Smoking Ceremony at our Molesworth Street Campus
Wurundjeri Elder “Uncle Ringo” with NMPS students “Seb”, Tristan, Year 6 Koorie Councilor, Nattai and Max.
By Tristan Year 6A, NMPS Koorie Councilor
On the 9th September, we had our smoking ceremony at the new school campus.
It was great to be a part of this special occasion.
At ten o’clock there was an announcement over the intercom, for all the First Nation students to come to the office. Sarah and Gabi walked us over to the new campus where we signed in and put on our helmets and high vis vests. After that we finally walked on to the actual site, we walked through, where the office and library would eventually be, to the back of the room. At the end, there was a lift. We took that temporary lift to the very top of the building where we had an amazing view of North Melbourne. Up the top, we met with construction workers and a Wurundjeri Elder, Uncle Ringo.
Uncle Ringo did a Welcome to Country and acknowledged the wide Indigenous community. He told us a story about the Land using two rocks to represent how far people came to get resources. After this, he added dry eucalyptus leaves onto a fire bowl which was then lit. He spoke about the importance of a smoking ceremony which is to cleanse, welcome, and respect people who have recently died in the Indigenous community.
Uncle Ringo handed nice, juicy, green eucalyptus leaves to us Koorie kids and the construction workers which we added to the fire. This created smoke which we were able to cleanse ourselves in.
I really liked seeing people’s reactions to the smoking ceremony since it is so unfamiliar to people.
Overall, it was a really cool experience.