Aboriginal Education

We have had a very busy term this term in JAECG.  

AGM 

This term Kurri Kurri High School ran its annual AGM meeting where all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from Kurri Kurri High School had the option to vote and run for the positions of the JAECG executive team,  this term we elected the following to each position. President - Samuel Tedd, Vice President - Phillip Farley, Secretary - Esther Tedd, Vice Secretary - Jamiee Ward and Kobi Murray, PR Manager. The newly elected executive are so excited to be able to further benefit the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students at Kurri Kurri High School.  

Aboriginal Dance Ensemble  

Early in the term our Aboriginal Dance Ensemble consisting of year 8 and 9 students performed at Kurri Kurri Tafe as part of their NAIDOC Celebrations and represented our school exceptionally well. From this performance a video of their dance was submitted as an audition for the State School’s Spectacular Aboriginal Dance Ensemble to be performed in Sydney at the end of November. Fortunately, 9 students were successful in gaining a place in the Dance Ensemble and will have a busy week of rehearsals and performances in week 7 of Term 4. Congratulations to Georgia Sams, Charntae Lesslie, Ella White, Tyrone Dries, Taleesha Murphy, Tahlia Vinecombe, Stephanie Ovenstone, Kelyka Ward and Zalii Bodo. They are the first students to ever represent Kurri Kurri High School at School’s spectacular.  

 Leadership Day at Cessnock High  

On Tuesday the 30th of August Kurri Kurri High School newly appointed JAECG executive team had the opportunity of being invited to Cessnock High School for the termly hosted leadership day where they were able to gain more skills on what it means to be a leader, and gain and idea on some of the issues that the community face. Each term there is a leadership day for the JAECG and this term it was Cessnock High School’s turn to host one. The JAECG attending this meant that they were able to connect with the other JAECG teams from other schools within the Hunter Valley Region and communicate with one another to help understand how to come together to resolve the issues faced within the community. 

 SistaSpeak  

This term 9 Year 9 girls have began a 10 week program called SistaSpeak, aimed at building confidence and exploring a variety of career options by looking at various successful Aboriginal Women. We have been lucky enough to be joined by two amazing mentors, Jo Gilmour and Kaiya Mundine who are generously volunteering their time to work with our girls. 

The group are bonding really well together and it was lovely to see them support each other during our recent excursion to Raw Challenge at Doyalson where they completed a 4km mud obstacle course overcoming many fears and challenges. We can’t wait to see the growth at the end of the program.  

 Interschools art competition  

Each term for 2022 there is a different competition run for Kurri Kurri High School, Cessnock High School and Mount View High School. This term the challenge was an art competition where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island students from our school had the chance to compete. We had multiple different submissions from the students at our school. Congratulations goes to those students who have submitted their amazing art pieces. 

 Kullaburra Awards  

Kurri Kurri High School had the amazing opportunity of having many students from our school be elected for awards at the 2022 Kullaburra Awards at Mount View High School where Korreil Wonnai AECG celebrated the amazing work ethic and achievements of many Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander Students across our region. 

Dream Together – Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Girls Camp 

On the 1st and 2nd of September, 44 girls, along with Mrs Edwards and Ms Da Silva, travelled to Hunter Valley Retreat for an overnight excursion with the purpose of connecting with culture and understanding the importance of goal setting. Students were divided into stages:  

Stage 4: Building the Dream 

Stage 5: Growing the Dream 

Stage 6: Owning the Dream 

Each stage spent time working with Aboriginal mentors who would each assist them with developing their understanding of the importance of goal setting and assisted the students with setting their own goals. Each session began with students hearing the stories of these strong Aboriginal women; Tammy Wright, Sharni McCann, Courtney Rubie, Loren Collyer and Sharni Wellington. Their inspirational stories assisted the girls to develop the understanding of how setting goals can influence and set the direction of your life. The girls then spent more time working on how to develop a good goal and developing future goals for themselves.  

The girls also participated in a variety of cultural activities, beginning with a cultural experience with Aunty Michelle Lewis who led the girls through the importance of connecting with the earth and fire. While many of our girls were hesitant to take off their shoes, by the end, quite a few were undertaking a small bush walk with bare feet! This was then followed up with a bush tucker morning tea consisting of scones, Wattleseed cream, Strawberry cream and traditional jams such as Kakadu plum jam. It was delicious and very little was left at the end! 

Thursday afternoon, the girls were able to choose their own adventure, with bushwalking or art on offer. Students were engaged in paperbark painting, shirt designs with paint or bushwalking with Aunty Michelle and Aunty Jinta to learn more about the significance of various sites around the property. We walked all the way to the creek, and we were even visited by the wild horses, who we were able to feed apples to! 

A campfire, with stories by Aunty Jinta, with hot milo made over the fire and chocolate biscuits finished off our night. Despite the late night had by some, the girls were up early for breakfast and ready for a meditation session led by Aunty Michelle. The session allowed the girls to connect with the Dreaming. Aunty Michelle was able to describe the meaning of the animals that appeared to us during our meditation. 

Our last session of the day summed up the spirit of the camp. We were visited by Caitlan Johnston and Kayla Romaniuk from the NRLW Knights team. They talked to us about the commitment and goals they both had to set to get where they are today; along with reinforcing the importance of fitness and wellbeing in everyday life and how you can use these to achieve your goals. We finished the session by running drills with Caitlan and Kayla and our girls were very excited to have met such inspiring women. There were many pictures taken at the end of the session. A few Be Real photos were even taken! 

The girls will continue their ‘Dream Together’ journey next term, with follow up sessions just around the corner!