Hi, my name is Georgie,

I am going to speak to you today about the Matildas.

The Matildas are the Australian girls’ soccer team, there are no boys in their team!

The Matildas have been playing since 1978. That’s a long time, isn’t it?

The Matilda’s got their name when people voted, from all over Australia.

Another name for the English girls, soccer team is the Lionesses.

The captain of the Matildas is Sam Kerr.

Sam Kerr is the Matildas striker.

The Matildas can play anywhere, for example, the Asian World Cup or the FIFA Women’s World Cup, like they did this year.

The Matildas have so many great players, that they can swap during halftime when they may be tired.

One day the Matildas protested and wouldn’t get on a plane to fly to the World Cup because they were not being paid as much or equal to the men.

Finally, the Football Federation Australia gave the Matildas an equal amount of money. Some women still don’t get paid properly or equally, so we must still protest and stand up for ourselves.

I chose to write about the Matilda’s because they are inspiring women who keep pushing through everything!

I hope you have enjoyed my speech.

Have a great holiday.

Thank you.

Do you ever wonder how you can become a Black Belt in martial arts? Have you ever seen people with black belts and wonder what it takes to become a Black Belt? 

I'm Alicia in Year 4 and I'm here to tell you how I got my very own Black Belt. Yep, I got my Black Belt at the age of eight. I was one of the youngest ever to get a Black Belt in Tae Kwon Do! If you don't know, Tae Kwon Do is a South Korean martial art and it is an Olympic sport too. Let's start!

After four years of training and lessons it was time for my Black Belt grading. I was about to learn some lessons. What do you think a martial artist would feel before entering their most advanced exam? Hopeful feelings, right? I felt excited, buoyant but not confident. First, we started by running a 1km block. Guess what? I came last. But I learnt my lesson: Never drink milk before a long-distance run. It will give you stomach cramps.

After running it was time for push ups. When you're tired do you feel you need to put more effort in your work? I put way TOO much effort! My Master asked me to do 10 push-ups but I didn’t listen properly. I thought I was asked to do 20 push-ups. Yes, so instead of 10 push-ups I did 20. Which made me even more exhausted! Learnt my second lesson for the day: listen to the instructions carefully before acting on them.

Then we had to show our techniques. Of course, I have been practising these things for four years. So, I did a good job of it. Learnt my third lesson: Practice makes perfect.

Now I am at the final hurdle. I had to break a wooden board with my bare hands. I remembered what my Master told me. When you are punching aim for something past the contact point. And with a big bang I punched through and smashed the board. Learnt my next lesson: Listen to your teachers.

Now I had to kick and break another board. I am already a spent force and too tired. I tried to smash the board with my feet but I failed. Yes, here comes another lesson: Pace yourself and don’t go hard too early. 

I knew I needed to get more than 75 points to achieve a Black Belt. Ahh! I was wondering, did I do enough? What if I fail? What could I have improved? I was waiting for the announcement and can feel the butterflies in my stomach.

My Master started addressing the crowd. He said, “In life, things don’t always go according to the plan. It is very important that you practice hard and be consistent so that even when things don’t go your way, you can overcome the struggles. Today even with all the struggles she faced, she didn’t give up. Introducing our new Black Belt…” My Master looked at me, “Alicia!"

I guess that’s how you can also become a Black Belt.

I’m going to talk about representation through the media, and why it matters. You might be wondering why this is an important topic and issue, well think of our daily lives. We consume things from the media every day, without trying to. Books, shows, movies, articles, sports, and interviews, anything that is broadcast. 

But first, what is representation? The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) defines representation as how media represents gender, age, ethnicity, nationality and social events. Now that we understand what representation is, why does it matter that we have diversity in representation and not just one group of people all the time? Research shows that representation in media normalises people and decreases harmful stereotypes, increases self-esteem, increases support and creates new opportunities.

A recent example is women in sports. Seeing the Matilda’s play at such a high level and skill has persuaded Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese to commit $200 million to women and girls sports in Australia. The Matilda’s are a great example of why representation matters for young aspiring girls. Recently, the ABC interviewed two young Australian girls with Indian heritage and one of them Sian, 13 said “At first I didn’t see many people who were from my culture playing. And then I saw Sam Kerr and it made me really happy to know that I could also achieve that goal.”

Aish Ravi, Founder and Director of the Women's Coaching Association, said "Seeing somebody of Indian heritage, of colour, playing on the world stage – one of the best players on the planet – it's incredible, it's inspiring, it shows that anything's possible,"

This is why representation matters, showing not just a certain group of people that they are equal but people who might think eh, I don’t really care, it doesn’t affect me, but actually it can affect some of your closest friends, your neighbour, your aunt, your coworker, someone you care about. That’s why representation matters.

Every day we look at our phones, iPads, and computers and see some amount of media and a lot of that media is feeding us stereotypes that our minds are taking in. We are constantly consuming little by little, making a certain group of people look like criminals and another an asset to society. That’s why we need more media that acts more like a window to some and a mirror to others. Media that shows some people what it’s like for some to be Black or Asian and some media that reflects, that shows people that they aren’t alone, or it’s ok to not be as sporty as others and focus more on school and the opposite of that.

Thank you and I hope you understand why this is an important subject and constant issue in the world that we live in today.