Nunga News

Nunga News 

Yarning Circle Design

Earlier this year, we were lucky enough to secure a Reconciliation SA Grant to build a Yarning Circle. The use of a yarning circle is an important process within Aboriginal culture and Torres Strait Islander culture. It has been used by Indigenous peoples from around the world for centuries to learn from a collective group, build respectful relationships, and to preserve and pass on cultural knowledge.

Reconciliation Action Plan

By using yarning circles as a teaching and learning strategy, students’ understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge and ways of working are enhanced. Our school has a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) and one of the actions is to visibly demonstrate respect for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Building a yarning circle will be a way of addressing this action as it will be outside and visible to the school community. This would be an outdoor learning space for classes to use, as well as a place for meetings to occur.

A yarning circle can:

•    enrich the school curriculum and learning experiences of students

•    promote student/student and student/school/community connectedness

•    allow people to explore other viewpoints with mutual respect

•    provide a safe environment for people to speak honestly and to be heard

•    give a sense of empowerment and inspiration while promoting habits of respect, responsibility and accountability

•    be used as a tool for reciprocal sharing and learning.

We had Kaurna Elder, Elaine Magias, help with the consultation and design process of our Yarning Circle to incorporate traditional Aboriginal concepts in the design. These include:

·       Having a compact sand base so students can draw in the sand while storytelling.

·       2 large boulders to represent Kaurna ancestors welcoming people into the circle.

·       Four Kaurna country markers with the Kaurna names engraved to show the four landmarks that make up Kaurna country.

·       Native Kangaroo grass edging and other natives for shade.

·       Firepit to use for storytelling, cooking and meeting

We are also upgrading our Bush Tucker Garden. This is indicated by numbers 5, 6 and 8 in the bottom right corner of the design concept, see link below.

Watch this space…

Nukkan!

Kath