Orientation Week Smoking Ceremony and Swinburne's New Mural!

Orientation Week Smoking Ceremony and Swinburne's New Mural! 

It's been an exciting start to the year for Swinburne Senior SC, with two initiatives of our Reconciliation Action Plan coming to life. 

In the first week of Term, Wurundjeri Elder Perry Wandin led our first Welcome to Country Ceremony, including a traditional smoking ceremony. Staff and students walked through the smoke one by one, cleansing ourselves of negative energies. Perry told us to pay special attention to the soles of our feet, so that as we walk across Wurundjeri country we are leaving behind anything unwelcome. 

Smoking ceremonies have been described as serving as a kind of Visa;  the unique scent created by the specific combination of smoldering leaves  helping to differentiate welcomed guests from unknown intruders. 

Next, artist Simone Thompson visited with her son, to paint a mural at the front of our school celebrating our ongoing connections to culture and country. Simone is a Melbourne based Aboriginal artist and Traditional Owner of Victoria’s Woi-Wurrung Wurundjeri and Yorta-Yorta language groups through her mother, and Irish and Scottish through her father.  She draws inspiration for her art from "the abundant textures and colours of this beautiful land along with the ancestral bonds I have to the Birrarung (Yarra River) and Dhungala (the Murray River)". Simone describes her people as river people; "I find that waterways often interweave into my art along with dreaming and creation stories of the sky", she says.

This project was developed through 2023 in consultation with our First Nations students and families, who helped select the artform, artist, site, and style/colours of the work. We are grateful for funding from the Department of Education and Training's Cultural Understand and Safety Training projects fund, which contributed to making these projects possible.  

Part of my role as Learning Specialist - Leader of Learning and Teaching is to act as the Murrung Lead at Swinburne Senior SC, overseeing the development and  implementation of our Reconciliation Action Plan.  If anyone has any ideas or initiatives they would like to bring forward, or would like to become more involved in reconciliation at Swinburne, I would love to hear from you. 

At Swinburne SSC, we are grateful to learn and teach each day on Wurundjeri land, and we pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging. We also extend that regard to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students and families at our school. 

Meiki Apted 

Marrung Lead and Learning Specialist