Staff and students at Coromandel Valley Primary School are committed to taking action for Reconciliation and participated in Reconciliation Week 2020 in lots of exciting ways.

First we participated in an initiative by the City of Mitcham and Blackwood Reconciliation Group to display hands in our community to show support for reconciliation. In the lead up to Reconciliation Week classes 2M and 6V collaborated with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students to paint hands to be displayed on our school fence. Students also wrote words on hands representing their understanding of Reconciliation.

Students were filmed holding up the painted Reconciliation hands. This was then made into a film narrated by the voice of Aunty Avis Gale (nee Edwards) telling her experience of being a member of the Stolen Generation. Permission for use of Aunty Avis’ voice and image was granted by Allen Edwards, Avis’ son and Chair of Blackwood Reconciliation Group. You can hear more of Aunty Avis’ story and the stories of other Tji Tji Tjuta on listening posts at Blackwood Reconciliation Park in Eden Hills. It was a great privilege to be able to pay tribute to Aunty Avis, who was one of the original residents of Colebrook Training Home, who sadly passed away earlier this year. Our heartfelt thanks to Allen for his permission and sincere condolences to him and his family for their loss. Thank you to Allen and Blackwood Reconciliation Group for their support and for providing the recording of Aunty Avis. Please take the time to watch our Reconciliation film, which was also shown at assembly during Reconciliation Week and submitted to Reconciliation Australia as part of the Schools Multimedia Competition. Thank you to the City of Mitcham for writing about our display and film in their Latest News.

During Reconciliation Week many classes watched a Welcome to Country Smoking Ceremony by Uncle Lewis Yerloburka O'Brien and Uncle Micky O’Brien at Flinders University. This was a very moving ceremony that we would previously have not had the opportunity to watch. Due to COVID-19 many Reconciliation events were online and we have made the most of this!

3J enjoyed opportunities to explore indigenous artwork and symbols as a way of telling creative stories. They also enjoyed working alongside our younger buddies in RN to design our reconciliation hands as a way of respecting and recognising indigenous Australians as Australia’s first people.

3BM watched the smoking ceremony and a film featuring Ngarrindjeri dance with Major ‘Moogy’ Sumner and really enjoyed learning about Indigenous culture and history and had a lot of questions and ideas to share. With their buddies in RM they watched the Play School Acknowledgement of Country episode which included stories and songs from different language groups around Australia and also the Tiwi Islands.  They learned how some Indigenous groups use symbols to write stories and we used some of these symbols to write our own short stories on our Reconciliation Week hands. Inspired by Playschool RM have displayed their hands on a painted tree in their classroom.

4G and 4M watched the smoking ceremony and read the story ‘Stolen Girl’. They created art pieces using hand prints, showing  connections to home and belonging. 

5T collaborated with their younger buddies in RG for a Zoom chat with Di Grigg from Blackwood Reconciliation Group who has worked with staff, parents and children in Aboriginal Education for the past two decades. We are grateful for Di’s experience in sharing curriculum and teaching cultural competency for all children. Di is passionate about helping all children to have an awareness and Aboriginal children have the equal opportunity to develop skills and experience success in their learning. Thank you to Di for helping our students learn about the meaning and importance of Reconciliation and how they can take action. Students then created a display for the classroom window to show their support for Reconciliation.

RG, RM and RN read lots of picture books including Once There Was a Boy by Dub Leffler and My Country by Ezekiel Kwaymullina. Students learned about places and why places are important to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. They created artworks representing places special to them and their family. Students also welcomed Kaurna Elder doll, Ngangkita, who is helping them learn some Kaurna language.

1TM made their own paint using rocks from our natural environment and painted on paper bark to display their Reconciliation hands.

5B responded to a video of Ngarrindjeri dancing using a thinking routine, sharing what they noticed and wondered about Major ‘Moogy’ Sumner and his dancing. They also created a Reconciliation hands display using their learning about the colour wheel.

Congratulations to all the staff and students on their amazing commitment to teaching and learning about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Perspectives and taking action for Reconciliation.

Kylie Gardner

Aboriginal Education Teacher