Sports bonanza for local schools

Year 5 teachers at five local primary schools will feel like Christmas has arrived early when they receive a mountain of colourful sporting equipment from USQ Fraser Coast and the Wide Bay Public Health Unit.

The schools, which are taking part in a research project on Traditional Indigenous Games (TIGS), will each be given around $2000 worth of balls, hoops, frisbees, beanbags, bats, hockey sticks, cones and noodles.

There is so much gear that the University has had to include wheelie bins and huge wheeled bags for the schools to use to transport the gear around their grounds.

The equipment is going to Pialba State School, Urangan Point State School, Maryborough Central State School, Tinana State School and Xavier Catholic College’s Primary school. Another five schools will receive similar bundles of equipment in November.

A grant from the Nutrition Central Regional Services of the Wide Bay Pubic Health Unit has enabled USQ to provide these schools with the equipment.

The donation is part of the Birrbam Gambay project, being conducted by USQ Fraser Coast lecturer Sharon Louth. Mrs Louth wants to spark an interest in the use of TIGs to encourage physical activity in children while helping them form a connection with Indigenous culture. She said the games also developed motor skills and cooperative play and helped to build student’s self efficacy.

'Seventy-six percent of children aged from five to 12 do less than 60 minutes of physical activity each day,' she said. 'Ninety-five percent of them spend more than two hours a day in front of a screen.

'I’m hoping that the teachers will integrate TIGs into the curriculum as part of the 30 minutes of Smart Moves the children do each day.'

Participating teachers have already been shown how to play the games and how to teach them to their students.

'If the students have half as much fun as their teachers did playing the games, then it will be a huge success.'

The games are available in the Yulunga: Traditional Indigenous Games book, on the Australian Sports Commission website. The book was compiled by USQ researcher Associate Professor Ken Edwards. Originally TIGs players used seed pods, animal skin balls, sticks and stones.

Mrs Louth said children at the participating schools would be taught about the history of each game, such as its original purpose.
The games were used by Indigenous people to develop their hunting skills or to learn to work in a group and to build healthy relationships with one another.

'The games are all inclusive and are not competitive,' she said. 'For instance, Puloga, played in the Cardwell and Tully River regions of North Queensland, is like dodge ball. But when a child gets ‘out’ they can immediately rejoin the game once leaving the field.'