Two decades on, Olympian inspires remote children to run, learn

Two decades on from Cathy Freeman’s stunning lighting of the cauldron at the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, school children in the remote Aboriginal community of Fregon are holding their own mini-games.

Fregon Anangu School held its own events after the Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara (APY) Lands cancelled its regional children’s athletics carnival due to complications brought about by COVID-19.

School teachers Darcy Chiller and Courtney Rathgen — along with help from students and other staff — coordinated a number of Olympic-style events.

Ms Rathgen said that, while there were Olympic fans among the students, it was showing the students videos of Aboriginal representation in the 2000 Olympics opening ceremony and Cathy Freeman’s Gold-medal-winning 400-metre run, that captured and inspired their interest.

“We had one of the Anangu educators translating what was happening in the videos of the Olympics in language, so the kids knew what was going on,” Ms Rathgen said.

Making flags, cauldrons

The Fregon students were also able to expand their knowledge of other countries by painting a variety of national flags.

Ms Miller said it was incredible to see how much the students learned and how interested they were.

“In the lead-up, the kids got to research other countries, expanding their world knowledge and broadening their horizons as they do live in such a remote community.”

A games cauldron was also lit, upon the student’s request.

“They saw Cathy [Freeman] with the torch lighting the [Olympics] cauldron, so our groundskeeper made the torch and cauldron himself using recycled materials from our local tip,” Ms Rathgen said.

Fregon’s mini-games even had its own “Olympic” champion — Caleb, 9, who beat out senior students in the cross-country event.

“The kids haven’t ever done anything like this before, so it was a good chance to find things they’re good at and things they enjoy,” Ms Miller said.

Expanding minds

The impact Cathy Freeman’s presence at the 2000 Olympics had on First Nations Australians is tricky to quantify, but the 2021 Tokyo games saw the highest Indigenous representation yet.

Both teachers, Ms Rathgen and Ms Miller, said that representation was the main driver for their students to get involved in the mini-games.

“It gains a lot more interest when it’s not just white fellas or other countries,” Ms Rathgen said.

“It’s pretty phenomenal for the children to have representation. They love seeing people that are Indigenous as well, and they wonder where they are from, which leads to educating them on other nations as well,” she said.

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