Tamra Jones reviews Joan Healey’s The Cubbies: The Battle for Australia’s First Adventure Playground (Monash University Publishing, 2024).
The Cubbies is an engaging book which brings to life the playful adventures experienced by a medley of mostly migrant kids who were growing up in housing commission flats in the Melbourne suburb of Fitzroy during the Whitlam era in the 1970s. The content draws on the ethnographic experience of the author, Joan Healey, who established the first documented adventure playground in Australia (‘the Cubbies’) and did so in a time of societal change upon returning to home soil, after a stint away from Melbourne travelling overseas. It is a superbly crafted personal account capturing a historical moment drawing on her own observations and recollection of stories shared in 1970s when the Cubbies first started. It was the time spent working in an adventure playground at Sands End, a rough area of East London, that took Joan on a journey that would change her life and those of the people who joined her.
The quirkiness of the writing style, sharing the voices of kids from a different era, deepened my enjoyment of the book. The author’s one-liners brought a smile to my face and helped make clear the political challenges and social circumstances being experienced by Healey in her role as playleader of the Cubbies. The inclusion of the children’s slang and vulgarity in the text brought to light the boisterously carefree nature of the kids who took ownership of their newly established stomping ground. The language showcased the diverse backgrounds of the kids who accessed the playground, and the tone reflected their exuberance and vitality. The real sense of hope that emerges in the narrative is inspiring; today’s educators will especially appreciate the way the playground users — kids who would typically be classed as disadvantaged and members of minority groups are acknowledged by playleaders to have knowledge, traits, and access to community as well as available resources which can contribute to their creation of positive experiences. Educators will also likely be lured to contemplate the value of ‘democratic schooling’ which positions students to be active participants in determining their learning environments and to share responsibility for making decisions about how the school operates.
This book provokes readers to ponder the impact that living in risk-adverse times is having on children’s development and consider how the plethora of rules, regulations and policies are restricting young people’s opportunities to play and learn through self and peer discovery. The narrative elicits consideration regarding the harms of risk-free childhood and the role contemporary child-rearing philosophies such as ‘helicopter parenting’ are having in terms of the way children play.
There is no doubt in my mind that Joan is an honorary children’s rights activist advocating for the importance of play in childhood development. She acknowledges the work of the International Playground Association and International Association for the Child’s Right to Play quoting the abundance of positive outcomes achieved when children can engage in what might be described as risky play. The book respectfully recognises the historical underpinning of the ‘adventure playground’ initiative built from Denmark’s ‘junk playground’ idea, which first surfaced in the 1930s, but was rekindled in 1943 by renowned playleader John Bertelsen. It evident that Joan worked hard to retain the roots of the early philosophy of the adventure playground in her operation of the Cubbies, directing her staff to ‘lend a hand but not interfere’ with the kids activities.
The title of this book reflects what the adventure playground in Fitzroy became known for as a result of the creativity generated by the kids who were welcomed into the space. The creation of the Cubbies offered an escape to a diversified group of kids growing up in lower socio-economic circumstances. Surviving the political challenges that came with swirling perspectives about the new idea surely reinforced to the users the value in being resilient and innovative.
If there is one criticism it would be the way the book ends. I would have liked to have heard more insights about how the Cubbies ‘happily rambled on’ and what other adventure playgrounds were started from the inspirational journey documented in Fitzroy.
The strength of the Cubbies in my mind is the underlying social justice thread attached to the premise of what the it represented. The messaging aired throughout book aligns to my own research interests in terms of championing a pathway that transforms lives through provision of time, space, and resources, inclusive of mentorship. It is my hope that the narrative in this book can be heard by educators, parents/guardians and community stakeholders who potentially impose constraints on young people’s opportunity to play. It offers us all a timely nudge to reflect on our childhood when we had the freedom to experiment and explore our surroundings, learning how to scavenge available resources and create our own adventures. We need to consider how contemporary urban development is limiting the open spaces kids have to explore and the increased trend of living in units/apartments restricts possibilities for kids to ‘muck around’ at home. It is not too late to return some trust to children and be inspired by what they produce with some freedom ‘to confront risks and have the chances to test their abilities’ (p. 255).
This book is bound to be read by people who are passionate about child development and understand the value in providing routine self-directed play opportunities enabling the blossoming of creativity, imagination, and resiliency. There are lessons to be learned in the book around ways to foster social inclusion, trust, and conflict resolution skills. The book offers a nod to Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development, which has been influential in a range of fields but famously in psychology, sociology and education. Piaget was the first to suggest that how children think fundamentally differs to the way adults think. As a recognised pioneer of the constructivist theory, which proposes people actively construct their knowledge of the world as a result of the interaction between their conceptions and experiences, Piaget, like the author of The Cubbies, advocates for discovery learning, active learning, and the importance of children learning to navigate peer conflict.
The Cubbies offers a healthy reminder to educators and parents/carers alike, that patience is key as time is needed for kids to try different approaches and engage in trial and error to construct their own knowledge, work out solutions and carve out their own path.
