Star student shows love is the way
08.07.2006
IT doesn't take much to turn kids' lives around, says Aboriginal criminologist Tanya Major. You just have to show them love and tell them there's a wonderful world out there.
While other remote indigenous communities suffer from abuse and neglect, Kowanyama, in western Cape York, is moving forward. Ms Major, 25, has just finished running a youth crime-prevention course for children.
``We had about 50 petrol sniffers here at Christmas and problems with juvenile crime, so the justice group council, police and other agencies got together with the children and decided to be proactive,'' she said.
The four-month course, entitled Be Strong, Be Safe, Be Cool, deals with sexual health, self-esteem, job choices, the transition from community to high school and the justice system. Police spoke to the children and they were taken to a court case.
``We brought in a professional break dancer from Sydney and the kids experienced a variety of music. They got really involved and ended up making their own video and produced rap music songs about life in Kowanyama,'' Ms Major said.
Truancy had almost been overcome, vandalism and break-ins had dropped and the relationship between police and children had improved, she said.
The confident young woman made news in 2003 by addressing a meeting attended by John Howard at neighbouring Aurukun community.
In that speech, Ms Major told of her school life. She was the only girl in her class who had not become a mother at 15 and one of only three to avoid alcoholism.
She was identified as an outstanding student at primary school, and Cape York Aboriginal leader Noel Pearson paid for her to boarded at Clayfield Girls College in Brisbane and become the first Kowanyama graduate to attend university.
Mr Pearson continues to pay for students from Cape communities to board at top schools.
Ms Major said life in the communities had improved but work was still scarce. ``The most significant improvement has been the introduction of Alcohol Management Plans .. . I have to leave Kowanyama next week because there is no job here for me, and that is pretty sad, as I am a role model for all these young kids.''
Ms Major is moving to Cairns to work in education with Mr Pearson's Cape York Institute for Policy and Management.
