Term 2 – Week 6. The Ongoing Story of Reconciliation

What reconciliation means is remembering what has happened to Aboriginal People and working to say sorry and come together.

Alba

Throughout week 5 and week 6, the children in 1/2N2 have been exploring our inquiry through the lens of reconciliatio. Through provocations, we have explored stories told by local indigenous people, dreamtime stories and the stories of our own shared indigenous history. It is important that we all deeply understand our past, in order to begin to take steps towards reconciliation. 

A wonderful opportunity to present our learning in the week 7 whole school assembly meant that the students in 1/2N2 were able to collaborate, creating a giant puppet show to tell the story of our connection to land, history and reconciliation.

It begins with the story of the rainbow serpent in the Dreamtime that created the whole earth. The land, the skies, the creatures and the people.

Then we move into sharing about Wurundjeri land which was created long ago. We learnt that it was created by Bunjil in the Dreamtime and now Bunjil still watches over us. The red star in our sky today is Bunjil’s campfire. Bunjil is the Woiwurrung word for the animal eagle.  

We also learnt about and shared Woiwurrung words that we use every day to name the places we are familiar with including The Yarra River, Wominjeka,  Merri-Bek council, and Bulleke-bek Park.

Finally, we share the daily moments in our school day that recognise and celebrate our indigenous history, including our daily acknowledgement of country, reading dreamtime stories learning and sharing stories through song and movement and finally connecting and learning from each other in yarning circles.

We are very excited to share our learning with you at our assembly, and through our daily ongoing steps towards reconciliation.