Marrung

On Tuesday March 12 we launched our Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) with the community at a special assembly. 

We were thrilled to welcome the following guests to take part in the ceremony:

 -  Uncle Arbup Peters  - Local Elder and DET Koorie Education Coordinator 

 -  Kira Peters - Our school's Koorie Education Support Officer

 -  Richard Lambert - Senior Education Improvement Leader who leads the Marrung Initiative for our region for the DET

 -  Mark Lumley - Koorie Education Support Officer

 -  Jana Stewart MP - Federal Parliament Senator

 -  Sonja Terpstra MP - State Parliament Senator

You can read our RAP here:

Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony

We were incredibly lucky to have Uncle Arbup deliver a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony to commence our assembly. He delivered the Welcome in the language of his people and offered for teachers and parents to come forward to be cleansed by the smoke.

Year Level Contributions

Each year level made a significant contribution the assembly, with exceptional support from their teachers. 

Prep Students - Presented their Acknowledgment of Country with words and actions.

1/2 Students - Performed Heads, Shoulders, Knees and Toes in Woiwurrung Language.

3/4 Students - Baked Lemon Myrtle Scones, designed Aboriginal art inspired gift bags and wrote letters to our special guests.

5/6 Students - Researched and presented information on our local Aboriginal history, including Simon Wonga, Coranderrk and more. 

Wominjeka Sign

Our Art Captains and several other senior students created the beautiful artwork in the Wominjeka sign for the assembly. The artwork is too incredible for only one assembly so there are now plans for this to be transferred to the Wominjeka garden at the top of the school. A big thank you to Kristy Salisbury for helping to create this.

Presentation of a Torres Strait Islander Flag

One of the commitments in our RAP is to ensure we display the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags. We were thrilled that we could make this action a reality as Jana and Sonja presented our school with a Torres Strait Islander flag. 

Planting in the Wominjeka Garden

We enjoyed showing our guests our Wominjeka Garden at the top of the school, which was created with the Grade 3 and 4 students and teachers in 2022. We were lucky to have Mark Lumley, an expert in plants, talk to some of our school leaders and green team members about some of the plants in the garden. He also helped us plant some new indigenous plants. 

Colour Dress Up Fundraising

Thank you to all the students who dressed up in the colours of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Flags. Not only did it give the assembly a lovely colour but it also helped us raise some money to bring our RAP actions to life.  

We appreciated all the support from the community for this event. We were overjoyed that so many families were able to attend. Some our special guests commented on how amazing it was to have you all there! 

I'm looking forward to sharing further updates on the progress of our RAP throughout the year. 

Tim Phillips

Marrung Leader