Last week we had a fantastic celebration of Reconciliation Week. The theme of the week was Bridging Now to the Next. The week begins with National Sorry Day which is the anniversary of when, in 2008, Kevin Rudd, who was Prime Minister at the time, apologized in Parliament for the mistakes of the past, namely the removal of children from their families. This is what we now call the Stolen Generation. Classes watched the apology and worked on different activities throughout the week.
Throughout the week, we also connected Reconciliation Week with our values. We talked about hope, kindness, resilience and respect. Our main event was held on Thursday where we rotated around 4 main activities:
Art: Mrs Nietschke and Mrs Norton worked with all classes on some Art activities which were inspired by Dreamtime stories that we read.
Football: We had a visitor Jess Sandsford who came up from Willaston to help. Jess plays for Willaston in the girls team and we were lucky to have her take the girls to teach us some football skills. Mr Parkinson, who is also a footy player took the boys. We chose a Football workshop because of the strong presence that our First Nations people have in the AFL. We talked about people like Adam Goodes who has faced racism as a player which is something we do not like. We have some photos of this.
Park Walk: The aim of the park walk was to connect our students to the land they walk upon. This was done in a number of ways. Firstly, we walked to the park and sat in a ‘Yarning Circle’ discussing how the First Nations people would form these circles to learn from each other, build respectful relationships and to preserve and pass on cultural knowledge. In our circle we shared an acknowledgement of country and discussed how the name of our town “Nuriootpa” means “meeting place”. We then discussed how First Nations people were connected to and cared for the land. Students spent a moment of mindfulness sitting quietly and noticing their surroundings and the importance of the land around them. Students enjoyed spending time out of the classroom and exploring our local park.
Music: The conversation was around how it is important to remember what has happened in the past so that we can do better in the future. Classes had looked at the book about the Stolen Generation and we encouraged the students to listen to the lyrics of Took the Children Away by Archie Roach, and then volunteers described how it made them feel. "My shoulders relaxed and my heart felt soft". Students were taught the words to My Island Home. We chatted about connection to country and the special places that are important to us. We spoke about the story behind Little Things and the fight for respect. Students learnt the chorus and sang this song with Cloudy.
All the classes showed amazing respect and had a great time. There are some photos of the week inside this newsletter.
