The Order Winter 2013 - Order of Australia Association

The Order No. 33, Winter 2013
A vision for now and the future
5
RIGHT: Olympian
Ian Thorpe
OAM leads some
of the children
his Fountain
of Youth charity
helps with
educational and
cultural support.
Ian Thorpe OAM awarded Human Rights Medal
Fighting for better services for indigenous children in
remote communities across Australia has delivered the
Human Rights Medal for 2012 to Ian Thorpe OAM.
For more than a decade, Ian has worked as a passionate
advocate of indigenous people with his Fountain for Youth
charity, which works with 21 remote communities in the
Northern Territory.
Ian Thorpe’s Fountain for Youth began in 2000 and
focuses on raising awareness and funds to bring positive
change to the lives of indigenous children and their
communities by supporting educational and cultural programs.
“I believe that all children should be given the opportunity
to live a healthy and fulfilling life,” he said. “I want
indigenous children afforded the same opportunities as all
children in Australia.”
Projects the charity supports include the Literacy Backpack
program, whereby children take home backpacks
with suitable reading material and parents and students
work together on choosing books for their school libraries.
Another successful project is the development of the
Ghunmarn Cultural Centre in Wugularr/Beswick, which
develops the artistic ability of Aboriginal children and
showcases outstanding art from the region.
“When I first visited some of the communities outside
Katherine in the Northern Territory I was shocked at the
lack of facilities — particularly the schools. While the
situation was tough, I could also see these people had hope
and with that I saw there was an opportunity to be able to
work alongside them,” Ian said.
“If we want to become the great nation that we potentially
can be, we have to look after the first Australians and
we have to look after the neediest people in this country
above all else.”
Ian’s work has extended beyond Fountain for Youth to
becoming an active advocate as the Co-patron of the Close
The Gap campaign, which aims to close the health and
life expectancy gap between Aboriginal and Torres Strait
Islander peoples and non-indigenous Australians within a
generation.
Human Rights Commission President Professor Gillian
Triggs said the judges had selected Ian for his dedication
to helping improve the lives of indigenous children in
Australia. “Ian Thorpe is more than a great Olympian —
he has demonstrated a strong and enduring commitment to
ensuring that vulnerable children are given the opportunity
to realise their full potential,” she said.
More than 200 entries were received in this year’s Human
Rights Commission’s Human Rights Awards; 39
finalists were selected in 10 categories.
Winners in the other nine Award categories are:
Young People’s Human Rights Medal — Krista
McMeeken; Law Award — Human Rights Law Centre;
Business Awards — Hoyts Cinemas, Village Cinemas,
Event/Greater Union/Birch Carroll & Coyle Cinemas and
Reading Cinemas; Community Individual Award — Pat
Anderson; Community Award Organisation — Aboriginal
Legal Service of Western Australia (ALSWA); Literature
(non-fiction) Award — The People Smuggler, by
Robin de Crespigny (Penguin Australia, May 2012); Print
and Online Media Award — Professor Sharon Pickering
and The Conversation Academic Expert Panel on
Asylum Seekers series (Series of 14 articles published in
The Conversation between June and August 2012); Radio
Award — Intellectually Disabled People Fight for Access
to Justice (PM, ABC Radio National, Produced by Nance
Haxton and aired in January 2012; Television Award —
Age of Uncertainty (The Project, Network Ten, Produced
by Hamish MacDonald and Sam Clark, screened over
April and May 2012).