Deputy Head of College News

What’s your story? 

I love a good story. I love the embedded metaphors. I love the human truths which emerge. When we share our story we often begin with sharing facts – our family, our job, our suburb. However, when we share a story about a moment in our life things change. The facts fade whilst our values, our hopes, our disappointments, our joys and our struggles emerge. For me, these human traits and truths make stories intriguing.

Two powerful moments of storytelling occurred at the College this past week. Our Year 12 Retreat of last week and our current celebration of NAIDOC Week. Both storytelling moments relied less on facts and figures and more on experiences that compel us to greater understanding, greater compassion and greater wisdom.

A key aspect of the Year 12 Retreat was for our seniors to take stock of and share their story - Where have I come from? How did I get here? What might be next? Answers to these questions were shared and respectfully listed to in small groups of staff and students. Some shared more. Some listened more. We each have our own pace with stories. Through reflecting on these questions posed, listening to others and sharing with others, our Year 12s have had a close encounter with the human truths which reside within each of our stories. 

Our College’s celebration of Indigenous culture and achievement with this week’s NAIDOC Week, provided the time and space to listen to stories of our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students, Elders and staff in word, dance and music. I found the most enlightening story was the cultural dance. Our students beautifully illustrated traditional Aboriginal gathering practices. Every movement was a chapter of the story of the honeybee – the chopping of hands to indicate the felling of a tree, the synchronised footsteps for the collective commitment to a task, the flinching of faces as the bees sting and the picking of hair to highlight how hair was used as a tracing tether of sorts. Superficially this dance story could describe a hunting and gathering mission. However, the bee stings highlight how this story is one of curiosity and understanding of colonisation. Here are these new bees which produce prolific amounts of honey, however, boy can they sting! 

Storytelling is central to both Catholic and Aboriginal spirituality. Exploring and enabling each of these traditions over the past week highlights how storytelling is well and truly alive here at Marist Ashgrove. Our stories are sacred. Who we are, where we have come from and where we might be next is unique. May we take time to listen to each other’s stories, for there lies within each of these tremendous truth and wisdom.

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