The most important word missing from the Australian Constitution is Custodianship. It is a word of strength and beauty that can unify us and bind us to the ideal of what it means to be Australian.

Custodianship is a central concept of both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and gives everyone who lives in this land a responsibility to contribute to the balance of life.

Custodians will look after this land and all its people for countless generations to come. This valuing of all life, respect for all creatures, connects past, present and future. It unifies the descendants of the world‟s oldest continuous Cultures with the newer arrivals from more than 230 other places. The land owns us all. Australia is our home.

This is Indigenous knowledge. If we imbue this wisdom in the Referendum question and ultimately in the changes to the document that guides our nation, we will offer respect and recognition to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Instead of mere words, built on English Common Law, we will embrace as a nation an Indigenous intellectual concept that is infused with meaning for all who live here. Our foundation stone is then uniquely Australian.

Our new Constitution might begin… Australia is a nation founded on Custodianship. All of the people of this land are equal and free.

This is a vision of a greater sense of nationhood because Custodianship is based on the common good, genuine equality and responsibility.

While Custodianship is not one of the seven ideas offered to us by the Expert Panel on Constitutional Recognition of Indigenous Australians, some of its members and the Australian Government have encouraged me to share this idea. I deeply believe that it best expresses what the Old People tell me as I listen carefully to those I respect around this country. So many times the elders have heard promises and even been moved by the sincere words of the National Apology. But very little has changed. To close that space between us it is more than mere words and legal concepts these wise elders are seeking. For each one of us the recognition must be written in the head and the heart in a form that implicitly conveys the truth that this is an Aboriginal land.

Another line in the Constitution might be…The First People of this nation are our Traditional Owners connected by language and Culture to their ancient country.

The Expert Panel has been charged with a daunting task, knowing that there is precious little time to overcome the ignorance, racism, doubts and divisions that threaten any chance of a meaningful 21st Century Constitution. By next December the Government wants a clear idea of what should be put to the people.  Some opinion polling indicates that many Australians are resistant to the idea of “special” rights or recognition for Indigenous people. How could you frame a “yes or no” referendum question that overcomes such a difficulty? The Expert Panel states among its guiding principles that any proposal for constitutional recognition “must contribute to a more unified and reconciled nation…be of benefit to and accord with the wishes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples…be capable of being supported by an overwhelming majority of Australians…and be technically and legally sound.”

I am suggesting that Custodianship is the word and the concept that rises above these difficulties.

While some Australians might resist “special” or “exceptional” rights or recognition, they may well respect and recognise a value that embraces our mutual love for this land and its people while at the same time clearly acknowledging that Custodianship is a gift to us all from Indigenous people and their knowledge system.

To make the Constitution „Australian‟ it must have more than legal concepts. It must have an Australian essence and relevance. Custodianship introduces the mutual values by which we define ourselves today.

Our Constitution for the 21st Century must celebrate the equality of women and men and the rights of children, declaring that all of our Citizens are equal.

A new guarantee should be inserted to ensure for the first time in our history that no one will be discriminated against on the basis of their age, gender, race, religion or culture. By stating this in explicit terms we would offer Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the strongest guarantee against the discrimination that they have endured for more than two centuries.

The existing race powers (Section 51(xxvi)) and (Section 25) certainly should be repealed because they carry the stain of racism and discrimination. The legacy of the White Australia Policy, delusions of racial superiority and misguided attempts to allow the states to exclude some races from voting, surely have no place in our modern nation. Governments must be blocked from passing laws, like the Northern Territory Emergency Response Act, that purport to benefit Indigenous people but in the eyes of many, blatantly discriminate.

Unequivocal opposition to discrimination and removal of the race powers from the Constitution would end the existing “exceptional” provisions aimed at Indigenous Australians.

A new provision could be developed in the Constitution allowing the Australian Government to negotiate respectfully and on equal terms with Indigenous people compacts for the development and protection of their lands, languages, Cultural practices and systems of knowledge.

If we have shattered the lie of Terra Nullius and our High Court continues to wrestle with the challenges of Native Title, our Constitution could afford a measure of historic justice by guaranteeing the First Australians just compensation for the wealth being extracted from their lands.

I hear no one in Canberra mention the word Treaty. Will anyone dare write into the Constitution that the mineral wealth and the value of the land and sea belong to Indigenous people?

The Government and the Expert panel might well say that it is unlikely that a clear majority of Australian voters in a majority of states and territories would vote for any of the changes suggested.

Think deeply then about Custodianship. Choosing the right ideas and the inspired words will be crucial if we are to go forward together.

PARLOUR X TURNS TEN – WE CELEBRATE BY GIVING BACK

In celebration of this milestone, owner & buyer of Parlour X, Eva Galambos is giving back to her community by announcing a creative collaboration with Archibald Prize Winning Artist, Del Kathryn Barton who has designed a Parlour X Ten Year Anniversary limited edition scarf, whereby all proceeds raised will be donated to Ian Thorpe’s Fountain For Youth Charity. This has been a dream creative collaboration for both Del Kathryn Barton & Eva Galambos who are dedicated and passionate about this project & the cause. Eva says “We are using creative outpost to not only raise money for a worthy cause but it is the most effective way to educate & deliver such an important message & increase awareness”

Ian Thorpe’s Fountain for Youth is focused on supporting Indigenous learning, raising awareness and funds to deliver programs that can improve education and health outcomes for Indigenous children. Through the Literacy Backpack Project the charity is assisting over 2,200 students & families in 20 remote communities, delivering reading and education resources to the schools & newspapers and magazines to homes that were once bookless and had illiteracy rates as high as 93%. The project provides much needed books & education resources for literacy and numeracy giving effective support to Principals & Teachers to improve the quality of teaching &engagement of community groups and parents.  Without these resources there was little chance for home learning or parental involvement with children struggling to read in the absence of any kind of reading material.  The Literacy Backpack Program closes the space between home and school, stimulates reading & improves learning in the whole community.
Research has confirmed that the essential foundation for improved health and life expectancy is rapid progress in life empowering education – literacy is the crucial pathway to providing life opportunities for the children in remote Indigenous communities and the stepping stones towards closing the gap between Indigenous and non Indigenous Australians.(http://ianthorpes-fountainforyouth.com/programs/literacy-backpack-project/literacy-backpacks)

To further support this project, Australia’s First International Aboriginal Model Samantha Harris has become involved by featuring in the Parlour X Ten Year Anniversary Limited Edition Scarf campaign.
Eva says “working with Del Kathryn Barton is so exciting; she pushes boundaries with such confidence. To me, it is not just the end point that is important; it is also the process of the collaboration that has been an inspiration and a journey… “
Only 100 Parlour X Ten Year Anniversary limited Edition Scarf have been produced & will be sold for $450 at Parlour X from 8th June 2011, and will also be sold online at www.parlourx.com

SYDNEY, 2 February 2010: Australia’s most successful Olympian Ian Thorpe today announced that he intends to compete at the trials for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London and that the Virgin Australia Airlines has played a major role and will act as his official airline.

At a media conference in Sydney, Ian confirmed that he had applied this morning to be reinstated on the international drug-testing register.

Speaking at a press conference today, Ian said: “While there was a time in my life that I thought I would never swim competitively again, things have changed, and I’m very excited to once again be back in the pool.”

“When I initially spoke with Virgin Blue about the prospect of competing again at the Olympics, I wasn’t completely sure that I would be able to do it, but they were happy to back me. In fact, I told them it was a 50/50 chance and they wanted to support me regardless.

“Today I can say that I am now 100% mentally and physically committed to competing at the Olympic trials and am doing all in my power to best prepare for them and beyond.”

The partnership between Ian Thorpe and Virgin Australia will see Virgin Australia as Ian’s official airline, supporting him in his training program for the Olympic Games.

Ian Thorpe celebrated 10 years of Fountain for youth at an intimate celebration on the foreshores of the beautiful Sydney Harbour, in what promised to be a night of magic.

Ian reflected on the past 10 years of his work at Fountain for youth and his partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The evening celebrated the richness of Indigenous Culture, guests heard from Indigenous education leaders and voices from the heartland and experienced the sounds of the Songmen.

Guests heard of Ian’s life-long commitment to lend a hand to help all of our children grow stronger and smarter and he asked guets to ’come together for tomorrow’!

The Dinner was held on Wednesday 24 November 201 at Guillaume at bennelong, Sydney Opera House.  It was ten years to the day that Ian launched his charity ‘Fountain for youth’ as a teenager, just after the Sydney Olympics.

Special Guests attending the Dinner were the Governor of New South Wales, Her Excellency Marie Bashir, Sir Nicholas Shehadie, leading Indigenous Educator Dr Chris Sarra, NSW Young Australian of the Year Jack Manning Bancroft, CEO of AIME, Catherine Freeman, Olympian and Founder of the Catherine Freeman Foundation, Tom E Lewis, Indigenous songwriter, flimaker, musican and many more friends who came together to celebrate the work being carried out by strong Aboriginal families, the students, teachers, health workers, story tellers and musicans.

Ian would like to sincerely thank the following organisations for their generous contributions towards the Anniversary Dinner:  Guillaume and the Staff at Guillaume and Bennelong, Giorgio Armani and Mary Chiew, Emirates, Canturi – Stefano Canturi, Sydney Theatre Company and Cate Blanchett, VOMO Resort Fiji  and Virgin Blue, Louis Vuitton and Philip Corne, Catherine Freeman and the many who dedicated their time and efforts towards ensuring the Dinner was one to remember!

CLICK HERE TO VIEW THE EVENINGS PHOTO GALLERY

Congratulations Echo Creek-Tully-Nth QLD.  Winners of the Tropical North Queensland Tourism Awards 2009.  Eco friendly, Indigenous cross-cultural training and outdoor adventure experience……walk in the footsteps of the ancestors.

“Join us and let us share our beautiful place” – Echo Creek

The Peninsula Community of Schools (PCS), 13 State Schools in the Pittwater Shire, Northern Beaches of Sydney and Macquarie University have made the education of Aboriginal Australians a ‘focus area’. 
To strengthen the education message, Ian Thorpe’s Fountain for youth (FFY)  is developing a school based approach starting this term with a link to the 13 Peninsula Community of Schools (PCS) in an education program involving AIME, Ian Thorpe’s Fountain for Youth and Macquarie University.

The Principals and Teachers are aware of the current educational issues facing Aboriginal Australians, the widening gap that exists between Indigenous and Non Indigenous students in all areas relating to academic performance, school attendance and high school completion rates. 
PCS schools are creating programs and opportunities for teachers and students to be involved in.
The primary and high schools plus Macquarie University have committed to a program with several goals:
• direct fundraising to support Ian Thorpe’s Fountain for youth Literacy Backpack Program for remote community schools and AIME in urban schools.
• education effort in classrooms (such as essay writing, music, drama, human rights reports, celebration of Indigenous success stories and discussion of contemporary Indigenous issues) to explain to students how and why Aboriginal students need our collective encouragement and support.
• linking teachers in Sydney schools to the movement to improve Indigenous education
• Macquarie University to provide a scholarship for training of Indigenous early learning teacher.
• encourage and challenge teachers in other NSW education zones to follow suit.

The PCS Staff Development Day will be held on Monday 19th April at Barrenjoey High School with all Principals and 600 teachers of the thirteen schools in attendance. 
Ian Thorpe, (Founder Fountain for youth) and Jack Bancroft (CEO AIME), along with Jeff McMullen (CEO FFY Director AIME), PCS and Macquarie University representatives will address the Forum and discuss the joint partnership with the PCS. 

Jeff McMullen will to address the South Western Sydney Principal’s Conference on March 26th and the Western Sydney Primary Principal’s Council on May 6th to further outline the approach taken by the PCS schools, AIME AND FFY.

Resources for Staff to download:

Stronger Smarter Way

FFY Program Summary

Resource List

Fountain for youth would like to congratulate Stuart Dwyer, Groups Schools Principal, Cath Meng the Project Officer who drives the Literacy Backpack Program and all Principals, teachers and families who work hard to make this program the great success it is.
The Schools First awards provided nationwide to primary and secondary schools and their community partners, recognised the partnerships’ direct impact on improved student outcomes, including greater engagement and increased attendance; improved literacy or numeracy; increased self-esteem; social, vocational or civic outcomes; global awareness and action.
Cath Meng will be given opportunity next year to present the project at workshops attended by other Territory schools who intend applying for 2010 awards

$5.2 million available in 2010 for school–community partnerships
In 2010, Schools First has $5.2 million to award to 108 school community partnerships.
If you would like to find out more about how your school can apply for a Schools First Award 2010, visit: www.schoolsfirst.edu.au.

“Dirty Little Secret”

Address given by Ian Thorpe
Thursday July 9, 2009
Beyond Sport Summit – London

Ladies and Gentlemen, first may I thank you all for participating in this wonderful event. I am incredibly excited to be able to address you in regards to Beyond Sport. For me this is an ambiguous topic.  As you may or may not be aware I am indeed an Olympian, I am no longer competing as a swimmer. I do take pride in my achievements in the pool and the valuable insight and education it has allowed me to take on, as I travelled the globe throughout my career.

When we speak of athletes there is a great deal that we know, like what is required of them, for me that meant 30 hours of training a week.  We do this training just so we have a sporting chance to fulfill our life long dreams. My travels with my sport since I was a very young and shy 14 year old opened the world to me, I didn’t realise at the time that this adventure would turn into a career beyond my wildest dreams.

I was the youngest male to ever represent Australia in swimming. By 15 I was the youngest ever male world champion. 16 I broke four world records in four days and at 17 I was Olympic Champion, I had fulfilled my life long ambition as a child.  I quickly realised I was a child in an adult world.

It was the child in me that throughout my career questioned why?
Why is it so?
Why is it done that way and
Why is the world the way it is?

In my travels competition took me to places where sometimes I was met with abject poverty, whilst I simply swum.  Why was my life so blessed when others just by fate had less opportunity than I? I guess I witnessed at a very young age how sport is an international language, a language that transcended borders, boundaries, cultural ideology, politics and even socio economic disadvantage.

I have only discussed my career up to when I was seventeen.  It is because when I was 18, I established my charity “Fountain for youth”.  I didn’t realise at the time that this may be my biggest accomplishment.  An achievement not in the sense of doing something right, rather a stepping stone where my values that I had gained from sport could be transferred to something that is bigger than sport
and in my opinion far more important.

That said, sport was what has made me who I am today and has afforded me the privilege to work beyond sport.  My charity work didn’t begin at eighteen, I was just 15 when I began working with those less fortunate then myself.  It was those years that shaped my understanding of what charity was.   It gave me an insight into the power of celebrity and sport, especially in sport mad Australia.

I realised my value to organisations trying to bring positive change lent enormous weight to these causes. I must say though this should be an outrage, because as an athlete I am not as qualified to comment on health or education as the health professionals and educators who daily tackle the big issues. In fact it is a bit disappointing that a teenager’s opinion garnered more attention than those who had been working on their chosen causes before I was even born.

This realisation of the opportunity that my voice and name could lend to an excellent cause was the simple foundation laid, for my very own charity.

I continued to win medals, breaking world records and continued travelling around the world recognising the needs of people, particularly children, in many places I visited.  By this time my charity had enough money raised to commit to larger projects, I sat at a board meeting and stated that I wanted to help the world’s neediest children.

I started to think of what impact my effort could have in places like Africa or South East Asia. I then visited some of the worlds neediest communities, places without access to planes and cars that seemed to be a world away……..but now they were truly at my back door.

The communities that I visited had illiteracy levels at 93%……that was staggering only seven percent of a populous being able to read and write… Up to 80% of the children in these communities have serious hearing impairments because of “glue ear”; middle ear infections neglected from infancy. – these kids will never hear the teacher in front of them in a classroom….that is, if there is a teacher and indeed a classroom.

Malnourished mothers are giving birth to babies that are seriously underweight and this only gets worse throughout a life born into poverty. Here diabetes affects one in every two adults.  Kidney disease is in epidemic proportions in communities where living conditions; primary healthcare and infrastructure are truly appalling.

In this part of the world even the community leaders are afflicted by clusters of chronic illness. Syndrome X…. the doctors call it, diabetes, renal disease, strokes, hypertension, cancer and heart disease.  Some people die with four or five of these chronic illnesses.

Rheumatic heart disease among the children in these places is higher than in most of the developing world.

But I was not visiting communities in the developing world,
I was in the middle of Australia, remote, yes, but this is Australia, a country that can boast some of the highest standards of living of any nation in the world.
How shocked I was that Syndrome X was afflicting so many of the 460, 000 Indigenous people of my country.

As a result of these chronic illnesses and conditions Aboriginal life expectancy has fallen twenty years behind the rest of Australia.

For some of my fellow countrymen life expectancy had plunged to just 46 years.

Australia’s grim record on health care for Indigenous people is by far the worst of any developed nation.  Developed?  How can a country be “developed” when it leaves so many of its children behind?

Australia has not provided its citizens with an equal opportunity for primary health care, education, housing, employment, let alone recognition and a life of dignity.

Now I don’t expect you to just take my word for it.  I am not a Doctor, I am simply an athlete.  But ask Australian health professionals like Doctor Jim Hyde who says that while our nation has plenty of medical problems, only Indigenous Australians are facing a genuine health crisis.

The Governor of NSW, my home State, Professor Marie Bashir, an eminent Child Psychiatrist, has repeatedly pointed out the national disgrace of allowing the forty per cent of Indigenous children under the age of fifteen to put up with health problems found in no other developed nation.

Patrick Dodson, winner of the Sydney Peace Prize and one of out greatest Statesmen, identifies health as a human right for Indigenous Australians.
‘Only the most urgent government action’, said Australia’s ‘Father of Reconciliation’, ‘could change the inequality that has created this health tragedy in our own backyard.’

How could citizens with the greatest need be so under funded?  If we were to indeed recognise the severity of this gross neglect, funding to these communities should be extradited.

A commitment to the first Australians is well within the means of my country, and this is what I find inexcusable.  I am talking about an issue with a solution.

For Australia to heal its wounds that have been weeping for 200 years we must not ignore the issue, we must start the healing.
Like many people in Australia I was completely unaware of the huge gap in health and education outcomes let alone the differences of life expectancy.  I, as many had, made an assumption; Australia is a rich country, don’t we throw a lot of money at that problem?
It disgusts me to speak those words now but that was what I thought.  This was not just my lack of knowledge of this area but it is echoed throughout my nation.

An Aboriginal health expert, Shane Houston says:
“Aboriginal people are viewed by too many in the Australian community as an unwelcome burden on the nation.  Governments say they have spent a lot of money on Aborigines but where do you see the results in this squalor?  So the mainstream concludes that Aboriginal health is a waste of money.  It is all the fault of the poor blacks.  My people are somehow expected to just extricate themselves from this maze of life-threatening conditions.  And if we can’t manage to do that, then many white people will shrug and say our end is inevitable.”

Visiting Aboriginal people, in their homes, their communities, on their land, has allowed me to listen and given me some idea of the problems that Aboriginal people face.

I listened to the concerns of mothers and fathers for the betterment of their children.  This unwavering strength, in the face of social injustice.  Within these communities I witness poverty, despair and pain…. but I also see hope….hope from those men and woman who want more for their children.

With the words of these people in my head, I became part of a campaign in Australia called; “Close the Gap”, it is quite simply a program that recognises the difference between Indigenous and non Indigenous life expectancy in Australia
and the huge gaps in all of the factors like education, jobs and housing that leave aboriginal people so deeply disadvantaged.

Close the Gap is a commitment that this difference is unacceptable.  It was supported by the Government and also the opposition.  This is the kind of action that is required in Australia.  The issue of Indigenous health and education goes

beyond government, it is a fundamental right.
I hope all sides of government continue to commit to this policy as a starting point and it is not another hollow promise that falls short.

Just this week Australia’s Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd said that it was ‘devastating’ that a new report by our productivity commission showed that Aboriginal people had made little progress to close those gaps since 2000.  He said this was ‘unacceptable’ and ‘decisive action’ had to be taken.

The truth is that none of the problems I have mentioned can truly be rectified until our government and my fellow Australians recognise the injustice faced by Aboriginal Australians and how they are denied so many human rights.

This has been highlighted once again by what is called in Australia “The Intervention”, the Federal Government’s takeover of 73 remote Aboriginal communities.

The Intervention was constructed by the previous government and has since been reported to have been assembled in the space of just one day.  The irony is that Aboriginal people had been campaigning for decades about the living conditions and the neglect of their children within their communities.  The programs to protect and nurture the children, had been grossly neglected and under funded by government over the last decade.

What appears to be a political stunt and a grab for government control over Aboriginal people continues to this day under the new government.
Once more an Australian government has claimed it is doing its best for Aboriginal Australians by taking over their communities, appointing white managers, more government bureaucrats, promising all kinds of things, if Aboriginal people will just sign over their communities under forty year leases to the Federal Government.

And politicians wonder why Aboriginal people do not trust them.

The truth is for over 200 years Australian governments have neglected and patronized aboriginal people.

The Intervention is unlikely to provide any lasting benefit to Aboriginal people because it tries to push and punish them, to take over their lives, rather than work with them.

One of Australia’s oldest and wisest aboriginal leaders, Galawuy Yunupingu
says the only way forward is for Aboriginal communities in these remote areas to be led and organised by their own organisations.  Assimilation will not work.

So in the work I do, the way I try to contribute through my organisation, Fountain for youth, we work with Aboriginal teachers, health workers, parents and children, with the health services and the schools, to encourage people to believe that we can move forward together.

We support pre-schooling, health education, literacy backpacks that let kids carry home reading for the whole family.

And we use sport where we can to make a difference.

As a swimmer, who would have thought I would have ended up supporting Flipper Ball, junior waterpolo for little Aboriginal kids in the mining communities of Western Australia.

As a swimmer, who would have thought I would be back at university studying psychology and at the same time working with young Aboriginal university graduates on a mentoring program to help get more kids to complete High School and go on with their studies.

As a swimmer, maybe I was expected to just be satisfied with the gleam of those gold medals.

But all sportsmen and women know the truth – there is something beyond sport.

There is the challenge of playing a part in the human family…to contribute and make a difference.

We can use sport and use our sporting status to improve the lives of children and whole communities in so many places.

We can make it a fairer, safer playing field for everyone.

In twenty remote Australian communities and with thousands of Aboriginal children I know life will have some extra opportunities if I commit to work hard on this.

I do intend to work hard at this for the rest of my life.

THAT IS MY PROMISE TO YOU — BEYOND SPORT!