The swag has long been a part of Australia's colonial history, and now remote communities are getting the chance to learn how to make them by hand. Dan Fischer has been teaching jobseekers in remote communities how to make their own swags, as part of the community development program.
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00:00This is my first time.
00:07It looked harder when I came here, but doing it, they're getting easier and easier, yeah.
00:11The finished product, when you look at it, it makes you feel better inside.
00:14You want to watch this step, boys, because we've got to make sure we get these straps
00:19in the right way.
00:20I'm Dan Fisher.
00:22My job is to go into the community and teach these guys some new skills.
00:27I run courses on how to make swags, so the first step is basically marking out and cutting
00:35all your pieces.
00:36Oh, it's good so far, yeah.
00:40When I first started off, it was a bit funny, but now after four or five days, I'm getting
00:45slowly getting there.
00:46Yeah, measure it and cut it out.
00:48No, I didn't make a swag before, but this is my first time making it.
00:52When I'm running the courses, I'm always talking to the boys about getting work, how to maintain
00:57work, and it's more about getting them job ready, which seems to be working.
01:02We're getting a lot of boys that come and do the course, and then they find employment
01:06somewhere else because they get used to that, coming to work every day and doing something,
01:11you know.
01:12If you have a look on the bottom, they sewed up.
01:15Oh, so that's waterproof.
01:16I think it's fantastic.
01:17I've been around the whole country, and I've never seen anything like this.
01:21It's just so practical, what you're doing.
01:24Did you ever think you'd be using a sewing machine?
01:28But this program is precisely the sort of thing that we want to see.
01:33The idea is that communities develop their own enterprises, and it means income for the
01:41community.
01:43All the communities that I go into absolutely think it's a great thing.
01:47I'd like to see the eventual start-up of a business for somebody out there, you know.
01:52It's not just swags, they can do shade sails, they can do all that sort of stuff.
01:56I mean, the pride in these guys when they complete their swag and they get to take their
02:00swag home is out of this world.