NAIDOC Week comes early at Mount Egerton

STUDENTS at Mt Egerton Primary School got a better understanding of Wadawurrung culture last Friday.

The whole day was given over to NAIDOC Week activities, even though the seven-day celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait People, their cultures and achievements didn’t officially start until 1 July.

Carmen Merson, a Koori Engagement Support Officer from the Department of Education, said it was good when kids in Wadawurrung country learned about Wadawurrung culture.

“They can connect better when it’s local to them,” she said. “Our state body for Aboriginal education strongly encourage having localised learning and then moving out to other areas and cultures.”

Making sure the school’s 10 pupils were able to take part in NAIDOC Week was important to principal, Tegan Bell, especially as school was out during this year’s events.

“Because NAIDOC Week is in the school holidays, we felt it really important that we still acknowledge and celebrate the event during school term,” she said. “The school has done cultural understanding and safety training and with that staff are trying to ensure we are being inclusive of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people throughout the curriculum.”

As part of the day Mt Egerton Primary School ran an acknowledgement of country, storytellings and cultural understanding activities, with Bunjil the wedge-tailed eagle as a point of focus.

“We always encourage schools to embed Koori teaching and perspectives in the curriculum, we know it’s important,” said Zeta Wilson, Koori Engagement Support Officer.

“There’s a big push around our Marrung Aboriginal Education Plan where the first vision talks about all Victorians needing to know about Aboriginal culture.”

The theme of this year NAIDOC Week is “Voice. Treaty. Truth. Let’s work together.” It started on Monday, 1 July and runs until Sunday.