Year 7 Excursion to Melbourne Museum

On Tuesday 16th May, the Year 7 cohort headed to Melbourne Museum to learn about Australia’s ancient past. Currently students are studying First Nations history and culture in History and Inspire classes. The Museum Gardens and Bunjilaka First Peoples Gallery offered a wonderful insight into the past, present, and future of the world’s oldest surviving continuous culture. 

Students were able to get some hands-on experience with fire sticks, hear common words spoken in a variety of First Nations languages, see how the First Peoples used nature to build, heal and innovate and gain an understanding of the breadth and depth of their knowledge of country. 

Our students will now bring this learning back to the classroom. 

Mrs Melinda Naughton

Assistant Head of Humanities and Learning Leader of the Achieve Program 

Student Recounts:

On Tuesday, the Year 7s went on an excursion to the Melbourne Museum. I had a really fun time learning about Australia’s history! We first explored the native plants that the Aboriginals used. My favourite one was a wooloot which is used for making nets. After that, we got to explore the different types of Aboriginal hunting weapons, clothing, languages, and cultures. My partner and I found out that they used a lot of different types of materials that nowadays are very rare to find which was very interesting. Overall, the excursion was a very fun way to understand and learn about Aboriginals and their history. 

Tiya Tinu (7 Jenkin) 

Whoosh! The bus creaked into motion. We were off! Everyone chatted loudly, excited for the day ahead. After a fun-filled, noisy bus trip we arrived at the Museum. Despite the light rain we all clambered eagerly off the bus. Our first exhibit was the Gandel Gondwana Garden, where we explored a range of indigenous plants. We then moved on to the Milarri Garden Trail, where we tried, in vain, to spot the eels. Once inside, we wandered through the First Peoples gallery, filling in our booklets. I enjoyed the activities table and looking at all the carved tools. We then ate lunch and climbed back on the buses for an amusing ride home. All in all, a very exciting day away. 

Hazel Ziffer (7 Jones)