Koor Indigenous Garden

As we look back at 100 years and celebrate the incredible history of the school, we are also looking into our future and what possibilities and positive changes we can make collectively. With this in mind, delivering and ultimately embedding tangible actions in sustainability and Indigenous cultural awareness and education, and driving reconciliation, is a recent, yet long-term commitment of the school. There is a need to foster this commitment through varied programs, including through formal teacher-led learning and informal outdoor nature-based play. 

One of the core visions of our school is for the students of Ripponlea to be critical and creative thinkers, who are empowered with the skills and empathy to engage with an ever-changing world. As part of the sustainability committees role, we are committed to developing a community appreciation of biodiversity and the environment as a whole and help provide the tools and support for our community be active environmental stewards. At our school, we are committed and willingly working to reduce our impact on the Earth by being active custodians to preserve resources for future generations.

We plan to educate our peers, staff and families about sustainability, including through knowledge gained by partnering with and learning from Traditional Owners and Aboriginal Victorians, in order to create an ecological-friendly path towards a greener future. We know that our school community, and the community at large can benefit from Traditional Owner wisdom, relationships and cultural and environmental practices and protocols that remain alive and vibrant in these communities.

Aboriginal people lived off the land and managed resources to ensure that they were sustained for future use. That Aboriginal culture survived for so long before invasion is a testament to the sustainable lifestyle they practiced, and the deep and inseparable connection they had with Country.

Bush tucker helped build communities and acted as a sustainable source of food and medicine in Australia for millennia.  Considering all of this, we saw an opportunity to bring sustainability, Indigenous cultural knowledge, community building and student agency to our school through the creation of an Indigenous and bushtucker garden. 

We worked with our students and the Bunurong Land Council to design, build

and name our garden. The garden will support students to explore and experience ideas and issues in sustainability including increasing and supporting biodiversity, upcycling and reusing materials and water management. It will also support learnings on Aboriginal culture including how they engaged with and protected their environment for millennia. It will provide both learning experiences and spontaneous nature-based play. 

This first stage wouldn’t have been possible without the guidance, dedication, love and generosity from many people in our immediate and extended community. Firstly, we acknowledge and give ultimate gratitude to Kobi Sainty from the Bunurong Land Council, who shared his time and provided advice on the plant species we planted and ultimately provided the name of our garden. 

We thank and give appreciation to Alison Douglas, an ex parent of the school who voluntarily designed the concept. We give deepest thanks to our parent community who generously donated money through our sustainability fund in 2020. To the sustainability student leaders, thank you for providing us advice and sharing your deep knowledge and passion to help create the garden. There has also been so much assistance provided by our small, yet tenacious community to get this garden completed.

To all of the families who gently searched and collected sticks for our incredible fence, the parent volunteers who oversaw and got their hands on the tools and in the dirt, and to all the students who came and helped create this beautiful, truly special place in our school, we thank you.

Lastly, we couldn’t have completed this garden without the captain of our ship, our beloved overseer Dugald Jellie. Dugald, the magic, romance and gentleness of your work philosophy is deeply entrenched in this garden. The way you worked with the children, the deep respect you gave them, and the agency you provided them will be its lasting legacy. 

We are so grateful for your time, energy, commitment and most importantly the love you gave to our kids during the creation of our little garden, from the hand made fence, to the hand painted sign, to picking up the planters and sharing our vision, thank you so much. 

We cant wait to continue to work with you on the next stages of the

garden, and see it continue to take root.

To wrap this up we are so proud to therefore open the first stage of our garden on this truly special day, in the presence of so many special guests and visitors. Our garden is called the Koor Indigenous Garden, which in local Bunurong language means, ‘flowers grow’. 

May this garden be cherished by our community at large and provide a space for all our current and future little flowers to grow.

Julie Pearce – Sustainability committee & school council