Each year, Heywire calls out to people aged 16-22 to submit stories in text, pictures, film or audio, inviting them to recount their experience of life in a regional community. The Heywire awards commend regional Australia’s most creative and distinctive young storytellers.
Winning entries feature on ABC radio and their authors will attend the Heywire Regional Youth Summit at the Australian Institute of Sport, ACT. Summit participants engage in leadership and community building activities, meet with MPs and community leaders and work on policy proposals around issues raised in their entries.
This year’s winning stories include a young woman fishing the remote waters of the Gulf of Carpentaria, fighting racism in Alice Springs, collaborating to save houses during the 2011 floods and witnessing the gay marriage debate being played out in a Tasmanian school yard.
Director of ABC Radio, Kate Dundas, values the Heywire awards for providing a platform for stories that might otherwise go unheard.
‘Heywire stories are unique. They get to the heart of what it is to be a young person growing up in a regional community; sometimes arresting, sometimes humorous, but always inspiring and engaging,’ Dundas said.
The Australian Government have sponsored Heywire from its inception in 1998. Minister for Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Senator the Hon. Joe Ludwig acknowledges the strength and longevity of the initiative.
‘The Australian Government is proud to co-fund Heywire, as it provides an important snapshot of the views of Australia’s next generation and the challenges they face in their communities,” Minister Ludwig said.
The stories will play throughout ABC Radio’s summer programming and are also accessible at the ABC.
