From Father Gift

NAIDOC Week St George's style

On Monday we enjoyed a wonderful afternoon at St George’s Anglican Grammar School, as smoke rose beautifully from the front of St George’s Cathedral – our chapel. Unlike the smoke from a conclave announcing the election of a new Pope, this was a smoking ceremony marking the beginning of our NAIDOC Week celebrations, led by Mr Brett Collard, an elder from the Whadjuk Budjar.

It was magnificent to see hundreds of our students from Years 10 to 12 walk through the scented smoke into the cathedral. The smoke from the burning native plants is believed to carry cleansing and healing properties. By our staff and students passing through this smoke, we showed our respect for the country and its traditional custodians, the Whadjuk Noongar people. This act also served as a reminder of the importance of cleansing and healing of our relationships with traditional owners of the land.

On the following Thursday, we held a different version of the NAIDOC service for the Junior Chapel (Years 7 to 9), although this service did not include the smoking ceremony. It was also such a delight to see and hear our Year 7 student, Angus McAullay, recite the Lord’s Prayer in Noongar, and afterwards give the Noongar-English variation. Throughout NAIDOC Week, our students wore Aboriginal wristbands and participated in activities such as researching Noongar translations for selected English words during PCG. Additionally, we organised lunchtime culture walks for students interested in visiting historical traditional sites in the Perth CBD. At St George’s Anglican Grammar School, we value NAIDOC Week as a significant opportunity to learn about the history and traditions of the First Nations Peoples and to explore ways we can collaborate with them to help make Australia a great nation.

Fr Gift Makwasha

School Chaplain