Message from the Director

Dear Colleagues,

National Reconciliation Week - Now more than ever. 

National Reconciliation Week was held from 27th to 3rd June with the theme "Now more than ever".

Reconciliation Australia says of the week ‘time for all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures, and achievements and explore how we can contribute to reconciliation in Australia.’

And then goes on to say - 

Now More Than Ever, the work continues—in treaty making, in truth-telling, in understanding our history, in education, and in tackling racism.

We need connection.

We need respect.

We need action. And we need change.

Now more than ever, we need reconciliation.

St Philomena’s Moree attended the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Veterans Commemorative Service held in Sydney on Friday 31st May. The trip was funded through collaboration between CSNSW, AIS, and the NSW Office of Veterans Affairs. St Philomena’s were successful in their submission to attend. Thank you to the staff and students who took part in this commemoration.

2024 Catholic Schools NSW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Conference

We are extremely excited to co-host the 2024 Catholic Schools NSW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Conference in Tamworth in October. It has been great to see the Message Stick make its way around our Diocese and how our communities are embracing the message. The Student Engagement Days have been a great way to work with our young people to prepare for the conference. Thank you to Karen Tighe, James Russell and Judi Wark for all their work in preparing for this event. 

The Conference includes walking on country at Myall Creek Massacre site on day one. This will be followed by two days of great keynotes and workshop sessions. Abstracts are now being called for the workshop sessions and if you would like to showcase the great work you are doing please think about doing so. The link for abstracts is here.

Catholic Schools Week

Thank you to everyone for the way you celebrated Catholic Schools Week. It was wonderful to see and experience such joy in our communities. Thank you to Monsignor Ted Wilkes for celebrating all three masses and his message about praying with hope and what that means. I also want to thank Damian Roff, Darryl Martin, Kate Frazier, and all the RECs who worked to make the Masses and celebrations so great. Thank you to Tahnee Denton for the fantastic videos, stories and promotion of Catholic Schools Week.  A big thank you to our sponsor UniSuper for their continued support. It was great to have Julianne Coleman from UniSuper at our Mass in Armidale. 

What a great opportunity it was to celebrate all the wonderful work you all do every day to support our young people to realise a hope-filled future.

How many selfies are too many you ask? 

Regina

Director of Schools