Student Leaders Report

Year 6 Visit to the Islamic Museum of Australia

Today all the year 6 students went to the Islamic Museum of Australia in Thornbury to experience the history of Muslim people and their culture in Australia. In the beginning, we had a staff member who introduced themselves as 'Sherene Hassan', who is an important person in Australia. Sherene has an OAM and was awarded Muslim Woman of the Year in 2016 . She gave us a presentation about how the Muslims came to Australia in the 1700s to trade with Indigenous people. We also learned how Muslim cameleers supported early Australia by building railway tracks, telephone lines, transporting water and supplies, and even working as ambulances. We heard the story of the ants in the fire and how Prophet Muhammad instructed that the fire must be put out to save the ants. This teaches us that it is a sin to hurt or kill any living thing, including hurting people with your words and actions. 

After the presention, we split into two groups and we had partners. Then we had to complete a school tour scavenger hunt, so we went into different galleries and read the information relating to the topic of the gallery. We saw Adam Goodes's AFL boot, that was signed by him. We also saw art pieces that were a combined with mix of Austrailan and Islamic art. We learnt that the Aboriginal arts can be represented by pearls with the help of Muslim people. After that we prepared to go back to school.

We had a wonderful experience at the Islamic Museum of Australia and feel very lucky that we got to visit such an important place.