Billycarts, Hopscotch and Razzle Dazzles - Sydney Stories with Warren Fahey

How Sydney children have amused themselves over the years. This episode is part of the 'Sydney Stories with Warren Fahey' series.
Sydney abounds with curious history. Some stories are known and many have disappeared over time. Cultural historian and storyteller Warren Fahey has created a dozen video stories of the city's past; each offering a unique slice of Sydney’s hidden history.
Visit Warren's website: https://www.warrenfahey.com.au/
Sydney Stories with Warren Fahey features footage from the collection of the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia. It was created with assistance from the City of Sydney Creative Fellowships Fund and support of The Vine Foundation. The grants were under the auspice of the Folk Federation of New South Wales.

Billy-carts, Hopscotch & Razzle-dazzles.
- The curious story of Sydney’s children at play.
Synopsis

Whoever coined the phrase ‘As easy as child’s play” didn’t know very much about children. Playtime, in its many expressions can appear simplistic but is often extremely complicated. Constructing a Land-of-Make-Believe, for example, can be extremely complex allowing a child to return again and again to a familiar imaginative space with equally imaginative friends. The ability of children to invent is endless. Sydney children have always found magic where adults cannot.

There is little doubt children have an ability to create their own play worlds. Considering the topsy-turvy state of our current world this is probably a fortunate thing. Sydney children, like kids right through the decades of Australian history, have invented their own games, secret languages and amusements. Old games, songs and crafts come and go and return again to benefit from the evolution of tradition.

Program looks at how children played down through the ages from indigenous play to kite-flying, building bonfires to scuttling down hills on billy-carts.

Life for children in today’s Sydney is different and often difficult in so many ways. Essentially we have experienced a monumental shift in so many aspects of day-to-day life. We have become a people who get entertained rather than the old days when we entertained ourselves. We have lost play skills but, at the same time, added new ones. We are a product of the Information Age, and that includes children. In some ways we have become more passive in our entertainment and we are suffering the consequences with obesity and social problems.

As Warren Fahey points out, on the bright side, children are born with a fresh slate - they are as creative and inventive as ever. Amidst the hurly-burly of modern life and the temptation of too much screen time - we all need to breathe deeply and allow our child’s mind more time for magical escapes.

Видео Billycarts, Hopscotch and Razzle Dazzles - Sydney Stories with Warren Fahey канала National Film and Sound Archive of Australia (NFSA)