Harmony and NAIDOC Week Celebrations
NAIDOC Week presentation- Robin Coopes-Williams
As part of our celebration of NAIDOC Week, the students participated in a mini Noongar language lesson that talked about:
- The best way for our students to learn Noongar is from Noongar speakers themselves. While Robinis not a First Nations person and has no background in Noongar language, she has been fortunate to take classes from Dylan Collard, an educator and Whadjuk/Ballardong mamaan (man) with a passion for the revival of Noongar language. He has encouraged his students to share the language far and wide as part of awareness-raising for the vulnerability of Noongar's survival.
- Students looked at the Tindale map, an attempt to represent the hundreds of language groups across Australia. Many of the languages from these First Nations groups are now extinct and many are threatened languages.
- Students also looked at the Noongar dictionary compiled by Rose Whitehurst following the work of Wilf Douglas.
- Students learned how to express their feelings in Noongar. See below for the phrases that they learned:
| Kaya | Hello |
| Noonook moorditj? | How are you? / Are you feeling good or strong? / RUOK? |
| Ngany moorditj. | I'm feeling good. |
| Noonook bidibaba? | Are you tired? |
| Ngany bidibaba. | I'm tired. |
| Winyarn | Sad |
| Karang | Angry |
| Kwobidak | Beautiful |
| Boordawan | We'll talk again soon / See you later / Goodbye |
Harmony Week musical assembly
With a Harmony Week theme of "Everyone Belongs", the assembly featured performances to showcase our multicultural student body. This included songs in Filipino, Mongolian and English and a Thai dance performance. Special thanks to Dean and Elijah for their efforts to make the performances a success.
Henna Designs
Students were invited to drop into the Canteen during Second Break for the chance to receive a Henna Design. Special thanks to the students and staff who volunteered to be our henna artists.