First Nations Education 

Northern Bay College has always been a significant leader in the education of our first peoples in Australia. We have one oft he largest cohorts of students who identify as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. With this came an award winning program of support for students and a series of professional learning sessions for staff to enhance cultural awareness.

In 2022 staff across the college undertook CUST (Cultural Understanding and Safety Training)   which further enriched the approaches we take to educate all of our students.

As well as staff training a number of special first people events took place during the year and classroom studies reflect the growing need for understanding and awareness of our full and extensive history. 

Koorie Aspirations Day

On 4 April nine Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from Years 7 - 9 across the college joined other Years 7 - 9 Geelong students at GMHBA Stadium for a day filled with opportunities. The following day,  April 5, five students from Goldsworthy Campus in Years 10 - 12 got the opportunity to attend their own Aspirations Day.  

The students were encouraged to:

 ‘Believe, Achieve and Succeed’.  

An important component of each day was attending two workshops and spending time setting goals as part of a presentation by the Polly Farmer Foundation.   One Year 7 proclaimed the day, “The best excursion I have ever been on!”.  Another went to school on Tuesday asking if they could attend the senior session as well.  

The college was lucky enough to win a wonderful work of art done by local artist, Lowell Hunter.  This work will be displayed, on rotation, across the college.  Lowell has also very generously offered to speak to the work for students to be videotaped and shared across all campuses.  

A special moment had Year 12 student, Cory Williams Megee, (pictured in the page heading)  awarded a plaque from Wathaurong Glass commemorating his wonderful achievement in completing his Year 12 VCE.

Djila-Tjarri Yerran

At the College's Family Learning Centre on Goldsworthy Road our youngest community members joined with City of Greater Geelong and other Local support organisations and agencies to hold the Djila-Tjarri Yerran traditional Wadawurrung language for  “Nature Play - Family Fun Day” first children’s event of 2022!

 I’d also like to acknowledge the enormous contributions and work of 2 very special people, Ang and Nikki from City of Greater Geelong, the foundations behind Djila-Tjarri Yerran success.  We think that between 150-200 people attended the event over the 3 hours. 

The children loved the day and the highlight was of the animals. Its not everyday you can get up and personal with an enormous carpet python called ‘Cuddles’!

Mostly it is you - our community of families with young children who are at the heart and the inspiration that is behind the planning that makes events like this a great success. We look forward to more future fun events with you this year.  

Look at what the children got to experience:

Classroom work on Culture and Understanding

Back in the classroom, students across all stages of schooling have been involved in elements of First People learning. In the 3 to 6 community the students were exploring our History theme through reading and responding tasks. This has involved our Year 3/4 children exploring Indigenous Australian Culture and Dreamtime stories and the Year 5/6 children learning about significant events in Australia’s history such as colonisation, the gold rush and immigration. These learnings have been explored through story writing, where children were challenged to link historical events to their fictional stories. 

Although this has been an interesting challenge, we have loved looking at the way published authors write historical narratives. The video link on this page shows just how well some children have come to know these texts and how they were able to support our learning. 

A Special moment for Kailee -Jade

COLLABORATION - Celebrating Culture

In May Year 10 student

Kailee Kennedy was honored at a formal Networking Breakfast held by the North Shore Football Club for her work in designing the teams Indigenous playing strip.

As you can see in this picture Kailee has done a wonderful job in expressing her cultural identity and story through her artwork that will now be used by the club as a formal playing strip. Congratulations to Kailee for this wonderful achievement.

This next design is the preferred winner of the latest request for our students to design and celebrate in the community. Congratulations Haylie

Short Black Opera

Provides a special week for our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students in Year 4-6 at Northern Bay. in semester 1, twenty students participated in an intensive workshop with the very talented Opera singer Deborah Cheetham. Deborah is the founder and director of the Dhungal Choir, which many students from Northern Bay have been members of, and the amazing program Short Black Opera for Kids. In 12 hours, these students learnt 9 songs in 4 different languages and presented an amazing performance on the Friday at the Geelong Arts Centre. 

This was a very magical and emotional performance where our students were excellent ambassadors of Northern Bay. 

From this performance five students were chosen to join the Dhungal Choir and perform at the Geelong Cats home game during the Dreamtime round at GMHBA Stadium.

 Campfire Conversations

We have had a very strong year focusing on our First Peoples and there is a whole page devoted to our activities. This highlight also appears on that page.

A real highlight from earlier this term was the Self Determination Campfire Conversations that occurred for all NBC Koorie students, their families and wider NBC community members. The Campfire Conversation process aims to support Koorie students and their families to have a proactive voice in their education and in how their school can support the celebration and inclusion of Indigenous voice and culture. Through these events students were able to share their hopes for their learning and future, provide feedback on how their school currently supports them to show pride in their heritage and give voice to how their school can be further inclusive and aware of the hopes and dreams of indigenous students. 

Senior NBC students demonstrated great leadership as they supported their younger peers to share their voice. The community sessions were attended by parents, key DET representatives and community elders including Aunty May who helped to further advocate for greater awareness and inclusion of the needs of indigenous students at our school. These sessions were extremely uplifting and we thank Ken Massari and Audra Czyzewski along with support staff from all Campuses who worked to bring together an outstanding opportunity for our students. 

The College has several major 'events to share the importnat messages from our Fistr Nation communities

We support fReconciliation Week and National Sorry Day.  This year, the theme of Reconciliation Week was to “Be Brave. Make Change”.  A challenge to all Australians— individuals, families, communities, organisations and government—to Be Brave and tackle the unfinished business of reconciliation so we can Make Change for the benefit of all Australians.

GROWTH - Polly Farmer Foundation - Dare to Dream

Recently we were very fortunate to be identified by the Polly Farmer Foundation as the newest location for a ‘Follow the Dream’ (FTD) site. The Polly Farmer Foundation, now in its 25th year, is a strength based academic enrichment program that supports First Nations students to reach their dreams and aspirations through tutoring, mentoring and alumni programs. 

With over 40 sites already established across the country, Northern Bay will be the first site developed in Victoria. The FTD initiative will provide huge support for our students and their families and comes with a rich history of success. Stay tuned for more news on what this means for our students.

Koorie Cultural Walk 

Our year 7/8 Students during week 7 have taken part in an excursion to Point Addis where they undertook a 'Koorie Cultural Walk' to learn information about how Indigenous people, the Wadawurrung people, lived around this area. They were also able to explore the area as many of our students hadn’t been there before. 

Here is a report from our students:

Zin Zin Htay Tun: The Wexford 7-8s went on an excursion to Point Addis on Friday, August 26th. We immediately strolled down to the extremely clean and beautiful beach to have our snack and do a little exploring after getting off the bus when we arrived. Many students were alarmed by a little playful dog who approached some of their faces and licked them. When everyone had finished, we returned to midway and took a different route (the nature walk). We came across signs while walking that provided details on various cultural aspects. There were different signs that contained fascinating information on local plants. We eventually arrived at a patio close to the cliff's edge after what seemed like a very long walk! After that, we returned to the beach to continue our beach activities and have our lunch. Overall, this excursion was fantastic, and I would definitely go back there in the future.

Indigenous Garden and Yarning Circle

The VCAL Foundation students created a space where people can get together to talk in natural surroundings.  The space features individual rock gardens surrounded by native shrubs. Central to this is our yarning circle, which is a large compacted gravel circle with log seating and a fire pit for ceremonies.  We separated the area from the other vegetable gardens by adding some fruit trees. 

To complete this project, the students researched plants and liaised with Karyn at the GenU Nursery so they could create their own gardens which included many edible species of plants.  Kath Ozog and Barney were also on the team.  We were fortunate to be able to use some of the rocks from the school construction site and large branches from a tree that had to be cut down.  Barney’s trailer made moving them a possibility. 

We have been given permission from Judy Dalton-Walsh, a traditional owner of the Wadawurrung country, to use the word ‘Gobata’, which means ‘Hello’ as the name for our garden area.

Year 10 Art students are helping to create our sign and graphics.  Mr Ellson in the GITTC Engineering team, will work his magic to cut these out of steel.  We’re hoping to add some planter boxes for herbs and a mural in 2023.