Borroloola School Indigenous Hip Hop Program

The impact of our students’ sense of self-worth and wellbeing has been significant and we believe this will positively contribute towards encouraging robust community relations and pride within the school as well as in the wider Borroloola community. Overall, this was an invaluable experience and a very special memory for the students and community of Borroloola to share and cherish.

Borroloola School Teacher – Jessie George

The Borroloola School Indigenous Hip Hop Program was a week-long project where students were mentored to produce a song and music video that would be presented to the community.

The video (Borroloola – We Alright) was produced by Indigenous Hip Hop Projects (IHHP) and subsequently became publicly available via YouTube and in 2022 had 141,000 views. Students identified mental health and positive relationships as important key issues for the community and chose these as themes to focus on for the song.

The song and music video features 14 secondary students from Borroloola School, with all students present at the school during the week of the project having the opportunity to participate in dance workshops and contribute to the videography.

The McArthur River Mine Community Benefits Trust encourage young people to engage with the local CBT Directors to communicate young people’s current and future aspirations back to the Board, to help inform board decisions on funding. 

The purpose of the project was to support key curriculum learning activities for the students including Literacy, Art, Music, Dance and English as well as increasing student attendance and engagement with school.

The MRM Community Benefits Trust contributed $22,434 to Borroloola School for the Indigenous Hip Hop Program in 2019.