Post by Inside Australian Idol on May 9, 2005 1:02:01 GMT 10
Casey a real idol
May 08, 2005
IN the eyes of the kids at remote Beswick Community School in the Northern Territory, Koori singer Casey Donovan will always be a winner.
Donovan, winner of the second series of Australian Idol, has just spent a week as a guest of the Fred Hollows Foundation in the Top End to promote the organisation's work in preventing avoidable blindness in indigenous communities.
She saw first-hand the foundation's operations at remote communities, but Donovan, 16, whose father is Aboriginal, said she had known little of indigenous culture.
"So, when the chance arose to see the work of the Fred Hollows Foundation in the Northern Territory, I jumped at it," she said.
"It has been great to see all the positive stories up here. Too often the only stories you read about Aboriginal people are about riots in Redfern and the like.
"The kids up here are just great. They're shy at first but, once they know you a little, they come right out of their shells."
Schoolteachers told pupils Donovan's success showed anything was possible for young Aborigines.
"If I can use my Australian Idol win to help them in any way, then it is a real bonus," Donovan said.
Donovan shot a video for her new single, Flow, and met veteran Australian actor Tom E. Lewis, star of The Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith.
"Fred Hollows stood alongside Aboriginal people and listened," Lewis said.
"Governments could learn a lot from what he set up."
entertainment.news.com.au/story/0,10221,15206746-7484,00.html
May 08, 2005
IN the eyes of the kids at remote Beswick Community School in the Northern Territory, Koori singer Casey Donovan will always be a winner.
Donovan, winner of the second series of Australian Idol, has just spent a week as a guest of the Fred Hollows Foundation in the Top End to promote the organisation's work in preventing avoidable blindness in indigenous communities.
She saw first-hand the foundation's operations at remote communities, but Donovan, 16, whose father is Aboriginal, said she had known little of indigenous culture.
"So, when the chance arose to see the work of the Fred Hollows Foundation in the Northern Territory, I jumped at it," she said.
"It has been great to see all the positive stories up here. Too often the only stories you read about Aboriginal people are about riots in Redfern and the like.
"The kids up here are just great. They're shy at first but, once they know you a little, they come right out of their shells."
Schoolteachers told pupils Donovan's success showed anything was possible for young Aborigines.
"If I can use my Australian Idol win to help them in any way, then it is a real bonus," Donovan said.
Donovan shot a video for her new single, Flow, and met veteran Australian actor Tom E. Lewis, star of The Chant Of Jimmie Blacksmith.
"Fred Hollows stood alongside Aboriginal people and listened," Lewis said.
"Governments could learn a lot from what he set up."
entertainment.news.com.au/story/0,10221,15206746-7484,00.html