Well today we went on walkabout to the council office. The opportunity came around and we took them for a tour.
Female: You look after your friend.
We literally gatecrashed their first council meeting in the new building, so that was nice.
We talked to the kids about okay, it's a really special time and an honour to be invited and to have an audience with the council. What are we going to say? This is our opportunity.
Female: What would you like to see in [Napranum 00:033]?
Children: [MULTIPLE VOICES]
Female: A playground.
Child: Water park.
Female: A water park.
Child: And an iPad.
We talked about what are the great things that are happening in Napranum. What are some of the things that we'd like to see in Napranum. It got them to look at town planning, you don't just go and pop things wherever you feel like, there has to be sewerage or water, or all that kind of stuff. So it gets them to think that our whole community and all the people that work in it, keeps the community alive and makes a community.
Female: What are some of the things that we want to see in Napranum?
Child: Motorbikes.
Female: Motorbikes.
Child: A swimming pool.
Child: Yeah a pool.
[APPLAUSE]
When I talked to the CEO, he said it's funny because he's got a plan here, and some of those things that the kids were talking about are already on this plan. For the CEO to go and scan our plan, the plan for one of the kids, and put it with his plan, for the CEO and the Mayor to say it can't end here, it's only going to give us more opportunities to not only visit the council office, because we now know what it looks like, but to actually put plans and discussions into place, and consult with the council on what we want to see here.
Female: Paul, would you like to come up and do a drawing of what the council office looked like? That's an awesome drawing thank you. So this is our council office.
If you want to be the Mayor, the CEO and be those decision makers, there's a long journey to get there but it can be done because the people that are sitting there at the moment are community people, they went to this preschool. So it can be done, and it will be done, and these kids will do it I believe.
Male: Hello, my name is Philamon, I am one of the councillors in 21 years from now, if I can have this job.
Female: Who wants to be the CEO?
Children: Me.
We went down to the health centre and walked around, and talked to the RN. She showed us all the different equipment that she uses; the stethoscope and the blood pressure machine. And then we came back to school and we set up our own health centre here and we had a nurse in a nurses' uniform and a doctor in a doctors' uniform, and they all had their masks on and different things they were doing.
We've also done some things where we go down to the beach and collect natural and found objects on the beach and come back and create with that. You've got no idea how many thongs you find on the beach up here, but also beautiful seed pods and shells and all kinds of weed and coral. And so we do quite a lot of craft work with that.
It's great to be beyond the bars of the school playground.