Aboriginal  Leadership Group - Our Year Together

This has been a great year for our group because, through stories and activities, we continue to learn about each other. Our Year 7s have recently joined us and we welcome them into the space and into the story of the room. Our students continue to grow, culturally and academically, and this is shown every morning when stories are shared about the successes each student has had in various subjects but also the connections that have been made through friends and family.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank Andrew Backhouse, Natalie Wearne, Donna James and Tracy Smith for their ongoing support and encouragement of me and our students. Their support has been invaluable to the knowledge that has been shared between students, teachers and their families. The room can tell many stories of the past and many stories of our kids dreams and hopes for their future. Every morning after Acknowledgement to Country Josh Potger makes us laugh with his jokes and his funny stories and I continue to discuss the issues about culture that our students are passionate about. Their awareness of the untold stories of their ancestors has been enhanced by the unity present in the room each and every morning.  

This year Mia Cincotta and Kira Morgan, two of our Year 11 students, spoke and presented an Acknowledgement to Country workshop with all staff members in one of our after school staff meetings.  The girls were passionate and knowledgeable about their culture. I felt so proud of them and hope to see them continuing these type of leadership initiatives. I would like to congratulate Mia and Kira for stepping up and taking the lead in this workshop.

We continued to engage in the cultural affirmation workshops with Macquarie University’s Walanga Muru Office of Indigenous Strategy. These have been invaluable to all our students learning about Aboriginal history, culture and knowledge.

Furthermore, our Year 7's participation in the iBelieve program with Dominic Dates has been invaluable to the students setting goals for their future directions with education and life.

Once again Gosford High School hosted NAIDOC week this year where our students participated in cultural workshops and shared their knowledge with other school students from Gosford Public School, Point Clare Public School and Gosford High School. I would like to thank Gosford High School for hosting this event as it is such an enriching and rewarding day for all our kids in the community.

NAIDOC Day – Because of her, we can

This year we were honoured to meet Riverbank Frank Doolan, a poet and writer, who sat down with students from Year 9 and our Year 12 Society and Culture classes and shared the stories of his past, his family and his experiences throughout his life. Our students listened intently as Riverbank’s wisdom and stories provided an insight into a very personal perspective on growing up in Australia. I would like to thank Mr Brian O’Heir for organising this memorable day for us.​

Riverbank Frank’s visit to our room

We say goodbye to our Year 12's this year and wish them lots of luck in their futures. I hope Khalen Beetham continues to produce his amazing artworks as he is an extremely talented artist. Lachlan Muir and Tom George will be walking the pathways of Macquarie University and I wish them well in their studies and beyond. They have been my teachers and I have learnt a lot from their knowledge of culture and country. Sonya Parkins has been a powerful presence in our group. She has been so dedicated in completing her HSC. She was awarded the Aboriginal Education Award this year because her commitment in completing her HSC was admired by all of us. We are looking forward to seeing what they all do in the future. They have been an integral part of our lives as their strength and pride in their culture has shown our junior students what success in education and life looks like. I will miss seeing their beautiful, happy smiles every morning. ​

This year has been extremely rewarding, not because of results or marks but watching our kids grow into proud individuals who have learnt more and more about their culture and their place in this world. Their voices are becoming passionate and curious about the past and their futures. Every morning we laugh, sometimes we’ve cried but most of all we have supported each other. Because of them, we can feel assured our futures are in safe hands.

I wish everyone a happy Christmas and a safe, adventurous holiday.

Miss Lisa Selsby  

Aboriginal  Liaison