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No girl gets left behind.

I am just back from three days in Griffith, rural NSW. This trip was organised by Neville Dwyer, an incredible man who is the Director at a not-for-profit community-based child care service, the Dorothy Waide Centre for Early Learning, and Treasurer of Country Children’s Services. He is also a winner of the National Excellence in Teaching Award and runs many highly innovative programs aimed at connecting youth to learning and the community.

Neville invited me to work with local Indigenous teen girls on day one, with the local parent community during the evening, and with 170 primary-school-aged girls on day two. His aim?

All I want is the chance for these girls to have the power of positive light to shine on them and see that they are beautiful and worthwhile people — that they matter — to themselves, to their friends, to their family and to us as a community . . .

We all have the power to make change happen — whether we take that opportunity up is our choice, the challenge is to “dare to be exceptional” . . .

We are blessed to have around us people who can make a difference, who take the time to care, to be involved, to take up the challenge.

Young Indigenous girls do indeed need more people to make a difference, because: 

The trip was truly a career highlight. I felt incredibly humbled to have the opportunity to offer some powerful, positive messages. Feedback from the teen girls included:

You showed me I am beautiful, and I won’t care so much what others say. You taught me to believe in myself.

I loved meeting other people like me and speaking out.

Today was the best day, where we learnt how to treat friends and resolve fights without fighting.

It really touched me.

I should not try to grow up too quickly.

It showed me that not everyone is perfect, and it’s okay to be who we are.

I learnt about responsibility for my actions and the person within me.

I love that you care, and even though you were a stranger you have changed how I think about things and shown me that people do love me.

You made me feel like I can do more things in my life; I now understand the whole part of being a girl.

The day ended with me crying for joy and the girls lining up to be cuddled. A moment I will never forget was when one girl, who had sat looking frightened all day, yet listening intently, looked at me and asked, “Will you kiss me?” I gave her a kiss on the cheek, and we held each other and cried and laughed. Magic.

For the teachers, too, the day was  profound:

Seeing the girls react so positively was fantastic. I learnt that the kids can write positive things about each other and be made to feel so confident.

Kathy McKenzie from Youth Off The Streets offered this insight into why it worked so well:

[The key was] positive reinforcement, respectfulness, positive strategies and conflict management.

The general consensus? We can and will dare to be different in the way we seek solutions for young women. The local newspaper, Area News, were very supportive. They ran a great article on the event: “We can solve teen girl crisis”. I want to finish by sharing the editor’s opinion piece here as he raises some excellent points:

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Click on the image to read

Footnote – the following resources may be useful to you in your work with young Indigenous woman:

Living Safe and Growing Strong — a booklet produced by the Women’s Legal Service (SA) on sexual assault aimed at young indigenous women.  
What Works? — a website that helps schools plan and take action to improve educational outcomes for indigenous students.   
ABC Indigenous — an excellent website offering everything from opinion pieces to news items and interviews with “Local Heroes” 
Reconciliation Australia — aims to support the development of relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians  
The Cathy Freeman Foundation — Cathy’s vision is to offer young Indigenous Australians the same well being, strong sense of self-belief, and educational opportunities as their peers. You can make donations on the site.     
Published inPower of Words

5 Comments

  1. I like the way u appreciated the girls in this girl dominated society.One thing every one has to keep in mind to make their girl well educated and stand upon their own feet so that no one can dominate her.

  2. I love your way of thinking and being so concerned for the girls.
    Girls are among the best creations of god. They should be educated and be appreciated. They do matter to this universe and please help them to shine.
    Proud of being a girl.

  3. […] we run that inform girls about these important equity issues. I am also going to strengthen the work I do here in Australia with our Indigenous girls – many of these young women are living lives not dissimilar to those girls in the third world […]

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