The Children's Festival is an annual event run by SPINRPHEX. The festival was started by James Fitzpatrick (Young Australian of the Year in 2001 and past SPINRPHEX President) in 1999, and was first held in the town of Carnarvon, 904km north of Perth. At the time, Carnarvon had experienced a string of youth suicides and murders, and racial tensions between the local Indigenous community and the white population were high. The Carnarvon Children's Festival aimed to bring the people of this community together through uniting the children in harmony, giving the town a reason to celebrate and providing some respite from their recent grief.

Since the inaugural event, festivals have been held in Mukinbudin, Koora, Southern Cross and many other towns in the Western Australian Wheatbelt. In 2007 the event was held in Kellerberrin, located 204km east of Perth in the Central Wheatbelt Region. The 2007 festival's coordinators were Nicholas Jones from SPINRPHEX and Gemma Fisher from WAALHIIBE - as the event is now an interclub event. Activities included face painting, kite making, balloon animals, health skills, healthy eating promotions, concluding with a Bluelight Disco. Overall the event attracted 35 health students from multiple disciplines and was enjoyed by over 200 local children and their families.

Each year the festival coordinators strive to stay true to the original ideals and aims of the festival. With the 2007 Kellerberrin Youth and Children's Festival, the aim was to give a positive rural experience to our 35 attending students, and to encourage the students to think about rural pathways, practice and lifestyles. The festival provided a wonderful opportunity to bring together Indigenous and non-Indigenous people in a harmonious environment, fostering community spirit. The festival was also a fun and innovative forum in which to promote healthy living and health careers to the local children, and to create a lasting impression on the Shire of Kellerberrin.

You can find download a full report on the 2007 Kellerberrin Youth and Children's Festival here.

Childrens Festival 2009

This year the annual children and youth festival jointly run by SPINRPHEX and WAALHIIBE is being held in NARROGIN on the 5th + 6th of September.  Our theme is SPORTS, so hockey, netball, footy and fencing...we want it all!

The day provides a wonderful opportunity to interact with the local children and to contribute to the local community while having a lot of fun too! Activities will include didgeridoo playing and making, healthy eating, circus skills, face painting and a disco for the kiddies, teddy bear biscuit making, bubble blowing, balloon animals, and many many more extra special excitements. 

 DETAILS....

• 830am departure, QEII medical centre (UWA) Saturday, 5 September
  For those of you driving yourself, PLEASE let the organisers know as we have limited bus seats. Directions to the venue will be posted soon.
• Arrive at the John Higgins Centre, have lunch and set up! Festival runs from 1:30pm to 5pm
• Bring your swag or other sleeping materials as we will be spending the night at the Narrogin community hall, next to the carnival footy oval.
• Lunch, Dinner and Brekky on sunday will be provided for you
• Sunday- we don't have any activities planned so we will wake up and head back to Perth- expect to arrive around 130/2pm.
• BRING A SPORTS costume!

The activities will be- hockey/netball/cricket skills, face painting, healthy food making, crafts (wandmaking etc) poster painting, colouring in and the like. Volunteers should bring a hat, a costume (that can get ripped/painted/very dirty) and bedding (it will be cold, so bring a swag/doonas/sleeping bag and a mat for sleeping on) as well as warm clothes for the evening.
Sign up by emailing SOON as spaces are first come first serve!

DIRECTIONS:

• Albany Highway (about 130k from armadale)
• Left at BROOKING Street, Williams
• follow Brooking Street to:
• Left at Williams-Narrogin Highway (@ 25k)
• in Narrogin, Left of Glyde Street at the Narrogin Primary School
• this runs into CLAYTON Street, where the John Higgins Centre and footy Oval is located.