The Land advocates for its readers in many ways.
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Through news campaigns, asking the hard questions of our political representatives, and industry, on behalf of farmers, as well as through providing new information to help readers stay informed.
But through our Little Hands, Big Hearts 16-page feature wrap published on June 6, 2019 we also gave our readers space to tell their stories in their own words.
The majority of our readers come from family farming operations, many of whom are isolated. During tough seasons, like now, people need to know they're not the only ones going through hardship.
Related reading: Rain is what our bush kids want for Christmas
This feature was a way in which they were able to tell their stories not only to the outside world, but to each other.
A lot of farm kids are spending more hours helping with the work on the farm at either end of the day, or are even pulled out of school just to help keep the farm running.
They're hard workers, too, these kids.
They cart feed, drive the trucks, muster stock, and also help take care of their siblings while mum and dad are busy working. And they see a lot.
They quietly observe the stress and heartache their parents go through daily in these sorts of seasons. So we decided they needed a platform through which they could be heard, and their hard work be recognised.
They are the little heroes of this drought.
Related reading:
To launch the project, we ran a front cover on the April 25, 2019 edition, with two pages of reader contributed photos inside and a story explaining what the project was about.
That attracted further contributions from readers sharing their photos and stories via social media. These were then compiled for a bigger feature, run as a 16-page wrap on the June 6, 2019 edition.
The readers' stories were published in their own words.
That's why this Christmas/New Year period (December 26 edition) we wanted to again pay homage to our bush kids who are proud of their farming heritage.
Happy New Year from The Land team