ABC Listen. Hello, friends, it's Ruby here and you're listening to an episode of Newstime.
Hello, Ruby. Hey, there, Ruby.
This week, it's National Reconciliation Week, which is a time to learn about and celebrate the history and culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples here in Australia.
So, on News Time today you're going to hear from some impressive role models who are also catwalk models.
We're going to meet a talented athlete who's switching between sports and we'll light up the sky in our Wow of the Week.
What do you think, should we get into it?
Take it away Groovy, sorry, number five.
OK, shine the spotlight, pump up the music and let's hit the catwalk and meet some designers.
They design clothes because that's why they're called a fashion designer.
They design things that you sleep on.
They design things you can wear and they design things to keep you from the cold and heat.
Earlier this month, Australian Fashion Week was held in Sydney.
Where everybody dresses up fancy!
It's an annual celebration of culture, clothing and the designers who create Australia's diverse range of fashion.
It's also where Australian fashion designers get models to wear their clothes and show them off in front of big crowds.
They wear fancy clothes and they show it on the runway like whoa!
Look at these! One of this year's featured designers is Wiradjuri woman Denny Francisco.
She loves creating fashion that reflects her culture.
She incorporates colours from country, like gum trees, into her clothing.
And she says she does this to bring culture and country together.
She was thrilled to have 10 First Nations women wear her clothing in front of an excited crowd.
Aboriginal people to wear and non -Aboriginal people, just for the whole country.
19 -year -old First Nations model Shumaya Sullivan is already up to her third year of walking down the runway.
She became a model six years ago after watching an Australian drama on telly and feeling like there were no indigenous people on the show.
Shumaya says this year's Fashion Week featured more Indigenous designers and models than ever before.
That means people all around the world could learn about First Nations people and their fashion.
So they can remember the people that first walked on this land and took care of it.
It makes them feel happy, kind and glad that they're out to share their beautiful clothes with the whole world.
if you moved to Australia but you couldn't speak English, what do you think some of the challenges would be?
It would be hard, it would have failed.
People wouldn't understand you.
Yep, it can be hard to fit in if you don't know how to talk to people, so how might you go about learning some English?
Go to English school.
Listen to the other people and learn.
In the outback Queensland town of Mount Isa, a group of women get together each week to do just that.
They've all moved to the area from other countries and they don't speak much English, but what they all do together is sewing.
There might be an instructor and they might say some words from your culture.
Ameena moved with her husband from Pakistan.
When she arrived in Mt Isa, she didn't know any English, and it meant she found it hard to get a job.
One day, Amina met a Pakistani friend in the street, and they invited her along to the sewing classes.
The women there get to practice their English together.
You can't understand what they're saying, but after a long, long, long time, she will be able to know how to speak English.
That's right these things take time and eventually Amina grew confident in speaking English she managed to get a job at the town supermarket and she's had a baby and she's got a lovely community to support her through all of it.
She feels like she fits in and she's no longer a stranger to Australia?
Exactly! Story number three.
Have you ever heard of assistance animals?
They're police dogs and find lost people, on mountain walks.
It's animals that help people, like walk dogs.
They help blind people walk around and police dogs help them sniff out the criminals.
That's right. Animals can do lots of different jobs.
But an assistance animal is one that gives support to people with a disability, so they can be more independent and more confident.
In Australia, assistance animals are considered working animals, along with seeing eye dogs and hearing dogs.
In Tasmania, one assistance animal named Violet has made the news because she's an alpaca.
What? it feels weird that she has an alpaca as a service animal because they spit.
Violet is very important to her owner Abigail Nigella.
Together they've gone on cruises, they've gone to the airport, but recently Abigail Nigella took her assistant's alpaca into a Tasmanian supermarket to get some groceries and they were both asked to leave the store because the staff said Violet is livestock and livestock is not allowed inside.
Abigail Nigella made a complaint and now a court will decide if the supermarket discriminated against her.
What does discrimination mean?
Good question. Discrimination happens when someone's treated unfairly because of things like their age, their gender, their race or their disability.
That makes lots more sense, but it should be named a much easier word to know.
The magistrates court of Tasmania now has to investigate whether the supermarket discriminated against Abigail Nigella.
She says Violet's been trained as an assistance animal and goes everywhere with her.
She even wants to take Violet on a plane to Melbourne one day.
Will it be possible?
Well, we'll have to wait and see how this story ends for Abigail Nigella and her furry assistance friend.
Story number two. OK, let's talk sport.
In fact, we're talking sports.
Who knows the difference between soccer and AFL?
What's AFL? It's Australian Rules Football.
You hold the ball in AFL and if you hold the ball in soccer, it's a handball.
In AFL, don't they use big poles, the goals are different.
In soccer, you need to be able to dribble.
And in AFL, you need to pass it.
Yep, although both sports involve getting a ball around a field and scoring goals, they are very different games.
Someone who knows this very well is Sarah Rowe.
She plays soccer in the A league with the Central Coast Mariners.
In fact, her team just won the 2025 Women's Championship.
While her teammates might be celebrating their win with a relaxing holiday, Sarah hasn't taken any time off.
Three days after her team's win, she started training with the Collingwood Magpies ahead of the AFL women's pre -season.
Busy, busy, busy! Well, I think Sarah's, like, cool because she gets to play two sports, And sometimes it's really hard to play sports because if you finish soccer then you can't have a rest, you have to go straight to AFL.
If two games were at the same time as both of your sports, it was hard to get both.
The good news for Sarah is that her games will never clash.
She moved from Ireland to Australia just to play Aussie rules, but she realised that the A -League season fit neatly into the AFLW offseason.
There was plenty for her to learn about soccer and Sarah became a defender, even though she played as a winger in the AFL, which is an attack position.
The Mariner's coach believed in Sarah and she was placed straight into the starting team.
That's amazing. You get to play three sports and then you get to be a little more...
..like, a lot more famous.
Sarah says football careers are short, so she wants to get as much out of hers as possible.
You are an inspiration, Sarah.
Keep kicking those goals.
I think she is great and she's really talented and good, so good job, Sarah.
OK, friends, let's step off the field now and launch into our Wow of the week!
The story made me go wow because it was like very expressive.
This story made me go wow because I thought it would be so, so, so, so big not so, so, so, so, so small!
A few weeks ago at about six o 'clock in the morning, a great big flash of light lit up over Western Australia.
What do you think it might have been?
Either a flying saucer...
or a.... Beside a lightning bolt.
Venus. But this was a meteorite!
Lots of people saw it blazing across the sky and some keenbeans decided to hit the road to try and find a spot where the space rock landed.
It could be a bigger one than its actual ever being in Earth or in the universe.
It would make you rich because you could order a dump truck to take you to the council and say, Hey, I found a meteorite.
One of these meteorite hunters was a local police officer named Marcus.
Seven days after the meteorite hit the Earth, he hit the road.
He was driving for 2 hours and scrambling through dense bush, and then, in the middle of a salt lake, he found something the size of a tennis ball.
I thought a meteorite would be bigger than that.
I thought a meteorite would be purple.
Nope, it was a tennis ball -sized, very plane -looking space rock.
His heart would be like racing.
Bong! Bong! Bong! Bong!
Bong! Bong! Bong! Well, I need to call the police.
Oh, yeah, and now I'm off at ease.
Marcus was pretty impressed with himself, but lots of people think there's more to be discovered.
When the meteorite came through the atmosphere, there was lots of bright flashing.
That usually happens when the rocks fragment.
That means split apart.
So if you're out on a walk in the south of Western Australia, keep your eyes peeled.
Okay, treasure hunt is over my friends.
We have tracked down the end of the countdown.
Thanks Ruby. Thank you Ruby.
You are so very welcome.
Bye Ruby. See you later!
Or as they say in Nepal, Allah vida.
News Time is an ABC Kids Listen Podcast. For other awesome podcasts to play, music to move to and stories and soundtracks for sleep, download the ABC Kids Listen app.
It's free from your app store.
