Around 200 primary school students have come together in celebration for another edition of The Little Long Walk at the 2019 Australian MotoGP in Phillip Island on Friday.
The local children had a rare opportunity to set foot on the famous racetrack to commemorate Essendon legend Michael Long’s inaugural Long Walk to Canberra on November 21, 2004.
Thursday’s event was an exciting sequel to the earlier Little Long Walk conducted at the Formula 1 Rolex Australian Grand Prix at Albert Part in March, where Long and former coach Kevin Sheedy were among the many community leaders in attendance.
At the time, Long praised the Australian Grand Prix Corporation for its support and emphasised the importance of educating the country’s youngest generations.
“Our Walk the Talk program is instrumental; it was one of the most important areas of the walk when we first started – getting into the schools and talking to the kids about history and culture,” Long said.
“They are the ones who are ultimately going to shape the way this country thinks and what it does with Indigenous issues. We thought that was an important space that The Long Walk should be in.
“I love having the kids here and they inspire us to do more.”