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Media Release
$500,000 GRANT BRINGS CROC FESTIVAL TO ALICE SPRINGS
19 July, 2004 MIN 809/04
The Australian Government will provide an additional $500,000 for a community based Croc Festival to be staged in Alice Springs later this year.
This brings Australian Government funding for the Croc Festivals to almost $2.4 million to support this and the other seven festivals across Australia - in Weipa, Katherine, Derby, Geraldton, Port Augusta, Swan Hill and Moree.
The Croc Festival is an innovative education and performing arts festival for Indigenous and non-Indigenous students living in remote and rural communities around the country.
These three-day Croc Festival events successfully promote health, education, careers, sports and the arts, encouraging students to attend school, make healthy lifestyle choices and set positive goals for the future - all in a completely tobacco, alcohol and drug free environment.
The Australian Government is pleased to make this event accessible to students in Alice Springs and the surrounding region.
About 16,000 primary and secondary students aged between 8 to 14 years from around 320 schools are expected to attend these festivals.
Croc Festivals specifically target Indigenous students who are encouraged by the motto ‘Respect Yourself, Respect your Culture’.
The festivals, produced by Indigenous Festivals Australia, have been integrated with school and community’s activities for the past seven years.
Support for the Croc Festival highlights the Australian Government’s continued commitment to reducing the gap in education outcomes between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.
On April 5 this year, as part of the Howard Government’s $484.8 million funding commitment to indigenous education in 2004-05, I also announced that a number of programmes had been restructured in order to redirect funding to initiatives that have been demonstrated to work and to put a greater weighting of funding towards Indigenous students of greatest disadvantage – those in remote areas.
For more information about the Croc Festival go to: www.crocfestival.org.au.
Media Contacts:
Dr Nelson’s Office: Ross Hampton 0419 484 095
Dept of Education, Science & Training: Jenni Hudson 02 6240 7732
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