The Indigenous Youth Art program is designed to consist of high quality arts and cultural workshops that are focused on the education, health and wellbeing of Indigenous youth.

It will also promote the artistic talents of Indigenous children across Australia with a program which is designed to capture the interests of those Indigenous children in regional and remote areas.

The Art Educational Programs are designed to help the children of Australia to advance artistic talent, they will be written by some of Australia's leading artists, designers, photographers.

The Indigenous Youth Art and Writers program has access to over 50 of Australia's leading authors and Artists. These professional Art and Literacy tutors will offer advanced techniques, tips and guidance for students to develop and build on their natural talents by offering workshops and mentorship, a forum will be available for Indigenous children to display their visual arts work.

Objectives

• To give all Indigenous children the opportunity to pursue their natural abilities.
• To make our artistic programs available to Indigenous children in regional and remote areas, which lack quality artistic material.
• To reward artistic and written talent by introducing the Young Indigenous and Writers Awards program to all outback schools.
• Supply an electronic vehicle (website) to allow participants to showcase their individual creative talent and ability for self expression through art and literacy skills, both natural and developed, through the program.

The mainstream Young Australian Art and Writers Awards have been going now for 12 years, and the Childrens Charity Network (CNN) is the organiser and operator. It has full Charity registration which means that all contributions made to sponsor these events are 100% tax deductable.

This new awards program is being undertaken with sponsorship from Mining and Energy exploration companies in the areas of their operations. It will become known as the premium outback (Indigenous) literacy and arts awareness development program with the title " The Young Indigenous Australian Arts and Writers Awards" . 

The Young Australian Art & Writers Awards Finals presentations are typically attended by 350 sponsors, award winners, parents, the mayors of dozens of towns and cities, the national Lions Clubs Leaders (who have now forged a partnership with the programs), and various Art and Literacy patrons, and the media. In November 2011 the CNN charity organisation which operates the awards event trialed an Indigenous equivalent to these awards for the first time. It has proven to be an outstanding success, with dozens of mining companies already participating, and is benefiting indigenous children greatly. 

It is not widely known that outback aborigine Children suffer attrition and suicide rates up to 11 times greater than their urban Caucasian counterparts, caused by despair, hopelessness and lack of purpose. School attendance levels in some centres are as low as 30%. The Art & Writing program endeavours to address both problems by providing incentives, self esteem through creative expression, and motivation by encouraging a personal interpretation of Dreamtime culture on to paper and on parchment.

For these reasons the focus is on the many thousands of Indigenous young people who will enter the scheme through schools of the outback and rural towns and settlements, (in each state). It has already proven to be extremely effective and significantly successful from a literacy and arts perspective, particularly amongst disadvantaged and remote children who are able to display a disproportionately high amount of real talent once motivated. The program offers participants an opportunity to develop, demonstrate and advance their undoubted latent literary and artistic talents.

The Indigenous Awards Program began last year, in 2011, when Andrew Forest at FMGL trial sponsored the Young Indigenous Australian Awards in a part of the Pilbarra region and the award has the title, the Fortescue Metals Group Award. Oz Minerals, whose mining operation is in SA, was also able to present an OZ Minerals Award to one of the sponsored kiddies. This year we'll see a great number of young indigenous people receiving prizes in several different catagories from around Australia, compliments of the sponsorship of mining and associated mining service companies in their regions. 

The final awards event for this new Indigenous event will again be held in conjunction with the mainstream Awards Presentations in Melbourne in November. As a lead up to this, Art and Writers workshops will be established by the organisation in schools in sponsored regions with a coverage extending to towns and settlements in outback areas where mining activities take place. 

Parents and young Art and Literacy Award winners are flown into Melbourne and accommodated for the weekend of the event. Sponsors also have their representative there to present the awards. There will be a number of business heads, dignitaries, mayors from towns across Australia, politicians and representatives of the Education Department present, and the Grand Final Awards, including the Lady Primrose Potter Award will again be issued to overall winners. The organisation is adding several catagories for the Indigenous Childrens Art and Writers Awards for the regions. Aboriginal children 8-15 years old are natural top performers in Artistic Creation, and have produced some stunning works. 

The cost of setting up the workshops, embossing T-shirts and other promotional material with sponsor names, flying entrants and family members to Melbourne, and all other contingencies are factored in to each sponsorship to cover the year to November when the Awards Presentations are made. The standard of the written and artistic works of these kids will give pride to any sponsor, and we encourage the Miners in each area to consider it if they can. The Awards Program has the support of Federal and State governments. The primary beneficiaries are the young Aboriginal people, the families of the Indigenous communities and the public at large.

Full colour online copies of the finalist awards are compiled in an on-line Journal each year, and they also contain the names and details of the Organisers, Directors and Patrons. This is produced after each event, and sponsors are of course acknowledged there as well. 

The Young Indigenous Art & Writers Awards program is a major step in the promotion of creative literacy and arts development for young Indigenous people all over Australia, and when a Miner or related sponsor gets behind their local Aboriginal community with a sponsorship, it is greatly appreciated by all involved, and especially the end beneficiaries, the local communities and the indigenous people of the region. All funds are held in trust by the registered peak body, the Childrens Charity Network, until properly authorised expenditure in relation to the awards is required. Organisers do not take a profit and Workshop Directors, Teachers and Patrons work on a volunteer basis.

For further information, please contact 03 9909 7099 or email ernie@childrenscharity.com.au.

To visit the website, go to http://www.youngatart.com.au

Our Programs

Constantly being reviewed and enhanced, we are proud of our contributions so far.