Scott Darlow loves visiting Tasmania and usually visits once a year. Favourite things about the state are the steak at Salamanca and what he believes is one of its best kept secrets, the city of Launceston. Scott adds Tasmania would be perfect if not so cold!
Scott is a multi-talented singer who plays the guitar and didgeridoo and uses his music as a vehicle to educate people on reconciliation. He differentiates between himself and friend Jack Jones who he describes as a singer/guitarist, meaning Jack is equally perfect in both roles, while Scott himself is more a singer who can play the guitar. However, Scott also plays the trumpet, a legacy of being the child of two Salvation Army members.
Scott will be in Tasmania this week to perform for two schools, St Patrick’s College, Launceston, a school deeply committed to reconciliation and also for St Virgil’s College.
Scott has recently recorded a cover of the original Shane Howard Goannas’ classic ‘Solid Rock’. It was a dream come true to sing the song with Shane and Scott tells me he has been able to make it his own while still keeping the songs original integrity.
For eight years or so now Scott has been on a mission visiting schools, churches and prisons, talking and singing about reconciliation. Scott believes many organisations are very prominent in their campaigns for overseas aid programs but we don’t see as much publicity about aiding Indigenous groups.
Scott said what is partly to blame is when governments talk about investment in these communities it usually only last the life of a government. People become complacent believing the issue is being taken care of, however that is not always so.
Scott’s aim is to teach empathy using an anagram ‘flute’ standing for ‘Forgiveness, love, Understanding, Tolerance and Empathy’.
With his background as a music teacher Scott has the skills to educate with his message of awareness, closing the gap, and disparity between indigenous education and the wider community.
It was put to Scott that talking about the issue was very well but there was a need for something more tangible. Scott agreed and it was World Vision, a NGO (non-government organisation) of integrity that would bring this to realisation. Scott remembered taking part in the 40 hour famine as a youngster, and it was World Vision’s ‘ linking hands’ program that became the avenue of helping the’ young mob’. Here children would be assured to getting to school and completing their education and in doing so causing an effect that would reverberate through their communities. Children would see role models in others before them achieving the goals of completing school and university which would then become the norm and the aim instead of a rarity. For 35 dollars a month, or less than a dollar a day, people can ensure this program can function and achieve its aims.
Scott has last week returned from Hong Kong where he spoke to 400 international students about Australian history and indigenous peoples place in that history. A history he thinks we do not know enough about.
Scott’s totem the emu, is said to ‘bring harmony’ to relationships and that is exactly what
Scott is doing with his music.
You can read more about World Vision and its linking hands program here:
http://www.worldvision.com.au/donate/LinkingHands.aspx
You can read about The new album Darlow here
www.darlow.net
Paula Xiberras
