Page 5745 - Week 13 - Thursday, 18 November 2010
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Africa was represented by Emmaus Christian school, years 3 to 5, who sang Siyahamba.
Then it was Torrens primary school year 4’s turn with a Turkish song called Mee Habai. I had earlier attended a morning function at Torrens primary and had already experienced their musical capabilities. I have to say I was just as impressed with their vocal abilities. Then it was Christian Trinity school’s choral group, years 2 to 6, as they presented a wonderful version of Veni Emmanuel. I then had the opportunity to listen to Gordon primary school years 3 to 5’s great performance of Bound for South Australia before having to race back to the Assembly.
I offer my sincere congratulations to all involved in the “Big Gig”—the principals and relevant teachers from all the schools involved, the students who were so enthusiastic and talented in their performances and the parents who also joined in and added to the atmosphere of the day. But I would particularly like to acknowledge the talents and creativity of Dr Susan West and her music education team, Nicole Mengel, Georgia Pike and Lauren Davis, that enabled these interactive performance events to be experienced by all of us—the community, the performers and the parents.
On 4 October, I also attended a very enjoyable event at my neighbourhood high school, Lanyon high—their concert titled “Lanyon under the stars”. As it happened, it was raining quite heavily so it was not quite under the stars, but was held in the school hall. We saw quite a few emerging young stars of Tuggeranong and marvelled at their various talented performances. It was also good to catch up with principal Bill Thompson and the nearby principal of Gordon primary, Murray Bruce. It was great to see the principals supporting each other’s activities.
On 9 November, as the shadow minister for disability, I was pleased to welcome some artists and their families to the Assembly for a very special art exhibition—the inclusion art competition. It was the brainchild of local charity Advocacy for Inclusion. They invited artists with disabilities to depict their concept of inclusion. There were over 40 entries of high quality and all the entries have been exhibited at the ACT Legislative Assembly’s first floor exhibition room for the week.
The winning artist was Andrew Delaney with his work entitled, “In my thoughts I have many friends”. Andrew grew up watching his grandfather doing art classes at hands on studio since October 2009 and loves to paint. In particular, he loves to paint tractors and farms. Advocacy for Inclusion has designed a Christmas card with Andrew Delaney’s painting as the cover and these are now available to the public for $10 for a pack of 10 cards through the Advocacy for Inclusion website. I commend all of our colleagues here at the Assembly to take part or to contribute to these Christmas cards that are available. I applaud the vision and enterprise of Christina Ryan who planned this project and brought it to such successful fruition.
On Saturday, 13 November I attended the annual fete of St Thomas the Apostle primary school in Kambah—another event I always enjoy, especially for the part I play each year with principal Judy Spence. Her enthusiastic selling and promoting of the chocolate wheel and the many prizes available is always entertaining and creates great revenue for the school. I congratulate all the teachers and volunteers, including Mike Desmond, for their great contribution on the day.
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