NAIDOC Week

On Thursday we had out formal NAIDOC Assembly, which was run by our ATSI students and featured three really wonderful speakers. In line with this years NAIDOC theme VOICE, TREATY, TRUTH, we had artist Jeffrey Samuels who is part of the Boomali Art Cooperative speak to the students about using his art as a VOICE to speak about his people, land and issues relating to them.

We then had Sean Brennan, a constitutional lawyer, who is part of a small pro bono team working on the 'Statement of the Heart' speak to the students regarding the importance of creating a TREATY to acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders as the traditional owners of the land. Finally we had Uncle Hilton Donovan, Aboriginal Education Officer at Alexandria Park Community School speak to the assembly about the TRUTH of Australian-Aboriginal history and the importance about being honest and truthful about what happened in the past, in order to move towards a more genuine reconciliation and to move forward together into the future.

The assembly was followed by a wonderful morning tea for our ATSI students, staff and guests prepared by Maria Poniris. Following this we had a pop up art project in the plaza, a collaboration between artist Jeffrey Samuels and our ATSI students. We finally wrapped up the week with a sausage sizzle, raising over $260 which will be put towards a cause to improve the outcomes of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. Students also benefitted from Aboriginal perspectives being embedded into lessons across all KLA's during the week.