Believe in the magic of dreams

A couple of weeks ago I was enjoying a lazy day at home watching television on the weekend, viewing nothing in particular, just hanging out with my children and killing time until the rugby league match of the round later that day. As I was flicking through the channels I came across a game of netball on the ABC and was about to flick to another channel when I observed an attractive athletic looking Indigenous lady dominate in the position of goal attack.

As an avid netball follower, or at least a Saturday dad who goes along to every winter morning game with the family to watch daughter Jayde play in the under 11s, I am now familiar with GA, WA, C, GS, WD, GD and GK positions. Whoever this talented lady was, her position of GA emblazoned on her shirt spoke volumes of the responsibility her coach and team had placed in her - akin to Jonathan Thurston (league) at five eight or Jeff Farmer (aussie rules) at full forward.

I wasn’t sure that the gifted netballer playing for the Allied Pickford Melbourne Kestrels was in fact Indigenous until the commentator mentioned “… a great goal by Franklin.” So often in the past I’ve made calls on athletes, like Mal Michaels (Lions), Daniel Kerr (West Coast), Tim Cahill (Australian soccer), Geoff Huegill (swimming) and many others, being Indigenous only to read later that they’re in fact Papua New Guinean, Pacific Islander or Asian.

I had an idea who this gifted athlete was and felt a bit silly for doubting my initial thoughts soon after when confirmed by the TV commentator. Besides Bianca not only plays netball at a high level but is also a talented columnist for the Koori Mail, writing on women’s sport under Sister Talk.

So impressed was I of Bianca’s game that I decided to email her the next working day to ask if she could send an autographed photo of herself to Jayde. I knew Jayde would be excited to receive a letter in the mail from someone who has a national profile in the sport she loves. I might be biased but I reckon the Australian netball team could do with a bit of black magic from Bianca given their recent poor form against the New Zealand Silver Ferns.

The email sent was also with the family’s blessing and desire for Jayde to have an Indigenous role model outside her immediate family. What I didn’t count on was a wonderfully personalised letter from Bianca to Jayde with several poignant points: “… always strive to do your best and never give up” and “… take care and hopefully I will be watching you one day on TV”. At the bottom of the letter were the words “Believe in the magic of your dreams.”

To see the reaction on the face of my daughter when she opened the letter almost brought tears to my eyes and to this day I’m glad to report that Jayde carries the autographed card in her school bag and wears the blue netball wrist band permanently.

Steven Spielberg, US film director and producer, was quoted in The Times, 1985, as saying “I dream for a living”. Well I’m convinced that Jayde will work very hard at trying to realise her dream of playing netball for Australia - and if she doesn’t make it she will always remember that wonderful quote from her netball role model, Bianca Franklin.

A week after all this upbeat news I was saddened to hear that Indigenous children, in my region, had appeared in court on a number of charges - the most serious being a breach of probation for break and enter offences. I shared the bad news with my wife Rhonda of a 14-year-old recently incarcerated and of two others of a similar age being ordered out of their town for repeat offences. I’m not sure if police can order kids that young out of town and force their single mums to uproot and move to an unfamiliar community, away from supportive family and friends.

For several days I couldn’t help but think of these young fellas and worried about where they went off the rails.

Today’s teenagers are tomorrow’s leaders and I often wonder of our future if so many of them are starting to accumulate lengthy records for criminal convictions. In most large Indigenous communities the statistics on troubled youth fronting the judiciary is appalling and one does not need to be a Rhode’s scholar to realise that the next generation’s leadership pool will be unsatisfactorily finite if this rate is sustained.

So how bad is the problem with Indigenous youth?

The Indigenous community has a very different population spread than the non-Indigenous community, with about 58 per cent of Indigenous people being under 25 years of age, compared with about 34 per cent of the rest of the population.

The Australian Institute of Criminology 2004 report Facts and figures, reveals that 47 per cent of the total number of young people detained in juvenile corrective institutions on June 30 were Indigenous - incredible when they only comprise 2 per cent of the total population. However, many welfare workers who visit these institutions regularly have indicated to me that even these figures are very conservative.

The Australian Institute of Criminology research into the lifetime offending and substance use patterns of 371 juveniles, aged 10 to 17 years, incarcerated in Australian juvenile detention centres showed that many juvenile detainees had used: alcohol (97 per cent); cannabis (94 per cent); and amphetamines (50 per cent). One in three had used ecstasy at some stage in their lives.

Cannabis was the drug most commonly used regularly by young people in the six months prior to their detention (63 per cent), followed by alcohol (46 per cent) and amphetamines (20 per cent). Nearly one in three juvenile offenders were regular poly-substance users in the six months prior to detention.

The study also found that 36 per cent of respondents reported instances of violent abuse; 27 per cent reported instances of emotional abuse; 18 per cent reported instances of neglect; and 46 per cent of respondents reported at least one of the above types of abuse.

Instances of abuse were found most likely to be carried out by a parent/guardian or by a sibling, and were also linked with drug use and crime. “Juveniles reporting regular violent or property offending were more likely to report a history of neglect and abuse, as were juveniles reporting high frequency substance use in the six months prior to detention.”

Typical survey questions asked were: “… when you were growing up did anyone ever:

• leave you by yourself for a long time as a child?
• push you around, hit, kick or beat you?
• make you feel very bad, sad or frightened?”

A report in The Courier-Mail on August 30, 2003 revealed that a 13-month old boy was sent to join his mother in jail because there was no safe place for him in a community of 1,000 people, which had been crippled by alcohol fuelled violence.

The boy’s father is in jail too. The report said this community spends $5 million a year on beer at the council-owned canteen, and that a staggering 20,000 cans of beer are delivered each week. A lawyer and community justice group coordinator said they had “lamp post children”, as young as three, sleeping under lit areas so they were not sexually abused or beaten.

The 200-page Education Learning Lessons report on the delivery of education to Indigenous students in the Northern Territory handed to the Government in 1999 revealed:

… that Year 7 level English literacy and numeracy are a necessary minimum for any person to function effectively in the wider Australian society, and a minimum of Year 10 level literacy and numeracy are required for any management role in the community. The Committee found that 11 to 16-year-old students in remote Indigenous schools were averaging around Year 2-3 levels.

The stark reality is that many Indigenous students are leaving the school system with the English literacy and numeracy ability of a six to seven-year-old mainstream child. They are almost unemployable outside their own communities. Aspirations for “self determination” or “self empowerment” ring very hollow indeed.

A Mining Industry submission said “… most potential employees from communities could not read occupational health and safety documents, or even signs around the mine-site. They cannot fill in application forms, write their date of birth or tally numbers as is required for many jobs”.

I don’t know if child safety issues, education or simply boredom attributed to the wayward lifestyle that resulted in Indigenous children in my region being incarcerated at such a tender age.

The dichotomy of lifestyles of my children and of those mentioned is astounding. Could I have done more for these children and their families or have I been too selfish in thinking only of my immediate family and our successful progression through life?

I encourage Indigenous people who have done well in their chosen community, sporting or professional endeavours to take time out for troubled youth in their communities who are in need of a role model’s guiding hand or simply a shoulder to cry on.

I would also like to think that it is possible for all Indigenous youth, like my daughter Jayde, to be able to enjoy the highs of being associated with a role model like Bianca and to be able to “Believe in the magic of their dreams”.