Justice Matters Camp

On Wednesday 10th of May to Friday the 12th of May, Kildare had the privilege to attend the Justice Matters Camp at Warrambui. Also in attendance were Mater Dei, St Francis, Marian, Xavier and Hennessy. Each school sent around 12 participants with the idea to educate students around current Social Justice issues that affect people today with a view to bring this knowledge back to our own school communities. On Thursday we attended 5 workshops which identified social justice issues including Human Trafficking, LGBTIQ communities, Aboriginal hardship in Australia, Interfaith dialogue and Refugee/Asylum seekers.

All workshops raised our awareness of these issues that are present in our world today.

Some key learnings that we take from the camp include - The Human Trafficking trade is the 2nd largest illegal trade in the world behind the drug trade with the trade being worth $150 billion.

Twice as many people in the LGBTIQ community are bullied than those who are not. 27% of Australian students who identify as being LGBTIQ have been physically bullied and over 40% verbally bullied.

The persecution of Aboriginal people in Australia has been happening since white settlement in 1788 with removal from traditional lands a deliberate act to force Aborigines to lose their own identity.

Interfaith dialogue was about world religions working together towards common goals rather than having to defend themselves due to a tiny minority that causes people to show stereotypical behaviours.

The Australian government spends an average of 1.1 Billion dollars each year to keep the estimated 1000 asylum seekers in detention.

This was a great conference to attend to learn about the social justice issues happening today and we appreciate the opportunity to share our experience to the school community. Throughout this experience while also making new friends with the neighbouring Catholic schools, we learnt what was most important to us and how we take it for granted. Now we know how lucky we are today and the power we have to change the future or simply help the unfortunate people in our society.

Year 10 and 11 Social Justice Team | Will Donoghue, Bree Withers, Teagan Scanlan, Tobias Lawler, Emma Withers, Harry Voss, Lachy Quilter, Nick Buchanan, Mitchell Stibbard, Sophie Quilter and Matthew Conn