Music therapy
The sixth annual ACMF National Songwriting Competition gives little people a chance to tackle some big issues.
By Resli Buchel
Great results are produced when kids get their heads together
Having spent more than 30 years as a much-loved host of Play School, you might imagine that Don Spencer had contributed more than his fair share of music and education to the kids of Australia. However, when he founded the Australian Children's Music Foundation (ACMF) in 2002, Spencer uncovered a whole new forum in which to share his love of music and song.
Now in it's sixth year, the ACMF National Songwriting Competition has grown in size and scope to include more than 14 different categories, almost $200,000 worth of prizes, and Ian ‘Dicko' Dickson as patron. "When I first started it was a bit smaller, of course," says Spencer, "but it's open for all children for every type of music, from hip hop to classical, country, rock, anything at all".
The competition aims to encourage the "musical experience", creativity and teamwork. But, further to these noble causes, Spencer sees an even greater purpose for the ACMF. "The foundation is really about helping disadvantaged and indigenous kids," he explains, passionate in his belief that music can reach places that politics cannot. We've said ‘sorry' but there's been a lot of emotional turmoil out there, and we're not going to get over any of these problems that are dividing the nation by building houses. Yes, we need housing," he acknowledges, "but we need to touch the spirit, touch the soul... and music is a way to get everyone together because it doesn't have any barriers".
Despite widespread acknowledgement of the benefits of ACMF's programs, Spencer and his team face the constant challenge of funding their work. "It isn't easy when you're raising money for a charity like ours," he concedes. "You're competing against very, very evocative, worthwhile charities, and most of them are to do with the physical wellbeing of children... but there's just not enough work being done on the mental and emotional wellbeing of children".
When asked if the battle to find cash ever gets him down, Spencer shares the story of the day some journalists interviewed a 16-year-old ACMF client: "They said, ‘Do you think that music has helped you at all?', and she just, very matter-of-factly said, ‘Well I don't self-mutilate any more. I've never done it since I started music because I write my anger out in a song, and I scream it out, and I don't mutilate myself anymore'. "That's the sort of thing that keeps you going when you're struggling to find money."
Entries in the 2008 National Songwriting Competition open Monday 5 May. For more information about ACMF visit www.acmf.com.au