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The Forum > Article Comments > Canteen Creek left high and dry > Comments

Canteen Creek left high and dry : Comments

By Graham Ring, published 20/7/2007

The Indigenous kids at Canteen Creek school have had their performance at the Alice Springs Croc Festival this year cancelled - for the sake of a few thousand dollars.

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The author said: "I’m sure they’ll go about their business with a newfound respect for the ways of the whitefella world."

Now that sounds a bit unfair (and rude!) because from the background given by the author, the decision not to fund the event was made locally and democratically. He said the council looked at the proposal but there were other priorities.

So fair enough, what exactly is the problem?

Maybe the learning is that the funds available for sponsorship are not infinitely elastic and perhaps some fund-raising needs to be done next time. In schools everywhere the P&Cs with the support of local community put a lot of effort into fund-raising. It is a tough job but it has to be done.

Maybe next time the author could help the school in a more positive and proactive way.
Posted by Cornflower, Friday, 20 July 2007 1:22:51 PM
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Don't bother Cornflower - Ringy is a just another blow-in, an instant expert on Central Australia, albeit an endlessly superior and condescending one. He would have to be just about the world's top expert on most things that he knows nothing or very little about.

He gives us all the benefit of his 'insights' in a little sermon in the local Murdoch rag each week. Truly vomit inducing stuff, and unbeknownst to him, almost completely counterproductive due to its patronising style, utter predictability and general smug cluelessness.

He seems unaware of the Crocfest's shortcomings, particularly the critique developed by progressive Centralian educationists over the last few years. These longterm dedicated expert bush-school teachers generally see the Crocfest as symbolising one of their greatest obstacles - the endless interruptions to the school program that prevent them from being able to keep enough kids in the classroom for enough hours of each term for the teachers to be able to impart some basic education to the pupils.

Apart from taking up an inordinate amount of precious classroom time and scarce school resources in the preparation, the Crocfest's main legacy is the taking of kids, teachers and usually quite a few family members away from the communities for a couple of weeks (travel time included), and leaving many kids straggling back for weeks afterwards.

When combined with all the time spent travelling backwards and forwards over vast distances to football matches, ceremonies, funerals, sports weekends, royalty distributions and other carnivals, the Crocfest is seen as one of the main contributors to low average school attendance rates in many communities, despite its alleged motivational force.

In short, Ringy has fallen for a crock of Crocfest hype.

By the way, the poor old Crocfest isn't poor at all, but the hundreds of thousands of dollars in government subsidies it gets is not enough - it wants more, and every year tries to hold NT politicians and other institutions to ransom using special pleading and emotive arguments to get its way. It is a powerful and determined adversary, and will not take no for an answer.
Posted by Dan Fitzpatrick, Friday, 20 July 2007 11:10:39 PM
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Dan,

Thanks, explains why the article had a hollow ring to it.
Posted by Cornflower, Saturday, 21 July 2007 10:49:19 AM
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The kids at Canteen Creek school have had their performance at the Alice Springs Croc Festival this year cancelled - for the sake of a few thousand dollars.

Other than for authors racial labelling policies, was there some necessity for term "Indigenous" ?

Is not essential to label things "Indigenous", just a pschological function of authors using it due some personally held prejudices.

Perhaps a feeling families involved are incapable of demonstrating themselves how they care for their children, their community, by contributing themselves to the cost of sending their children to such an event.

Or is it you feel they are incapable or just not prepared to pay their own way, so using this as just another attempt to generate some ancestral guilt trip from other people to pay for you ?
Posted by polpak, Saturday, 21 July 2007 3:38:48 PM
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Welcome to the real world kids. You don't always get what you want. You don't always get to play.
Funnily enough there are other kids out there who would like to access the basics like learning to read and do simple arithmetic so that they don't get conned by their employers.
Australian kids, even 'indigenous' Australian kids, should be pretty well off. When it appears they are not someone somewhere is not doing their job or someone is teaching them the culture of envy and greed.
Posted by Communicat, Sunday, 22 July 2007 3:10:29 PM
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Some people certainly have been teaching the youth a culture of envy, greed, and "I am a victim".

Eventually some realise this does not solve the problem.

To solve the problems each person needs do something to improve things for themselves and those around them, not go begging for someone else to solve it for you.
Posted by polpak, Monday, 23 July 2007 11:53:53 AM
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