PHOTO: Angry Anderson kept students from Coonamble High School and Gulargambone Central School engaged during Coonamble Shire’s Youth Council forum last week. Image courtesy of GCS.
By OLIVER BROWN
LOCAL youths recently had the chance to meet Australian rock and roll royalty while learning what it takes to be an active participant in advocating for the future of their community.
Kicking off NSW Youth Week 2022, which ran from Monday 4 to Thursday 14 April, Coonamble Shire Council held its first Youth Council workshop on Tuesday 4 April with keynote speaker Angry Anderson.
The workshop was the first of four that council plans to hold this year funded by a $55,000 state government grant.
Council’s Executive Leader for Environment, Strategic Planning and Community Noreen Vu said each workshop would focus on a different theme, with last week’s being ‘Community’.
Mr Anderson, the lead singer of well-known rock band Rose Tattoo, a television presenter, and an advocate for youth and mental health awareness, was selected from a list of proposed names.
“We felt he was a person who resonated with young and old,” Ms Vu said.
“I don’t think Angry ever lost the audience. He was very engaging (and) used simple language to convey his story. He was articulate and we believe those that attended were receptive to his story.”
Mr Anderson said the main message he wanted to convey to the students was resilience and he likes to get in amongst them to do it.
“One of the reasons I love to be close and the reason I walk around – not many others do that – is so I can eyeball people while talking to them, and he or she will go ‘he’s talking to me’,” Mr Anderson said.
“This might be an overly romantic view but I felt 15 minutes in that they wanted that connection – I don’t mean that in a condescending way – and when we had that, we could open what was closed and understand each other.”
Around 30 youths attended the workshop, including the Student Representative Council and others from Coonamble High and all secondary students from Gulargambone Central School (GCS).
GCS Principal Michael Spora said he was thrilled he and his students were invited to come and hear Angry Anderson speak.
“(Angry)was a very big and articulate figure – the fact he kept them all engaged for an hour and 20 minutes was very commendable,” Mr Spora said.
“We’re constantly trying to broaden our students’ horizons. Just recently we took them on an excursion to Sydney where they did an Amazing Race-style activity in three groups using various apps and public transport to navigate their way around.
“We’re constantly trying to break their barriers down so they’re not insular to just Gulargambone and their families when they finish up at school.”
Mr Spora said he particularly appreciated Angry’s willingness to be completely open and honest about his personal struggles.
“Based on his talk, it was clear he had seen trauma and a lot of turmoil in his life – the ‘Angry’ name didn’t come for no reason – but he also talked about making good out of bad situations which I thought was great for the kids,” he said.
Following Mr Anderson’s talk, Ms Vu also asked the students a series of questions about their awareness of local issues, possible solutions and ideas for future speakers.
Future youth forum workshops will revolve around the themes of ‘Wellbeing’, ‘Connectivity’ and ‘Work Ready’ with an ultimate aim to create a Youth Action Plan based around the students’ ideas.
“I think the guys who participated were well informed on the local issues and made excellent suggestions and ideas that hopefully we can incorporate into our Youth Action Plan,” she said.
“Some thoughts were similar from both Gular and Coonamble students, whilst there were also separate geographical challenges and ideas raised.”
Mr Spora was very optimistic about getting a fresh perspective from local youths and believed his students would be quite actively involved.
“I think it’s a great idea – it’s good for us to encourage the message of not just whinging about things and actually find a way to make a positive change,” he said.
“We’ve got a very active SRC at our school who regularly come to my door and take initiative, so I think they’ll definitely be interested.”