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Kangaroo Sausages and Community: Celebrating NAIDOC Week at Wilson

NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia in July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

Students at the Wilson Campus celebrated it a little bit later on Friday, 9 August. We had a wonderful day trying kangaroo sausages at lunch, making bracelets or headbands and sharing our learning at the school assembly. It was a fantastic opportunity for students to think about embracing diversity and to celebrate and develop respect for other cultures.

At lunch time, we were delighted to hear the sizzle of sausages frying on the BBQ. Students learnt that, for the Noongar people of Western Australia, the kangaroo was traditionally a main source of food. Even today, kangaroo tail stew and damper are very common dishes for Aboriginal people. Staff and students got to try kangaroo and riberry sausages, which is a native Australian fruit. Students also made a bracelet or headband using the colours that make up the Aboriginal flag: red, yellow and black. Many children had the opportunity to learn how to plait from their peers and their teachers as they made their bracelets and headbands.

After lunch, we had a NAIDOC assembly. The Year 3/4 class has had lots of time to learn about the indigenous people this year, in connection with the Humanities and Social Sciences curriculum, and enjoyed sharing their knowledge with the school. We started the assembly singing Wanjoo with the Year 5 class, which means ‘welcome’ in the Noongar language (written by Gina Williams). The Year 3/4 class then performed a skit to show how the indigenous people traditionally lived and the diversity between their tribes all over Australia.

Winners of the colouring-in competition were announced next along with the winner for the boomerang-throwing competition.

Lastly, the Year 5 class performed their item. The students reflected upon how, as a community in Christ, we celebrate all people and are all made in His image. They finished with, ‘May God continue to share His light over this nation and bless it richly as He knits us together.’

Students from the Year 3/4 class refleced on NAIDOC Week:

‘My favourite part about NAIDOC Week was learning about indigenous people and the foods they eat, how they make paints and the instruments they played. I also enjoyed making the bracelets. I learnt how to throw a boomerang and enjoyed colouring in the indigenous pictures’ – Michayla

‘I liked the kangaroo sausages and learning about how the women were the main food gatherers and how the men would hunt. They used spears, boomerangs and axes and made cloaks out of kangaroo and possum fur to cover their bodies’ – Navin

‘What I liked most about NAIDOC Week was the play we performed at assembly and learning about how different the Aboriginal groups were. I also liked trying the kangaroo sausages, which were delicious! It was fun to throw the boomerangs and cool that I won the competition and got given my own!’ – Darcy

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