Author: Evan Williams
Australian marathon icon, Rob De Castella, and young indigenous woman, April Barry, have more in common then you may think. They both believe in the power of running to build physical and mental strength and wellbeing, and they’re both using their own marathon journeys to promote healthy living to young indigenous people.
Rob, now 60 years old, came from a running family while April, 21 years old, has only been able to embrace running through the Indigenous Marathon Project (IMP), run by the Indigenous Marathon Foundation set up by De Castella in 2010.
The IMP is a “teach them how to fish” initiative, enabling selected young people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent to get healthy through running and, in the process, empower themselves for their own future and the future of their families. Importantly, they grow into highly confident and capable role models within their communities, and leaders in the promotion of health and physical exercise to address the high instance of chronic diseases in Australia’s Indigenous population.
The health and wellbeing of our indigenous people is a serious issue. In his 2017 ‘Closing the Gap’ Report on indigenous issues, Prime Minister Turnbull said, “Chronic disease, such as circulatory disease, cancer, diabetes and respiratory disease, accounts for around 70 per cent of Indigenous deaths and three quarters of the gap in mortality rates between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
Originally setup to try and find Australia’s first indigenous long distance champion, De Castella says of the IMP, “It became much more important to try and address indigenous health and wellbeing, and social issues in the community, through doing something hard (like marathon running) to instil pride and self-worth.”
The Project annually selects a group of 12 young Australian Indigenous runners from around Australia, aged between 18 to 30 years old – six males and six females – to complete the New York City (NYC) Marathon run every November, with just six months of training. The Head Coach makes the selections, based on running capability and an interview.
April Barry is one of this year’s IMP squad. Selected from around 150 applicants she is now training for this year’s NYC Marathon, and is indicative of the aspirations held by the Indigenous Marathon Foundation. She is from the APY Lands (Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Lands), grew up in Alice Springs and currently lives in Geelong, Victoria. A 21 year old woman with a two year old son, April has the difficult job of balancing her personal life while fulfilling her commitments to the Foundation.
But it’s all worthwhile, because it’s having a positive impact on her son, who enjoys the idea of his mother being a runner. “He hasn’t been to one of the big running camps, but he comes running with me, or if he doesn’t, when I get back home, he says ‘Mum, you’ve been running’,” April says. She is also encouraging her mother to be more active, especially as she has type 2 Diabetes, which her father had and is very prevalent among her people.
Talking about the lifestyle issues young people face in her community, April says, “It’s a huge thing. It really makes me sad. There’s not enough education about being active.” April says one of the good things she can do is, “give information about lifestyle and healthy habits back home.” As her website profile says, she is “dedicated to paving the way for future generations of Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians through living active and healthy lifestyles. She is currently studying nursing at University.”
It’s a busy, strenuous schedule for the squad. The very first responsibility all runners must undertake is to complete a Certificate III in Fitness qualification, to help them gain employment, a pathway to perhaps become a Personal Trainer, or participate in other community based health initiatives. The Certificate complements their running endeavors and gives them tools to become healthy leaders and role models within their communities. Alumni from the project are further supported through the Foundation’s ‘Frontrunner’ program.
They then participate in a training camp program of long and short runs in their own states, and come together for fun runs and other planned events to test performance under race conditions. The IMP has taken April all around Australia, including Canberra, Sydney, Gold Coast and soon, overseas to New York.
When asked if there was any special reason for choosing the NYC Marathon as the IMP’s chosen event, De Castella explained that it’s not only about running the largest marathon in the world, with nearly 100,000 applicants in this year’s race. “It’s transformational for the runners – about finding out how strong they really are. And when they really push themselves hard, they’ve still got more to give. And you don’t realise how strong you are until you’ve pushed yourself to the limit. So they come back with this amazing self-belief and courage that they can translate into other areas of their lives and lives of others.”
November isn’t that far away now. With her training on track, April’s ready and excited about running in New York, “The best part will be meeting all of these people that are doing it as well, like the other squad members from around the country,” she says.
And April now knows this will be her reality because since her interview for this story, she and her team mates have learnt that all squad members have earnt their place at the start line. Final selection relied on showing commitment to training, finishing a 30km test run, and completing the education component, which for the first time this year featured an additional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Mental Health First Aid course.
No–one could be prouder than the IMP’s and April’s Head Coach Adrian Dodson-Shaw, a former IMP graduate. “Running is a very honest sport, because if you don’t train you get found out – the hardest part is the training and to get to New York is the victory lap,” he said. After graduating in 2014, Adrian moved from his home-town of Broome, WA, to Canberra. He took the position as Head Coach and Program Manager, wanting to help the next generation of indigenous kids to stay physically fit and mentally healthy.
This IMP aspiration for generational change led from within seems closely aligned with the national Close the Gap Strategy, which aims to empower indigenous communities, via their leadership, to take ownership of the priorities that shape their future. All leaders want to “stop passive welfare, foster Indigenous-led responsibility and let local communities have a say in decisions that affect them,” Federal Minister for Indigenous Affairs Minister Scullion says on his website.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) indicates around three percent of Australia’s population is made up of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Their health is slowly improving but the current rate of progress will have to gather pace if the Close the Gap life expectancy target is to be met. Community initiated projects like the IMP are part of the solution.
When De Castella was asked if he believes the IMP is really making a difference he said, “Absolutely it’s making a difference, it’s saving lives, it’s changing lives. We have this amazing group of inspirational young people, and we are now creating a culture of distance running that never existed before we started. Hardly any indigenous people ran and now we’ve got communities trying, and travelling all over the world running marathons. We’ve got young indigenous kids who aspire and dream to be part of the IMP. I’m very proud of the program and very proud of all our graduates.”
As in previous years, a live commentary of the New York City Marathon will be streamed through the IMF Facebook page and all details will be provided a little closer to the time.
Matthew Guy, Victoria Opposition leader believes governments need to decentralise our economy and our educational institutions, and provide more opportunity. “Whether it’s a differential tax rate, whether it’s our planning systems, this all helps with job growth and vet services out in country Victoria,” he says.
A Journo's Journey 