From Somalia to the Henley surf
Our New Neighbours
MEET the state’s first women to patrol the beach wearing burqinis.
Lucky Giirre, 22, and her sister Ramla, 21, recently began patrolling Henley Beach under a Surf Life Saving SA program aiming to encourage new migrants to join the organisation.
“We were really interested in getting involved with surf life saving because it’s such a part of Australian culture,” Lucky said.
“There’s (also) a lack of understanding between new communities and mainstream communities. We hope if people see us patrolling they’ll realise we’re more alike than we are different.”
The Muslim women are part of a group of 10 young migrants at Henley Surf Life Saving Club, who took part in a first aid course last year through the On the Same Wave program, which aims to educate emerging communities on beach safety.
The 2009 National Coastal Safety Report found 24 people 25 per cent of drowning death victims were either foreign nationals or tourists.
“We hope that if we start learning about safety issues at the beach, not only will we be able to educate ourselves but also our communities,” Lucky said.
The women are qualified to use first aid on the beach and during winter they will take part in a swimming program to work towards their bronze medallion, which will enable them to rescue people from the water.
Surf Life Saving SA development manager Stephen Cornish said the program encouraged representatives from Australia’s diverse range of communities to become involved with the service, and supported new members by providing swimming classes.
“We’re trying to show people that you don’t have to be an Ian Thorpe or iron man type to join,” he said.
“This swimwear has only been available for the last couple of years. Before that, there was a barrier for Muslim women to swim in public.” The sisters, who both live in Semaphore, were encouraged to get involved as part of the The Duke of Edinburgh Award.
“We weren’t good swimmers because we couldn’t really wear bathers,” Lucky said.
“Now that we have the burqinis, its allowed us to focus on our swimming. “People walk up to us and say, ‘wow, I’ve never seen an African surf life saver or a Muslim surf life saver’.”
The sisters came to Australia as refugees from Somalia in 1994, and Lucky recalls the first time she saw the beach in Semaphore.
“It was amazing. It was a huge amount of blue water that went on forever and these massive white sand dunes,” she said.
Henley Surf Life Saving Club has received funding for the program from Charles Sturt Council, the State and Federal governments, and salad dressing company Paul Newman’s Own.
The council has also provided cultural awareness training for local surf life saving clubs.
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Source: Weekly-Times-Messenger
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