Swimming Australia's First Nations Programs by Eliza Albury

Goals of DLD

elizaalbury1 — 2024-08-15 07:11:52 UTC

The major goal of Swim Australia's Deadly Little Dolphins program is to improve swim safety now and ideally provide a much needed pathway for a Thursday Island Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander swimmer to potentially medal at the Olympic or Paralympic Games in Brisbane 2032. It also aims to improve the swimming and water safety skills for all First Nations community as they are disproportionately represented in drowning statistics and Swimming Australia is dedicated to reducing mortality rates due to this cause.

elizaalbury1 — 2024-08-15 07:27:58 UTC

The Deadly Little Dolphin's learn to swim program aims to improve the swimming and water safety skills for all First Nations communities. This is due to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people being a key contributor to total Australian drownings with 5%, however only accounting for 3% of total population. Alongside this factor, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are more likely to experience a non-fatal drowning, which can possibly leave them with a long-term brain injury or other organ damage. Hence the importance to have a specific program dedicated to our First Nation's people.

elizaalbury1 — 2024-08-15 07:44:33 UTC

The program ensures that local schools and community members situated on Thursday Island are included in developing and delivering the Deadly Little Dolphins initiative to ensure it has a First Nation's perspective. Two time Olympic Basketballer who is now deputy chair of the Australian Olympic Indigenous committee has put his hand up to teach stroke competency in young swimmers. Swimming Australia is ensuring that the First Nations are heavily involved with this program as the Dolphins carry an immediate affinity with many First Nations coastal and island people.

Deadly Little Dolphins Pilot

elizaalbury1 — 2024-08-24 23:38:39 UTC

In 2023, Swimming Australia released their national call to action, Deadly Little Dolphins. It aims to ensure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children have access to learn to swim to improve their water safety skills and swimming. The program is beginning with a pilot in Thursday island the includes local schools and community members and involves co-designed learn-to-swim programs, education for coaches, and addressing barriers like cost and access to programs. The initiative's end goal is to achieve Olympic success in the Brisbane 2032 games through creating an intentionally structured pathway for First Nations athletes.

Kaupapa Māori Response Plan NZ

elizaalbury1 — 2024-08-27 01:09:31 UTC

The COVID-19 Kaupapa Māori Response Plan intended to combat the heightened play, active recreation and sport sector inequalities for Maori within the system. The plan is grounded in a unique, holistic, Te Ao Māori approach that distinguishes the culturally different pathways which enables Māori to succeed as Māori through play, active recreation and sport. Essentially, the program is similar to what Swimming Australia are trying to achieve through the Deadly Dolphins program. They created a distinctive response plan aimed at the Māori people using culturally traditional ways of learning to ensure First Nation's people are able to engage in sport.

Indigenous Relationship with Water

elizaalbury1 — 2024-08-27 01:39:29 UTC

First Nation's People have a deep historical connection with all bodies of water including rivers, streams and beaches and aquatic activities for Indigenous communities were considered a crucial part of life for food, movement and leisure. Therefore, swimming competency was often deemed as necessary to stay active in their communities and have food to eat. Details of Indigenous involvement in water and aquatic sports remain relatively untold, but their skills have been vital in the sustainability and thriving communities we see today.

elizaalbury1 — 2024-08-27 02:10:16 UTC

The First Nation's people involvement in swimming historically is little understood and Indigenous people are not associated with the sport. However, there are many reports that offer detailed evidence of First Nation's People participating in swimming:

Watkin Tench, an officer of marines aboard the First Fleet wrote of Indigenous swimming ability, including 'expert' diving of Arabanoo and life-saving skills of Baneelon
William Govett, an assistant surveyor in New South Wales from 1827-1833 noted that the 'natives are.. bold and surprisingly expert, both in swimming and diving'
Charles Steedman, former English swimmer and Later Melbourne headmaster wrote that 'nothing seems to give him more pleasure than a bogie' (a swim on the sea coast).

It is clear that First Nation's people were historically good swimmers and enjoyed the sport.

Liverpool's Indigenous Learn to Swim

elizaalbury1 — 2024-08-27 02:29:35 UTC

Liverpool's Indigenous Learn to Swim Program created by Belgravia Leisure aimed to deliver a local group of Indigenous youths the opportunity to gain the lifesaving skill of being able to swim.

The program aimed to supply the youth an increased swimming ability and confidence, remove the cost barriers for lessons, improve overall fitness and cardiovascular health, develop their basic swimming skills, increase their knowledge of water safety and rescue techniques and create additional lesson and employment opportunities.

The program was fully subsidised for the youth through donations and a Reverse Vending Machine delivered to primary school children.

The program’s remarkable achievements underscore the significance of eliminating access barriers and establishing pathways for disadvantaged communities.

Barriers to Participation in Sport

elizaalbury1 — 2024-08-27 02:52:00 UTC

Australia's First Nation's people's needs, cultural and social background of individuals and groups need to be addressed to help defeat the under-representation of First Nations people in sport. Unlike the average Caucasian person in Australia, Indigenous people are faced with a variety of barriers:

Limited access to facilities or transport to facilities
Cost limitations
Cultural barriers
Racism, discrimination and vilification
Negative feelings towards colonisation (not wanting to engage in a 'westernised' sport)
Extent of time spent participating in sport may seem as selfish to family and community.

First Nation People have a wider range of barriers and less facilitators to sport participation and these must be considered when developing a program to change the level of participation.

Red Dust Organisation

elizaalbury1 — 2024-08-27 03:38:44 UTC

Red Dust is an organisation that is actively engaged in Reconciliation and has a board of committee that has a minimum of 50% First Nations ownership, meaning all programs run through the organisation have a significant Indigenous perspective. Red Dust's mission is to work together to enrich lives, improve health and strengthen the future of Indigenous youth and families.

The organisation partners with local communities to best target specific needs to ensure the First Nations People are improving their knowledge on any barriers found in the community. The organisers encourage Indigenous youth to learn more about healthy living through using channels they typically respond to including sport, art, music and dance, considerably their traditional ways of learning.

elizaalbury1 — 2024-08-29 01:21:55 UTC

Swimming Australia and the Deadly Little Dolphins program acknowledges the First Nations people involvement in aquatic activities. The program are engaging and getting First Nation's people such as Bianca Crisp, to inspire young kids to get involved in the program. The Deadly Little dolphins program will be able to give Indigenous youth a specific 'grassroot' pathway to feel comfortable in learning to swim and to discover potential talent in the pool.

Swimming Australia are excited to push the roll out of this program and are highlighting the importance of having First Nation's people legacy in the Olympics for 2032.

Challenges of DLD

elizaalbury1 — 2024-08-29 01:44:18 UTC

Swimming Australia find the biggest challenge with the Deadly Little Dolphins Program is understanding and implementing a different way of approaching the traditional way that sport programs are created. They are needing to interact and communicate with individual communities to understand the wants and needs and how they interact with swimming as different First Nation communities have a variety of differences.

With a human-centred design approach comes the difficulty of gaining sponsorship as sending people out into First Nation's communities and assisting with the program creates large expenses for Swimming Australia. Creating a pitch the entails the importance of creating meaningful connections with First Nation's communities is vital in the Deadly Little Dolphins programs finding partnerships and being able to run successfully.

John Moriarty Football (JMF)

elizaalbury1 — 2024-08-29 02:38:09 UTC

John Moriarty Football is Australia's longest running and most successful Indigenous football initiative for youths. The program is run in schools and teaches transformational skills to create football talent and positive change for individuals involved. The program provides skill and game training along with health meals and snacks in the sessions with the meals being designed by a sports dietitian are filled with nutrients that are often lacking from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island children's diets.

According to Randal Smith, the principal of Mossman State School, the school noticed an increase in positive behaviour and an increased attendance rate on the days that JMF were running their program in the school.

JMF put heavy focus on remaining present in the communities in which they operate and ensure they create meaningful and positive relationships with each school they interact with.

elizaalbury1 — 2024-08-29 02:56:16 UTC

In 2012, Swimming Australia were employing staff and contractors for the delivery of swimming to Indigenous Australians with the programs focussing on the NT central desert and QLD gulf areas. These programs are delivered over a number of days and aim to reach at least 15 remote communities each year. The program aimed to increase swimming participation of First Nations People through community delivery and training and to ensure swimming programs within communities continue to have a strong ongoing presence. The programs involved the provision of education and training in pool facility management, learn to swim teaching and coaching and enabled ongoing support to meet the needs of the individual communities.

This programs sounds directly similar to the new Deadly Little Dolphins program, so why did this program stop or why didn't Swimming Australia continue to develop it?

Importance of Connection

elizaalbury1 — 2024-08-29 05:54:23 UTC

A key socio-cultural factor for First Nations People's involvement in sport is connection with the people around them and their surroundings. It is important for young athletes or young participants in sport have Indigenous role models to look up to and to feel safe and comfortable to participate.

The AIS Share a Yarn First Nations Cultural Connection Camp in 2023 is a perfect example of First Nation's athletes coming together to connect, sharing meals, culture etc being a benefit and privilege for all involved. Tanisha Williams believes that some of her best memories of participating in sport were in teams 'full of her mob' and discusses the importance of connection in sport.

The Remote Pools Project

elizaalbury1 — 2024-08-29 06:19:41 UTC

The Remote Pools Project is a community led program that aims to improve the health a vitality for First Nations Community. The project works alongside communities, with local swimming pools at the centre of focus. They believe safe operation of swimming pools, together with delivery of community-led health promotion programs creates diverse community benefits. The program provides children and young people living in remote Indigenous communities with access to regular swimming and water safety education programs to be educated on how to be safe in and around water - aiming to decrease the level of drownings associated with First Nations People. The Y uses a community-led approach to work in communities are they want to ensure strengths and assets of the community are identified and the needs within the community are understood. Developing mutual trust and understanding is considered vital to ensure that the program is successful. The Remote Pools Project employs local people in the communities where we work and engages experienced volunteers to form teams who manage the swimming pool facilities and deliver programs.

Swimming Australia should consider partnering with the Y to give even more First Nation communities similar opportunities.

Water Colonisation

elizaalbury1 — 2024-08-30 08:35:28 UTC

Water Colonisation is a view or policy based on colonial imperialism that underpins the colonisation of water. Water colonialism normalises settler occupation of land, the dispossession of Indigenous peoples of water and legitimises settler exploitation of water. In First Nation culture, they don't see land, water and people as separate beings, however a land/water separation is often imposed by settler states' where they recognise right to land but not water. Indigenous peoples around the world have relatively restricted access to productive water resources, meaning less chance to practice and learn to swim. According to Doreen, Walgett residents when there’s no water, the crime rate goes up and when there’s water, that relieves the community and the crime rate goes down. The river is a source of recreation for us – people go camping, fishing, swimming and events are put on when there’s water in the river.

Indigenous water justice is part of broader struggles for environmental and social justice, self-determination, sovereignty and general wellbeing and is something that needs to be understood and managed further.

Barriers to Sport Participation

elizaalbury1 — 2024-09-01 05:17:16 UTC

First Nation's People need programs that are sustainably resourced and receptive to the participants needs and expectations to facilitate participation. Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander people have a range of barriers to sport participation that need to be worked around such as:

Lack of access to transport
financial constraints and unemployment - low socioeconomic status
Importance of social and family connections - a barrier because cultural and family obligations are seen as more important
Experiences of racism

Importance of Perspective

elizaalbury1 — 2024-09-01 05:56:59 UTC

The Australian Government delivered a paper to review available evidence of a range of sports and recreation programs in relation to their effects on supporting and encouraging First Nation's people's participation in sport.

The review found that within Indigenous communities there is a strong component of sport and recreation linking with traditional culture. This meaning cultural activities such as hunting are generally more accepted as a form of sport and recreation than traditional dance. Therefore sport and recreational programs that are implemented in Indigenous and Torres Strait communities need to be culturally appropriate.

The review also found that before commencing a program it is vital to involve the community in the planning of the program to ensure it has First Nation's People perspective to allow for physical, mental, emotional, spiritual and cultural wellbeing to maintain cultural relevance and appropriateness. It has been noted that involving the community in planning the project and incorporating their interests and expectations will maximise buy-in.

First Nations Sport and Recreation Program

elizaalbury1 — 2024-09-01 06:10:59 UTC

The First Nations Sport and Recreation program is a government funded program that aims to increase the physical activity levels of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples in non-discrete communities.

The program provides funding to organisations to coordinate the delivery of physical activity opportunities for First Nation's People to ultimately increase the participation levels in sport.

For example, they provided $60,000 worth of funding to Cairns Netball Association to deliver a Netball Program to First Nation's people in the Cairns Region.

Does Swimming Australia need to apply for funding to jumpstart their Deadly Little Dolphin's program?

SEE HERE FOR REFERENCES

elizaalbury1 — 2024-09-02 11:47:35 UTC