Girls from Oz 2020 Term 4 Newsletter
Girls from Oz 2020 Term 4 Newsletter Welcome to Term 4! After our programs had to be cancelled in term 2 due to COVID-19 we experienced an incredible Giving Circles fundraising campaign in June and now it is a joy to be able to return to delivering our usual programs with state-based Instructor teams from across Australia. Read all about what’s taking place in…
A year of silver linings: De Castro sisters travel to Lockhart River
In what has been a tumultuous time for arts education, and the arts more broadly, Girls from Oz is delighted to return to Carnarvon, Halls Creek and Lockhart River in Term 3 to deliver their first 2020 community performing arts programs since early March. With interstate Instructors unable to cross borders into Queensland and Western Australia due to COVID-19 restrictions, g-oz took the decision to have all Term 3 programs delivered entirely by state-based teams. While this will mark the…
Reflecting on past NAIDOC Celebrations
In 2020, NAIDOC Week that is normally celebrate in July, has been postponed until November. NAIDOC stands for National Aboriginies and Islanders Day Observance Committee, and is a week that celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Each year a theme is chosen to highlight important issues and achievements of Aboriginal people. We’re so excited that our trip to Halls Creek later this month will coincide with the school’s NAIDOC celebrations and it’s prompted…
A chance to walk with each other during restricted times
Girls from Oz has been visiting the community of Halls Creek in the Kimberley for one week every term since 2010. That’s every term 21 terms in a row. Nothing stopped us, until COVID-19. As a city-based organisation, with team members who fly in and fly out of the communities we work in, the consistency with which we turn up is incredibly important. It’s important to the children and teenagers we work with, it’s important to their Mums, Aunties, Nanas…
The Power of Collective Giving
Why #20kfortoday and #20ktopavetheway? With the financial disruptions caused by COVID-19 and the bushfire crisis earlier in the year, we anticipated that our generous donor community might be depleted. But we didn’t want to give up on the communities we’ve been working with for more than a decade. While we’re currently unable to visit the girls in Halls Creek, Carnarvon and Lockhart River, we are looking ahead to this year’s Travel Program and the life changing opportunities it brings. #20kfortoday…
Girls from Oz – In this Together
20 years ago, thousands of people took to the Sydney Harbour Bridge for the Walk for Reconciliation. Although much progress has been made in reconciliation efforts since, there’s still much work to be done. The release of the 2020 Closing the Gap report highlighted that in the communities we work in, attendance at school is reported to be on the decline. In 2019 the majority of very remote Indigenous primary school students only attended an average of 3-4 days of…
A term of records: Three instructors celebrating milestone trips
For our final piece of the Milestone Mini-series, we’re celebrating Ginger’s 5 trips with g-oz. As an Australian Girls Choir alumni and talented performer, Ginger brings an infectious passion for performing arts education to our program. What made you want to go on your first g-oz trip? As an AGC Alumni, I was very familiar with the g-oz program and was eager to be involved in trips after I graduated. I experienced first-hand the positive impact of the program when…
A term of records: Three instructors celebrating milestone trips
Welcome to the g-oz milestone series! Over the next couple of weeks, while our g-oz Instructors bunker down at home like the rest of Australia, we thought we’d share the stories of three team members recently returned home from Carnarvon and Halls Creek, where they celebrated milestone trips. We invited these instructors to share their g-oz experience, and why being a part of the g-oz program is a special part of their lives. After a week of program delivery in…
More than singing and dancing: 3 reasons to champion performing arts education
With just one week to go until the first community programs of 2020, we’re diving into the top 3 reasons why performing arts participation is so influential in achieving excellent educational outcomes. 1. Increasing confidence and self-esteem The performing arts is a proven tool to increase students’ self-esteem and overall confidence. As girls progress through the g-oz program, we have seen their confidence grow from one session to another. For some girls, even just one week of sessions can be…
Human Rights Day: Youth as Constructive Agents of Change
This year’s Human Rights Day explores the theme ‘Youth as Constructive Agents of Change.’ Celebrating the 30th Anniversary on the Convention on the Rights of the Child, we know the future change-makers our g-oz girls can be. Girls from Oz invests in girls because we know the flow-on effect it has in the broader community. Studies show that women reinvest 90% of their incomes back into their families, while men only reinvest 30-40%. Moreover, when women’s wages increase, child nutrition,…