A f ty club spons ship at’s ge ing wins on and o e field

It all started over a quiet beer in a pub, says Orange United Warriors’ Vice President Kurt Beahan of the sponsorship deal between the rugby league club and the civil construction and mining services company AWCON.

Chatting with a mate, who worked for AWCON at the time, Kurt reached out to the company through his role as Aboriginal education engagement coordinator with TAFE NSW.

“Through TAFE my position is about opportunities for the Aboriginal community and linkage to local employers and trying to increase Aboriginal participation or employment within their organisations,” Kurt said.

The programs they were able to put in place delivered job opportunities locally and were a boon for AWCON, in finding employees. So much so, that the company has adopted a similar approach in other states.

With a relationship in place, Kurt brought up the idea of sponsoring the Warriors, a rugby league team with a unique focus on community.

“For us, any player that considers coming to our club, we’re very open and very honest about it — If you come to us, it’s about you, It’s about our community and it’s about everybody else within the club, it’s not about money,” Kurt said. “If it’s money that you’re after, then it’s probably not the club for you. This is more about connection with community and that family club spirit.”

This winter is only the fourth rugby league season for the Warriors, although the idea that sparked it goes back a decade to the founding of the Orange United sports club.

It was at a school holiday basketball clinic, that founding member Jason French decided there needed to be more opportunities for low-income Indigenous and non-Indigenous kids to play regular competition sports. From three junior basketball teams, the club has grown and now regularly fields teams of all ages across six sports: netball, basketball, touch football, soccer, hockey and rugby league.

“It’s giving these kids, and sometimes parents, an opportunity, which they may not have ever received previously,” Jason said.

“We look at basically supporting them through education and even parents through employment. And Kurt’s done that quite successfully, especially with the rugby league guys over the years.”

Jason said there are a number of team members who were unemployed when they joined the club four years ago, but have been supported through training and apprenticeships to find employment.

“And we do that within our other sports as well,” Jason said. “Just looking at opportunities where we can support families overcome barriers they may be facing at that point of time in their life.”

AWCON managing director Paul Montagliani said it has been a pleasure to partner with Orange United and support their role in the community.

“It has just been a great opportunity with Kurt and the team to be a part of this,” he said. “We look forward to going forward and continuing with the partnership for years to come.”

In recognition of their partnership with Orange United Warrior, AWCON recently unveiled new artwork for their fleet vehicles Designed by Mitchell Groat, the artwork, titled Yanhanha Nguranggu (“Going Home” in Wiradjuri language) depicts the outline of Mount Canobolas and the local totem, the platypus.

Brenda Stace Chat has exhibited all over the world, but this June the Cowra-based artist will launch her first local exhibition at Rosnay Wines Cellar Door in Canowindra.

Primarily a painter and sculptor, Brenda has exhibited her work in countries such as Germany and South Korea, and earned international acclaim.

An alumnus of the College of Fine Arts in Sydney, Brenda was mentored by the Art Gallery of NSW’s Bill Wright, who motivated her to travel to the USA to attend the New York Studio School. There, she received tutelage from the Dean, renowned Australian artist William Wright AM, and attended lectures from the likes of Lee Krasner (best known as the wife of Jackson Pollock but an extraordinary abstract expressionist artist in her own right), pioneering video artist Nam June Paik, and abstract expressionist painter George McNeil.

Brenda’s works have also been exhibited in Sydney at the S.H. Ervin Gallery – Salon des Refuses in 2012 and are held in the collections of both BHP and Western Power.

Outside the world of fine art, Brenda has spent much of her career in the animation industry.

From her first job as an assistant animator in 1975, Brenda has gone on to work on notable productions such as the pioneering live-action/animated feature Who Framed Roger Rabbit, long-running children’s television staple, Sesame Street and spent three years as the Overseas Animation Director for Mike Judge’s popular animated sitcom, King of the Hill.

While King of the Hill went on to win two Emmy Awards and was included in Time

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“Having spent most of my career in classical animation, I certainly wasn’t the target audience for King of the Hill, but I was offered the job and said, ‘Yes’,” Brenda recalled.

“The first thing I did was read the script and I thought, this is brilliant! I had a great deal of respect for it once I was engaged.”

Now living in a magnificently renovated tin shed down by the railway tracks in Cowra, Brenda has been focusing more on her own art; painting as well as creating stunning wall-hanging sculptures from the “carcasses” of old pianos.

“For me, that’s just such a terrible crime,” Brenda said, referring to the discarding and neglect of old pianos. “Because when you open them up there’s a cornucopia of stories in there! It’s just such a reference to time and it’s full of the most marvellous wood and metal.”

For her exhibition opening at Rosnay Wines Cellar Door on Saturday, June 3, Brenda spent time camping and painting out amongst the ancient landscapes of Lake Mungo in far western NSW. A trip that echoes previous solo camps to the Pilbara in Western Australia which resulted in works that won her the Pilbara Art Award in 2004. Brenda’s exhibition opens 6pm Saturday, June 3, at Rosnay Wines Cellar Door, Canowindra, and will run for the month of June.