By MICHAEL ESPOSITO
IN A packed, female-dominated room of recent migrants, Western Bulldogs community engagement co-ordinator Mark De Campo tried to explain the basics of Aussie Rules.
Considering only one person in the room had adopted a team to support (Geelong), it was always going to be a challenge to get these new arrivals interested in Australia’s national code.
But it’s something De Campo is used to. Every year he teaches immigrants at the Werribee based Adult Multicultural Education Service (AMES) centre the rules, history and skills of several sports, including badminton, lawn bowls and tennis.
But footy is by far the most difficult for the students to get interested in.
“It is difficult with football being in winter and with the sport being so foreign to them. There are a lot of soccer fans amongst the group,” De Campo said. “These guys having been in Australia for such a short period of time and have other bigger issues on their mind rather than trying to select a football team. They’re dealing with re-settling, finding a house, finding a car, finding a stable job and looking after their families. We see that football can be a good release from that. But getting them along to games can be difficult, but once they get there they really do enjoy themselves, and they develop their sense of belonging and engagement with the local community.”
AMES teacher Santina Rizzo, at the education clinic, told the students that it would help to integrate into Australian culture if they had some knowledge of Aussie Rules, even if they didn’t particularly like it. She even suggested they support the Western Bulldogs.
But despite the potential benefits to the Bulldogs in running these programs, De Campo said they were not particularly effective membership campaigns, and were established to help migrants.
