Text by Rose Chapman with photographs by Nina Harrison

On the 26th of July, we had a very special Year 7 assembly. We had a special guest coming to talk to us about the upcoming tree day event that was happening later on in the week. Tree Day is a special event held every year across Australia, this year it is on Friday 29th July. For us at MGC we have also incorporated an indigenous element and so Wurundjeri Elder Aunty Di Kerr came in and told us about her culture and family and what looking after the environment meant to her. Aunty Di and her family are traditionally from the Wurundjeri tribe. She was able to perform for us a smoking ceremony. As a signal of an official welcoming to these lands, which are traditionally owned by the Wurundjeri people, Aunty Di brought us outside near the Birrarrung (Yarra) and we all in single file walked through the smoke of the burning Eucalyptus tree leaves to be part of this special MGC smoking ceremony. Traditionally the smoking ceremony was used to welcome different Aboriginal tribes onto each other’s lands, but now it is used for many other welcoming ceremonies.

Throughout the week in our Physical World classes we learnt more about the plants and how important they were and then later in the week, on the Friday 29th July, the practical part of our celebration of Tree Day occurred with the planting of indigenous plants. The MGC environment team organised a tree day, all the Year 7 students were given the opportunity to learn about Australian native plants and how the Wurundjeri tribe used these plants. Murnong Dave, as he is called, was invited by the environment team to come and teach us about these plants and the traditions of the Wurundjeri tribe.

The class started off with an introduction by Dave who gave us a brief talk on the plants we would be planting and the importance of keeping culture alive by planting and maintaining these plants. Murnong is a type of root vegetable that can be cooked on the fire and eaten. As Dave has planted so many of these in the past and his connection to the area, he is called, Murnong Dave. And this year the environment team decided to experiment and give us all a sense of ownership around the native plants we were planting, by putting the indigenous name of the plant before our name, for example if you were planting Lemandra and your name was Emily you would be called, Lemandra-Emily.

After the introduction we were all given a plant of our choosing and were

taught how to carefully take the plant out of its box and place it in the ground safely. The Environment team had set up a garden bed just outside of school near the Yarra. With caution we all proceeded to take out our plants and bury them in the ground.

While we were planting our plants Murnong Dave told us the history behind various plants and how the Wurundjeri cultivated plants like the Murnong and Lemandra. The Wurundjeri tribe had massive plantations growing all the way up from Victoria to Sydney. This was their main source of food, but after the Europeans came and colonised Australia all the sheep and cattle they brought over destroyed much of the Lemandra and other indigenous plants bringing many such plants close to extinction. Fortunately today these plants can be propagated and reintroduced. Murnong Dave also brought some traditional weapons and digging sticks and he let us try on his kangaroo cloak. He explained that you wore it with the fur on the inside to keep you warm. And as it was a very cold day many students and teachers and even the principal tried it on.

Overall, the day was great, we all thanked Murnong Dave for the session and went back to class. We hope to visit our plants as they grow and we look forward to seeing the whole area next to the river flourish and thrive during our six years at school. Thanks to Mr Andrew Vance for organising such a special day and to the MGC Environment Team who kept the fire going and assisted with many of the practicalities. From small things, big things grow.

We're off to see the Wizard!

Cast One - Thursday 4th August