Wilderness and National Reconciliation Week: Now More Than Ever

National Reconciliation Week is significant for our community.

The kick-off on 27 May marks the date of the 1967 referendum which voted to remove the clauses in the Australian Constitution that discriminated against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The final day of the week, 3 June, marks the historic 1992 Mabo decision, while 26 May marks National Sorry Day, first held in 1998 to acknowledge and apologise for the Stolen Generations.

The week is about exploring what each of us can do to achieve reconciliation in Australia. We were proud to hold a number of initiatives at the School.

Sport - Friday May 24
Uncle Tamaru, Elder of the local Kaurna community performed a Welcome to Country and traditional Smoking Ceremony at Nantu Wama for the Senior A Football. The girls took a win to beat Walford School, wearing special guernseys designed by old scholar Myarn Alden (2023) with the help of Holly Binks (2022) and Sachi Syme (2022). Thank you to Andrew Mittiga for organising this as part of Reconciliation Round.

The Library - Weeks 5 + 6
During weeks 5 and 6, the library featured the voices and images created by First Nations authors and illustrators through picture books. The range was on display in the Library and students were encouraged to select a title to read. Students also engaged with these texts during their library lesson thanks to Katie Silva and Annette Mesecke.

Assembly - Monday June 3
We were Welcomed to Country by Aunty Sherrell Dyer, a proud Kaurna woman and past parent, who explained the significance of the Welcome to Country.

The assembly focused on the work of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation and looked at the ways literacy is crucial for children from rural and remote communities to navigate a place in the world. Students were involved in an activity which showed them the difficulties faced by Indigenous children in remote communities who try their best to learn, despite the barriers of poor ear and hearing health, culturally inappropriate resources and significant language barriers.

Reconciliation Workshop - Monday June 3
A small group of Middle and Senior School students took part in an art workshop which gave students the permission and understanding to use Indigenous symbolism to represent significant events in the school's 140 year history. This was run by 2023 graduate, Myarn Alden and the finished product, a collaborative painting, will be presented in time for NAIDOC Week.

Bake Sale - Friday June 7
On Friday, we held a bake and Reconciliation ribbon sale to raise funds for the Indigenous Literacy Foundation. The ILF is a national charity working with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander remote Communities across Australia. They are Community-led, responding to requests from remote Communities for culturally relevant books, including early learning board books, resources, and programs to support Communities to create and publish their stories in languages of their choice.