Rush wants asylum seeker stories

25 Jan 2012, 9:04 pm   -   Source: AAP
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Australian of the Year Geoffrey Rush says storytellers should focus more on the plight of asylum seekers.

Australian of the Year Geoffrey Rush has urged local writers to tell the stories of asylum seekers who try to make the perilous journey to Australia by boat.

The multi-award winning actor on Wednesday was named Australian of the Year at a ceremony outside Parliament House in Canberra in front of a 10,000-strong crowd, including Prime Minister Julia Gillard.

His was one of four major awards, including Senior Australian, Young Australian and Local Hero, announced during the hour-long event.

Ms Gillard told the gathering that all four winners shared a common attribute - their courage.

"They point the way to a creative and confident future for our nation," she said.

Rush, 60, told reporters after the ceremony there was a role for the arts to provide perspective on issues such as climate change and gay marriage.

But he also singled out immigration and the journeys of asylum seekers by boat to Australia.

"I put a call out to the writers of Australia," he said.

"I would love a writer to write a fabulous mini-series."

Mr Rush said the asylum seeker issue was plastered daily across the newspapers but the key question had not been answered.

"We hear the how and the what, and sense the political football around the issue but I don't find anything that tells me about the why," he said.

"I'm in the profession that feels with empathy, compassion and intuition.

"I want to see the stories of why these people are coming here at great peril to their lives with such extraordinary bravery and we're not finding that human tale in their stories."

Mr Rush also said he hoped more young people would be encouraged to go to the theatre and not rely so heavily on movies for their main form of entertainment.

Mr Rush declared himself a proud Australian, saying his 40-year career had happily coincided with an expansion in the local arts scene, which had built itself on the love Australian's have for "acting the goat, taking the mickey, cracking a joke, spinning a yarn".

"We are the plucky country," he said during his acceptance speech.

"We told that at any given moment we are no further than a few metres away from spiders - this statistic is now also true for the arts."

Northern Territory indigenous elder Laurie Baymarrwangga, 95 was honoured for her efforts to protect her culture and country as the Senior Australian of the Year.

Ms Baymarrwangga could not travel to Canberra for the ceremony but she was singled out for her work on projects to pass on local ecological knowledge between generations, including the Yan-nhangu dictionary project to preserve her native language.

"These are the seeds given to us by our ancestors ... we know their songs," she said in her native tongue on a pre-recorded video message.

Melbourne engineering student Marita Cheng, who is dedicated to promoting the field to girls, was named Young Australian of the Year.

Ms Cheng, 22, founded Robogals Global in 2008 to teach girls at secondary schools about science and technology in fun ways.

In just two years, the organisation ran workshops for more than 3000 girls in Australia.

"We need to establish robotics programs in our schools so our children won't just be consumers of technology but also creators," Ms Cheng said.

Australia's Local Hero was Lynne Sawyers - a rural NSW mother who has more than fostered 200 children over 15 years.

Mrs Sawyers encouraged other Australians to consider fostering children.

"I've always to tried plant a seed of hope in the heart of each child," she said.

The festivities continued in Canberra on Wednesday night with an estimated 35,000 people attending a concert on the lawns of Parliament House.

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