MARRUNG

THE YARNING CIRCLE

The Yarning Circle keeps growing! In 2025, we had new members from Year 7 join the Yarning Circle on fabulous Bunurong Country.

The Gippsland Koorie Day Out was the first big event on the calendar and two Year 10 students attended the massive careers expo on GunaiKurnai Country at Kernot Hall in Morwell. TAFE, University and further training options were all on hand for our students to ask questions, gain inspiration and networking opportunities.

We also celebrated NAIDOC Week at the end of Term 2 with a Possum Skin session, to the theme of Legacy. Designs were drafted and burnt onto the possum skins that tell the story of a favourite ancestor as well as describing the kind of "ancestorship" the designers want to leave behind.

In September we trekked over to Foster Secondary College on shared Bunurong, GunaiKurnai and Brataulung Country as VIPs to celebrate their new Learning Stone area. This event saw students from schools across Corner Inlet and our students divided into many different groups and guided through activity stations, contributing to artwork around the campus, learning storytelling and eating delicious bush tucker-inspired food. Friends and new connections were made and we were inspired by the program that the energetic and wonderful Marrung crew in the Foster schools put together for the community to enjoy.

Our Possum Skin Graduation Cloak collaborative project has its first official skin to kick off the cloak that promises to grow and grow over the years to come. The skins continue to reflect the journey of learning on Country, wherever that has been for the students. Keira Witton completed her skin design that will be in good company by this time next year and we congratulate her on finishing her studies, as she goes out into the wider world embracing her heritage and how it is inspiring her study plan, post-VCE!

Watch this space for development of our own Learning Stone, artworks and cultural celebrations across Korumburra Secondary College in 2026. We are moving decisively in the direction of self-determination and Truth-Telling, with even greater support from the historic Treaty with the Victorian Government. The Treaty recognises the harm that educational systems have done in the past and is moving us into creating a system that celebrates and includes First Peoples experiences, by creating space in an educational system that benefits all of us in our diversity and strengths.

Ms Kennedy

Marrung Coordinator