Message Stick Welcome Ceremony

On Monday 13th May, St Mary’s College and St Xavier’s Primary will be welcoming the arrival of an Aboriginal Message Stick.

The Armidale Diocese will be hosting the 2024 Catholics Schools NSW Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Education Conference “Spirit On Country: Learning Together, then, now & always” in Tamworth 22nd - 24th October. As part of the education conference is the important Message Stick. This message stick is presently traveling across our Armidale Diocese, being fully present in every Catholic Parish and School Community.

The Message Stick commenced its journey across our Diocese of Armidale, beginning at St.Joseph's Primary School - Walgett. From there, the Message Stick has visited six parishes and school communities before resting a while here at SMC and St Xavier’s. It will continue journeying to every parish and catholic school in the Diocese, finally ending its journey at the Tamworth Regional Entertainment & Conference Centre where the Catholic School NSW Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander Education conference will take place. There, the message stick will be presented to the host of the Conference - the Armidale Diocese.

As the Message Stick journeys across our beautiful country, we keep in mind this year's conference theme: “Spirit on Country: Learning Together, then, now & always.” The message stick will be part of our monumental educational event which will highlight our students' cultures, success, aspirations and strengthen educational partnerships with our schools, communities, educators and nation.

At a combined gathering between the two schools, we will welcome the message stick into our school communities. The message stick shares the message of coming, learning and celebrating together.

Traditionally, Message Sticks were passed between different clans and language groups to establish information and transmit messages.They were often used to invite neighbouring groups to corroborees, initiation ceremonies, right of entry to country and invitation to religious rituals.

The Message Stick is one of the many ways Aboriginal people communicated and sometimes the stick was used as a teaching stick by drawing tribal boundaries, sacred ceremonial places, totems and tracking animals throughout the land in the sand of the land. When a Message Stick is handed to you from another person you become the messenger.

For a short period of time, St Mary’s College will showcase the Message Stick and then pass it to St Xavier’s Primary. Everyone is most welcome to come and view it on display at either school.

Culture

The cultural leadership team from St Xavier’s, Angela Jensen and Cruze Morley visited Sacred Heart Boggabri on Tuesday 7th May to participate in welcoming the Aboriginal Message Stick to the school community. Stories about the message stick and prayers were shared during the ceremony.

After the ceremony, Mr Morley gave a presentation about the uses of aboriginal tools and weapons to the students. He spoke about the special names of them, how they were used and what they were used for. Mr Morley shared his knowledge of a spear, boomerang, clapping sticks, stone axe and sharpening stone and coolamon.

Sacred Heart students thoroughly enjoyed learning about the history of traditional message sticks, tools and weapons used by the First Australians.

ANZAC Day 2024

Winter Uniform

Students will need to be in their full winter uniform by Monday 20th May (Week 4).

A reminder that St Xavier's uniforms are only available at Lowes in Tamworth or Lowes online.

School Photos

School Photo Day is Thursday 6th June.

You would have received an email from MSP Photographers with ordering instructions.

Please contact MSP Photographers on 6772 3519 if you have any issues or questions.

School Photos can be ordered through the Compass App.

Calling all green thumbs!

Many of you will be aware that we have a chicken coop at the school. The coop has a passionfruit vine that is growing over it. At the moment we have quite a bit of fruit (some very large) on the vine, but we are concerned about losing this fruit as the weather changes.

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to best protect this fruit so that we can pick it at its best.

The Learning Zone

Living Well, Learning Well