Student Achievement

Congratualtions to Kambrya College student, Zahra, who competed in and won the 2024 Naidoc Week School Initiative Competition - an initiative of Koori Kids and the Department of Education whose aim was to provide our kids with a greater understanding on the importance of friendship and cultural diversity.

This was presented to Zahra at our Awards Presentation Evening at the end of 2024. 

My name is Zahra. I come from an Afghan background, and I have recently moved to Australia...not moving, in fact I fled my country. 

Ever since I have heard or seen an indigenous issue here in Australia, I have always felt a sense of connection. A sense of Connection to their feeling, to their difficulties and to how they live their everyday life. 

I am not indigenous myself, but I have always known the feeling of seeing your people suffer because of past events. NAIDOC week is one of those times of the years where we come to celebrate the culture of our Indigenous people, and to remind ourselves of the ongoing trauma carried by them. 

Last year in July, when I came across the opportunity to share, I wrote an essay emphasizing on the difficulties of indigenous people. I like to think of it as more of an opportunity to share how I feel about the day-to day struggles of Indigenous people than a competition. 

Amid my VCE struggles, I forget about the competition, but eventually I won the school initiative medal for NAIDOC week. My purpose of writing that essay was far greater than receiving an extrinsic award, but to feel that sense of fulfilment, that, I in fact did passed my thoughts and feelings to Indigenous people themselves. And that brings me closer to Indigenous history and the feeling of living in a country and not being a part of it. I lived that too..