In the Classroom

NAIDOC Week 2023

At the end of last term in Week 10, we celebrated NAIDOC Week. NAIDOC Week is a time that we reflect and celebrate the histories, cultures and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. This theme for this year is 'For Our Elders' which highlights and celebrates the importance of listening and respecting all Elders and honouring the important role they play as cultural knowledge holders and leaders in communities.

During this week we had lots of fun activities and learned about our First Nations languages. We started the week listening to a Dreaming story from Uncle Wes Mann. Using our local First Nations dictionary 'Speaking Our Way' we were able to translate this years theme into the local languages. 

Throughout the week we unpacked the term 'respect' and what it means to me, my elders and family members. We looked at honouring our Elders by researching influential Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples and learned about what some of these people had achieved and their impact on the wider community.  

We explored colours of the rainbow in Noongar language, which is an Aboriginal language from Noongar Country which cover the entire south-western corner of Western Australia. 

Miss Cattelini taught us a few things about Tiwi culture where she taught and lived for 3 years. The Tiwi country is an island 80km north of Darwin, where culture and language is quite strong today. We learned about some of the language, about the 4 skin groups (Sun, Mullet, Rock and Pandanus) and how they work, as well as some traditional customs.

We finished our NAIDOC Week by watching a dance performance and a tutorial lesson with the Wagana Aboriginal Dance Company. The dance is a Dharug and Wiradjuri welcome dance. We thoroughly enjoyed this dance and after just a few practices we performed this welcome dance to Mrs Higgins and Mrs Harris.