WHILE NAIDOC Week took place during the school holidays, Leongatha Primary School (LPS) students didn’t miss out, the school held indigenous-themed activities on Friday.
LPS always celebrates NAIDOC Week but took a different approach this time, combining students from various year levels rather than keeping them in their own classes, the change proving successful.
Grade 5 teacher, Marie Gestrin is also the ‘Marrung lead’ for the school, explaining that Marrung is part of a Victorian Government initiative to integrate more cultural awareness into schools.
She said ‘Marrung leads’ from various Gippsland schools come together for workshops.
During Friday’s NAIDOC Week celebrations, Sentinel-Times visited students while they were engaged in activities.
“We’re creating fire crowns,” Charlotte said, explaining that involved using oil pastels and scissors to make the flames which are attached to backing paper that forms the crown, with gum leaves then added.
In other activities, students helped produce large Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags with crepe paper, created shapes such as emu feet with string, and played a target game based on spear-throwing practice, but took the safer path of aiming marbles at a table tennis ball.
Students also learnt to sing ‘I am Australian’, and to sign the school’s new First Nations acknowledgement statement in Auslan.
All students came together to put that practice into action, the LPS language captains and music captains leading proceedings, with the acknowledgment given verbally and through hand signs.
Everyone looked to be having fun while learning.
“A huge amount of work goes into these days’,” principal Dot Coghlan told the assembled youngsters, urging them to remember what NAIDOC Week is about, and thanking those who organised the day.
In addition to its NAIDOC Week activities and other efforts to share First Nations’ culture, LPS is developing a Reconciliation Action Plan, Marie said, with the intention being to have it finalised and signed off on before the end of the current school term.
She explained the aim is to lift the educational outcomes of Indigenous students and broaden awareness of their culture, with the school currently having nine Indigenous students.
