Perth Voice Interactive

A STORYTELLING festival boasting Australia’s first all-indigenous line-up of presenters could help overcome a dire shortage of Noongar literature for kids.

The Woylie Festival was the brainchild of local kids’ bookshop owner Jennifer Jackson, who wanted to add some works by local Aboriginal authors to her shelves, only to find there were hardly any available.

She resorted to importing titles from the other side of the country, but through discussions with publishers such as Broome’s Magabala Books realised there was a growing demand for local Dreamtime stories that just needed a catalyst.

“Because Aboriginal literature is now on the curriculum, teachers and students want the books, but there’s not much around other than what Kim Scott had put out,” Ms Jackson told the Voice.

Miles Franklin

She convinced Fremantle council to support the festival and soon had a who’s who of WA indigenous literature signed up, including Scott, who’s a dual Miles Franklin Award winner, Sally Morgan, Josie Boyle, Noel Nannup and Ambelin Kwaymullina.

The inaugural festival will take place over Easter, Ms Jackson hoping to capitalise on the crowds attracted to the Fremantle Street Arts Festival to give it a big kickstart.

Dr Nannup, who played a big part in helping shape the festival, says there have been a combination of factors behind the low number of published Noongar stories.

“If you talk to our mob in the community it’s not our highest priority, which is to put food on the table and keep our kids safe,” he said.

“There are people coming through that spent time with the elders, but one of the main impediments has been…our good people who work in the industry were gobbled up and put into jobs in offices.”

Dr Nannup said education was also an issue: as a youngster he didn’t expect to receive much schooling, and says the opportunity to know pass on his storytelling knowledge to youngsters is very exciting. These days he’s employed as a consulting elder by Edith Cowan University and last year was named male elder of the year at Perth’s NAIDOC awards.

He says there was also a great lag between Noongar elders leaving the missions and passing on their stories to the next generation, but he says despite the gaps that created, he’s confident it can be recovered.

“You can recover the loss, because the spirit will not let it die.”

Magabala Books publisher Rachel Bin Salleh attended this week’s launch of the festival and says while the addition of Aboriginal literature to the school curriculum was welcome, there had been some in the industry trying to cash in by employing white authors to write Aboriginal stories and only using indigenous artists for the illustrations.

She said the Woylie Festival was a great way to empower the authors to ensure the integrity of important local stories.

The Woylie Festival kicks off Friday March 30 at the Moore’s Building on Henry Street with a welcome to country by Aunty Marie Taylor at 10am.

by STEVE GRANT

IF Rahul Jegatheva’s national Under-19s triathlon title wasn’t a convincing display of his competitive edge, then his mad dash home after the event certainly was.

The 16-year-old Perth Modern School student was the first Sandgroper to win his category of the National Aquathlon Championships at Lake Crackenback in the Snowy Mountains on February 24, but desperately wanted to be home the next day because he’d been chosen to carry the Queen’s Baton for its Stirling leg on the way to the Commonwealth Games.

With no flights from Canberra or Sydney getting him home on time, Rahul had to skip the medal ceremony and take a twisting, seven-hour nighttime drive along the Alpine Highway to catch one at 6am in Melbourne.

The Joondanna resident made it on time, running into the Scarborough Beach amphitheatre with his friends and family cheering on.

What makes Rahul’s achievement even more astounding is that he had been floored by the flu for three days before the competition, suffering dehydration and coughing fits right up to the morning of the race.

However, he dug deep and even finished higher than a number of the elite adult competitors, finishing third Australian overall.

“It’s hard to process all that has happened over the weekend,” says Rahul.

“It’s such an honour to win the national title, and to be given the opportunity to to carry the Queen’s Baton.

“I owe a lot to my swim coach, Eoin Carroll of Perth City Swimming Club, my run coach, professor Grant Landers of UWA and all the amazing athletes from the North Coast Triathlon Club with whom I have been participating in their annual Aquathlon series over the years.” Rahul next heads to the International Triathlon Union World Aquathlon Championships in Denmark in July.

MEMBERS of the public should be allowed to ask questions at council meetings without bureaucrats getting a sneak peak beforehand, says Vincent council.

In its submission to a review of the Local Government Act, the council says recommendations put forward in a local government department discussion paper don’t go far enough and more can be done to improve accountability, transparency and voter participation.

Many councils currently require ratepayers to submit questions in writing before meetings, giving the admin the opportunity to craft Sir Humphrey-like responses that dissuade further questioning.

But Vincent says all councils should be given minimum standards to follow that would outlaw the practice.

It also wants to ratepayers to be guaranteed three minutes to ask a question or make a statement on any item on the agenda, regardless of which council they attend.

Transparency

Vincent’s submission also calls for a one vote/one value model, and says it’s opposed to “any changes which would enshrine further disparity and unfairness in the current voting system such as compulsory enrolment of businesses or non-residential property owners”.

The council argues that the act currently doesn’t provide for the highest standard of accountability and wants minimum benchmarks and standards set for all councils.

There is “a lack of consistency in the quality and completeness of reporting standards across local government, particularly in relation to financial management,” the council’s submission says.

It complains ratepayers are wasting time and resources getting information that should be readily available, while there’s “staleness and stagnation” amongst senior staff and councillors which holds up new ideas and standards.

The council also wants councillors who breach their code of conduct to face sanctions, saying the codes are currently hard to enforce, particularly without regulatory backing. Vincent also wants the act amended so that it can more easily create trading entities that could enter into private-public partnerships for “business and community purposes”.

by STEVE GRANT

A GROUP of young migrants from Aranmore Catholic College in Leederville are the stars of a new music video calling for all cultures in Australia to live in harmony.

“Happiness for everyone, walking to the beat of the same drum,” is the chorus of the catchy song, featuring students from the Intensive English Centre at the college.

Filmmaker Poppy van Oorde-Grainger, who helped create the video for Same Drum, says it is a “good antidote” to media myths about migrants and refugees.

“They deserve to be represented honestly, to be able to speak for themselves.”

Ms Van Oorde-Grainger says the songwriting process involved nine students drumming, rapping, creating lyrics and singing.

The finished song is in three African languages—Swahili, Dinka and Kinyarwanda—and English.

“It’s pretty funny trying to write in a few languages and make it rhyme,” Ms Van Oorde-Grainger says.

Frank Mucho, 17, from Rwanda was involved in making the video for Same Drum and says he got “good shivers” the first time he watched it.

“Sometimes people look down on people that don’t speak english but this project gives those kids an opportunity to explore their ideas and talents and break stereotypes,” he says.

Thirty students were involved in filming the music video for Same Drum, which contains snippets of Vincent.

The video will be released on March 15 at the start of Harmony Week.

by ALICE ANGELONI

WHILE it’s now a decade since Pope Benedict XVI consigned limbo to history, WA’s churches are again concerned about souls stuck in an indefinite no-man’s land.

But this time it’s asylum seekers, not the un-baptised, in limbo and 40 organisations including the Catholic, Anglican, Jewish and Uniting Churches are joining the Palm Sunday Walk for Justice for Refugees on March 25.

The walk will go from St George’s Cathedral through the Murray and Hay Street malls and back again. The event kicks off at 1pm.

Imprisoned indefinitely

“This year we are focusing on the injustice of limbo experienced by many people seeking asylum and refugees—either those imprisoned indefinitely on Manus and Nauru, those separated from family and unable to access reunification opportunity, those on temporary protection visas, and calling instead for policies that respond with humanity and compassion to people seeking safety,” says the Uniting Church’s social justice officer Kate Leaney.

“One of the key things is, on Manus or Nauru, people who have been there five years; someone who was a child when they arrived but is now an adult, but with no ability to move on,” Ms Leaney told the Voice.

She says this has profound impacts on both their mental and physical health.

Ms Leaney says even those who make it to Australia on temporary visas still face uncertainty, because they can be blocked from visiting family members overseas—even in a neutral or friendly country—without ever being given reasons why.

“It’s a case-by-case decision,” she says.

Ms Leaney says the case of Fatimah, highlighted recently in The Guardian online news site, was a perfect example.

The Iranian refugee arrived with her son in 2013 just as offshore processing was reinstated. She has now been diagnosed with heart disease and been told she needs urgent surgery not available on Manus Island.

But because her now 16-year-old son is barred from travelling with her for treatment, she won’t leave the island over fears for his safety.

Refugee advocate Bev Hollyock has been following Fatimah’s story and says with International Women’s Day approaching, the issue had her wondering.

“How would most mothers respond to the harsh decision of the Border Force under these circumstances,” Ms Hollyock posed.

“The only reason we even hear about these episodes is the mobile phone that detainees have. Possession of these is under threat from Home Affairs office.”

Ms Hollyock says people should be writing to their local Federal MP asking questions about Fatimah.

Ms Leaney says last year the Palm Sunday walk attracted about 1000 people. She admits there were a few barbed comments along the lines of former prime minister John Howard’s decision to fire broadsides across the bows of refugee boats, but the response was mostly positive.

“We even had some people join the walk who hadn’t known it was on.”

Ms Leaney says sometimes the effort seems futile as conditions for asylum seekers rarely improve, but there are small wins along the way such as keeping kids out of detention centres on the mainland, which makes the effort worthwhile.

by STEVE GRANT

ONLY 15 per cent of Stirling households have a solar system, prompting the local council to consider trialling a $1500 rebate program.

Stirling even lags behind Wanneroo (35 percent of households have a solar system) and Joondalup (28 per cent), according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics.

A report to council on other local government energy saving schemes found that upfront costs are the main barrier to residents installing energy efficient and renewable energy technologies.

Stirling is looking at modelling its rebate program on Adelaide’s “Solar Savers” scheme, which provides upfront funding for the installation of a solar system for low-income and tenanted households.

Stirling council also plans to expand its Living Green Program, which already provides education and opportunities, such as free home energy audits to residents.

The solar system trial will be considered in the 2018/19 budget and includes a pilot project of 30 solar PV system rebates ($1500 per household), and community consultation ($15,000).

STIRLING mayor Mark Irwin and CEO Stuart Jardine will try to get the ear of key players in the Turnbull government to push the city’s infrastructure projects while heading east for a conference and an awards night.

Mr Jardine will represent the city at the National General Assembly of local governments in Canberra from June 17 to 20.

It’s agenda includes strengthening the financial sustainability of councils, infrastructure, digital transformation, indigenous policy issues, women in local government and diversity in representation.

“Analysis suggests that a Commonwealth election may well be called between August 2018 and May 2019,” a report to the council said.

“The 2018 [assembly] therefore provides an important opportunity to progress key local government issues in the Federal agenda.”

Following the awards the CEO and mayor will team up for the Australasian Reporting Awards in Sydney.

The council has picked up a couple of ARA awards in the past, taking out an “Overall Gold Award” in 2015, 2016 and 2017.