Children's Week Ambassador, author Jackie French, has her own very definite ideas on what children being able to play should mean.
"Play for children should not involve handing over large amounts of money for a plastic toy or a video game," she said at yesterday's Children's Week launch in Canberra.
"Children should not have to have money paid so they can play.
"The very fact that in so many places in the world such a lot of money has to be paid to get children play equipment just shows how impoverished our world has become and childhood has become.
"There should be trees to climb, and creeks to explore and rocks to pretend are castles. There should be safe beaches for kids, safe from microorganisms that might make them sick, safe from nuclear missiles over the horizon."
The theme of this year's national Children's Week is based on the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child Article 31 - that children have the right to relax, play and take part in activities they enjoy.
Ms French said that meant children around the globe being safe and free enough to use their imaginations and creativity, to read and make, and to enjoy the natural world around them, rather than to have play handed to them in a box or on a screen.
"Any area where a playground has to be built to give kids something to play with is land where their heritage has been stolen, just like a child whose 'play' is mostly video games has been robbed of learning to work with adults, and pretending to work with other kids, whether that 'work' is mud pies, building cubbies, watching beetles or travelling to Mars," she said.
"No child should have to have someone pay so they can play. Kids need safe and fascinating natural space; they need adults to teach them that work can be fascinating and fulfilling. Only then can we say that kids have truly been given the right to play."
Awards were also presented at the launch by ACT Children's Week patron Margaret Reid and Education Minister Yvette Berry.
Among the recipients were Canberra High Student Grace Flanagan, 13, and Wanniassa High student Jessie Prince, 15, who each received an Exceptional Young Person Award.
Both are talented singers with the Fyshwick-based music school Daydream Machine who have overcome obstacles to perform - Grace suffers from social anxiety while Jessie has gone through multiple surgeries as the result of a health issue.
"It makes me confident in what I'm doing," Grace said, of receiving the award.
"I want to influence more young people like myself in the future who struggle with social anxiety or any anxiety and make sure that feel heard."
Zara Mann, 19, who volunteers in the canteen at the Ainslie School received the Children's Commissioner's Award from Children's and Young People's Commissioner Jodie Griffiths-Cook.
Ms Griffiths-Cook said Zara "clearly gives her all to everything she does".
"She has a gentle presence and connects with people on all levels while enthusiastically going about all that she does," she said.
A drumming group and choir from St Edmund's College also gave stirring performances at the launch and awards ceremony.
