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PORT ADELAIDE’S annual WillPOWER Cup Carnival will coincide with the launch of its new Deadly Choices health initiative this week.
The carnival is being held across two days in Alice Springs, and sees 250 middle years students from remote Aboriginal communities in SA and the Northern Territory converge on the local playing fields to participate in a round-robin carnival.
Seven schools from the Barkly region of the NT – the same community from where Power forward Jake Neade hails – and eight from the APY Lands are represented in the carnival.
Aboriginal Programs Coordinator and former Power player Wade Thompson says the carnival recognises the hard work of participating students in the same way as the Aboriginal Power Cup.
“It’s a great way to reward the kids from these areas for their hard work this year,” Thompson said.
“It’s always really good to come out to Alice Springs and see these communities bring a real sense of community and cultural pride to the event, and play some pretty exciting footy as well.”
It’s the first time Deadly Choices will be rolled out in the Northern Territory as well.
Deadly Choices is a new partnership program between Port Adelaide and the Aboriginal Health Council of South Australia.
It incentivises Aboriginal people to undergo regular health checks in an effort to combat the high rate of disease within communities. There is currently a 10-year life expectancy gap between Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal Australians, with cause of death often linked to chronic disease.
“Deadly Choices is a really important initiative and we’re seeing it in action for the first time this week,” Thompson said.
“It’s really important for us to help communities get access to health services and this is a really good program to do that.”
You can read more about Deadly Choices here.
