NAIDOC WEEK
NAIDOC WEEK
NAIDOC WEEK - KSC ASSEMBLY
To start term 3 we had a whole school assembly where we acknowledged and celebrated NAIDOC week.
Free Dress Day
Thank you to all the KSC students (and staff) who paid their gold coins and contributed funding towards the The Indigenous Literacy Foundation through our casual day fundraiser today.
If you still owe a gold coin for casual dress today, please drop it into the General Office ASAP so it can be included in the donated funds.
Dance Ceremony
As part of NAIDOC Week celebrations , KSC's Yarning Circle travelled to Foster Secondary College, where they hosted local schools for a dance presentation by the Wulgunggo Ngalu Learning Place Dance Group, followed by a Welcome and Smoking Ceremony.
The dancers performed 3 dances, culminating in the last one, depicting several totem animals, including Djirri (Kangaroo) Ngooran (Emu). The dances evoked deep knowledge of Country and the Culture that is the flame that keeps on burning in First Nations descendants.
A huge thanks to Foster Secondary College for hosting us and putting on a wonderful NAIDOC event.
Possum Skin Project
To round off our week of the KSC NAIDOC Week 2024, Keep the Fire Burning, we held our much-anticipated Possum Skin Project. It was the first session and is part of an ongoing project to develop a possum skin graduation cloak for all First Nations students reaching the end of their formal schooling at Korumburra Secondary College.
It was too deadly having Jarrod West, Bunurong Man and school parent come to mentor the group in planning their design depicting their individual learning journeys. Some had time to start on the burning and painting process with ochre, sourced locally from Jam Jerrup. Those who missed it this time round will now have more mentors in the room when we revisit the skins, and they will discover the effect of heat on keratin on the olfactory senses. By the time we smelled the 'burning hair' aroma, we knew progress was being made on the skins (apologies to the Art class that followed us!).
The designing and painting worked up an appetite, and we were fed generously with waffles and berries at morning tea, kindly provided by Fleming Berries!
The designs incorporate the Country that features in the learning journeys depicted, as well as the people who feature in the journey and on Country. Boonwurrung/Bunurong Country has been a place of learning for over 60000 years, and our obligation to look after this Country to keep learning alive is on all of us and each of us.
Thanks to Mirboo North Secondary College for lighting the project's fire from the spark of the Boolarra South collaboration in 2023, on GunaiKurnai Country. The collaboration also relied on resources from the Woodwork room, so thanks to Mr Santilli for these. A number of staff members and students dropped by to see what we were up to during the session, too and the curious, respectful interactions enhanced the experienced for everyone. Sharing and relationships with community are how we keep Culture burning.
Cultural projects that keep the fire burning keep First Nations young people Blak, Loud and Proud in their heritage and their future paths!
Happy NAIDOC Week 2024!
