Reconciliation Week
St John's Long Walk
On Wednesday 31 May we gathered in the Mary MacKillop Space to recognise National Sorry Day. Our Fire carriers, Evie and Maxwell, commenced using tapping sticks to the background music as students entered the McKillop space quietly and with reverence.
The larger message stick will be placed on the central prayer cloth.
As we prayed for Reconciliation we acknowledged that 27 May and 3 June, are important dates in Australia’s history. May 27 marks the anniversary of the 1967 referendum when Australians voted to remove clauses in the Australian Constitution that discriminated against Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. June 3 marks the historic 1992 Mabo decision in which the High Court of Australia recognised native title—the recognition that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ rights over their lands did survive British colonisation.
Year 5/6 students presented the song and reenactment of ‘From Little Things Big Things Grow. They told the great Australian story of the Gurindji people’s struggle for their land. We give thanks that the steps are being taken towards reconciliation. In 1966, Prime Minister Gough Whitlam symbolically handed Gurindji land back eight years later.
We then prepared for St John’s Long Walk, with our school captains leading the students and staff for a walk through Mitcham and over the bridge for a whole school photo.
When we arrived back at school our students returned to their classrooms to write their names and special messages on a footprint which are displayed on the walls and windows in the Passive Play area.
Aquinas Long Walk Reflection
On Tuesday, 30 May, the St John's FIRE Carriers went to Aquinas College in Ringwood, for reconciliation week. It was so great and I learned so much! A message that really stuck out for me was that there is a whole new world of ideas and unique thoughts that we haven't been introduced to about indigenous culture and language. For hundreds of years we have overlooked the indigenous people and paid little attention to them, but now we will realize that their ideas and traditions are an opportunity to shape Australia, eventually not just Australia but the world.
Only we have the power inside ourselves to work hard to make our first nations people feel at home, in their sacred space. We will never truly appreciate what we have until it's gone, we can work hard to incorporate new ideas into the world. This will hopefully take us closer to reconciliation where indigenous people and other people come together to be in a loving community. It only takes one person to change the world and even though we pay respects to the indigenous people and celebrate them, we must ask ourselves "is this really all we can do?"
We know there is still lots of racism in the world so we have to work together to change that. We can do things like learn some different indigenous cultural dances, listen to interesting dream time stories and learn all about their culture. Overall it was a very fun and rewarding experience and I think everyone learnt something very valuable.
- By Evie, Year 5 Fire Carrier
Reconciliation
We have left a deep cut in the indigenous peoples and when we say sorry the cut heals into a scab and then the scab falls off to reveal a scar which will stay there no matter how much we say sorry.
We need to start focusing on how we can change the indigenous peoples' futures into bright and happy ones.
If we keep doing things like the long walk we will achieve much more than giving the aboriginals rights but giving everybody the equal amount of rights.
Bella L - Year 5 Fire Carrier
