life, which we Australians like to call "a fair go for all". SENATOR JOHN HERRON, ABORIGINAL AFFAIRS MINISTER: I say to all t he performers, it's up to you to realise your dreams. I did it and so can you. MURRAY MCLAUGHLIN: But these kids from Jessica Point State School at Nepranum are unlikely, on present trends, to realise their dreams in their home town. Nepranum adjoins Comalco's huge mine at Weipa. Comalco gave generously to this festival. It housed and fed all the participants and gave money, as well. But the company's record of Aboriginal employment is not as exemplary. After 30 years of mining bauxite here, its workforce of 500 is less than 10 per cent Aboriginal and most of them come from beyond these parts. JANE GEORGE, NEPRANUM COMMUNITY ELDER: There's hardly any men from here, a few of them are Torres Strait. MURRAY McLAUGHLIN: Did the men from here want to work at Comalco? JANE GEORGE: Oh yes, yeah. But they choose which one they want. MURRAY MCLAUGHLIN: What have been the inhibitions to having more Aboriginal people in the workforce? ROD KINKEAD-WEEKES, COMALCO: I think they include the difficulties that we have on occasions with training programs. I think the cultural differences. We're seeking to address all of these through mentoring and buddy programs and we're also seeking to address these through an increased level of cross-cultural training for our workforce in general. MURRAY McLAUGHLIN: With unemployment for Aborigines around 40 per cent and rising and 18 times higher for Aboriginal youth than the rest of the youth population, career development was a dominant feature at this year's Croc Eisteddfod. And with truancy a big problem in remote schools, the festival itself is helping to get kids to school. PETER SHOWQUIST: The teachers have used the festival as a carrot, saying, "Tomorrow, we're going to do design of the set "and the day after, we're going to paint the backdrop, "Thursday, we're going to make costumes, "by the way, what theme are we going to do?" All that sort of educational process. MURRAY MCLAUGHLIN: The festival this year was a useful one-stop shop for the Equal Rights and Equal Opportunities Commission. Chris Sidoti is running an inquiry into rural and remote education and he had a ready opportunity in Weipa to question children, teachers and parents about their problems. CHRIS SIDOTI, HUMAN RIGHTS AND EQUAL OPPORTUNITY COMMISSION: The one that regularly comes up is the question of race relations, tensions in schools between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students. Sometimes not even tensions, but almost a complete separation, socially and in terms of activities, between the two groups. And other questions relate to the isolation that country kids face, their inability to have even the basic contact with other schools that is taken for granted in city areas. So country kids can't be involved in interschool sport as much or debating or other forms of activity. And cultural events like this, the Croc Eisteddfod, become especially important for them as a way of making contact with other kids. MURRAY McLAUGHLIN: Two other remote communities are about to experience the Croc Eisteddfod, Kunnunurra, Western Australia, next week and Moree, NSW, in September and the whole concept is garnering powerful support. JUSTICE MARCUS EINFELD: The first thing that's c ome to my mind is how we're going to get all this down to mainstream Australia in Sydney and Melbourne and the triangle. People really do have to understand that reconciliation comes from the hearts and minds of ordinary people, not from government. ------------------------------------------------------- RecOzNet2 has a page @ http://www.green.net.au/recoznet2 and is archived at http://www.mail-archive.com/ To unsubscribe from this list, mail [EMAIL PROTECTED], and in the body of the message, include the words: unsubscribe announce or click here mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]?Body=unsubscribe%20announce This posting is provided to the individual members of this group without permission from the copyright owner for purposes of criticism, comment, scholarship and research under the "fair use" provisions of the Federal copyright laws and it may not be distributed further without permission of the copyright owner, except for "fair use." RecOzNet2 is archived for members @ http://www.mail-archive.com/
