Plan to establish Indigenous Carnival
JASON CHATFIELD quit his full-time secure job to pursue a dream, but unlike Kevin Costner he doesn’t have to build a giant sporting venue to get the people to come – he already has Barden Park’s state of the art athletics’ facilities at his door step.
Mr Chatfield wants to see the revitalisation of a state or regional Indigenous athletics carnival.
“They used to have the Cathy Peachey Indigenous Carnival here years ago, but that’s gone by the wayside now,” Mr Chatfield said.
“I only went to it once but the talent that I saw there was unbelievable,” he told Dubbo Photo News, adding that he believes a lot of natural talent isn’t being utilised.
“I’m in this business and I like to give back to the community, so this’ll be something that I do outside of my business. We’ve formed a committee and we hope to get the carnival up and running in September next year,” he said.
Mr Chatfield runs his own athletics coaching business, Xcelerate, and has seen the difference that professional and structured training has made to many young lives.
“I pretty much got into it by mistake. I had a daughter who showed a bit of potential and it grew from that. I started donating a little bit of time to Dubbo Athletics Club, started off with five kids, and I’ve got about 45 kids now that I train. I bit the bullet and started my own business about four months ago and I do it fulltime,” Mr Chatfield said.
“I’ve started to do clinics for schools and I also donate a few clinics as well for the kids in the outlying towns – Coonabarabran and Nyngan and places like that. There’s plenty of talent out there, just not enough qualified coaches to go out and coach them.
“Barden Park’s exceptional. It’s ranked in the top five apparently in Australia so I think we’re very lucky. I’ve just seen myself the kids and the excitement on their faces just to be here, coming from Coonabarabran,” he said.
All those sentiments are echoed by Coonabarabran mum Jane Irons who was part of a group from Coona who came to Dubbo last week for a free clinic put on by Jason’s Xcelerate squad.
“Coming from a smaller town and for someone who grew up at Narromine I am so proud of Barden Park. I love that we can come here for regional, zone and everything and I absolutely love that our area has this facility,” Mrs Irons said.
“My son’s really good at throwing and it’s been so hard for us to get a coach so it’s been wonderful that Mr Chatfield comes out to our school.
“We’ve been travelling an hour and a half to Tamworth to get to a coach, so I’m really happy that Jason’s been coming out (to Coona),” she said.
Now a committee has been formed to get the Indigenous carnival off the ground, the next step is to get one of the nation’s best Indigenous athletes out west to run clinics.
“Ben Harradine has agreed to come to Dubbo. Ben’s a former Commonwealth Games gold medallist in the discus, and a threetime Olympian and six-time Australian champion. He’s currently situated in Stockholm,” Mr Chatfield said.
“He’s agreed to come out for a small fee so I’m hoping to get some businesses on board so that we can put this clinic on for two days for the kids for free.
“We’ll invite kids from all over the central west to come in and really try and lift the profile of events besides running. He’s also going to bring his dad who’s a Level 5 Athletics coach who has coached all over the world,” Mr Chatfield said.
The committee so far has seven passionate people involved who all realise the massive positive impact these sports can have, not just for the Indigenous community but for the broader community as well.
Anyone who’s keen to help or donate can call Jason Chatfield on 0498 261 227.
“Any small amount would be fine. Ben’s got to fly back from overseas so the small fee he’s charging us will basically cover his costs,” Mr Chatfield explained.