Albany Primary School students spend final week of term learning about Aboriginal culture ahead of NAIDOC Week

Albany Primary School students embraced the spirit of NAIDOC Week in the final week of term two by taking part in a wide range of activities, including a friendly competition dubbed the Marngrook Cup. Deputy principal Kylee Weadley said the focus of the week was on “building knowledge and understanding of local Aboriginal culture and history”. “These activities included yarning, creating inspired artwork and learning about Indigenous songs and games,” she said. “Each classroom also created a NAIDOC window display showcasing their learning.” Wednesday afternoon saw four teams competing for the Marngrook Cup, named after a game played by Aboriginal people involving a ball made using possum skin and twine formed by its twisted hair. Mrs Weadley said there was three “very exciting” game played before Moorditj, meaning great or strong in Noongar language, defeated Danjoo, meaning together in Bibbulmun, 32-4 to claim the cup. “A big thank-you to all the staff for helping organise the event and the NAIDOC activities for the day, and to the P&C for the sausage sizzle lunch,” she said. “A special thank you to Miss Williamson and Mr Gardiner for their on-field umpiring and to Miss Jones and Mr Goldsmith for their creative and very entertaining goal umpiring.” All the learning for the week culminated in Friday’s assembly hosted by year four students from room 20. The students shared poems they had written. On display during the assembly was artwork showing the image of Mokare with a ribbon of coloured leaves trailing behind him to represent the “flow of life and the stories handed down from generation to generation”. OUR LAND Silently the country surround’s us with the musty smell of home. Family dreaming and dancing to the end. The old ancient spirits talking through the gumtrees. Yarning by the campfire on our land Ancestral embers dancing in the night sky. The warm weather burning on the hot dry sand. The didgeridoo fills the hot desert with its sound. The paper bark trees blossom when the Birak season starts. The hot and dry is where it all begins. Our connection to the land for sixty thousand years. Our spirit leads us to dreaming and dancing. By Cobi Where We Belong As the ocean beckons wild souls while my family wanders across the country living, knowing, learning. In time we pass on traditions from generation to generation living, knowing, learning. We have connection to our country as we follow the footsteps of our elders, and gaze at the wonderful land as it thrives. I feel the essence of belonging seep through My body and make the land feel alive. The land knows our heart, pride and legacy as It smells the ashes and sparks of our campfire Our inner being, our existence on this boodja. The motion of life is like the water washing Into shore, or the light of the sun just seeping through the arid forest. Carving, cutting, creating tools and instruments to follow on traditions. We will always acknowledge that this land is where we belong. Living, knowing learning. By Nina WE ARE THE LAND As I walk across our ochre land with my family, my elders right beside me, this is my home, where I belong. I am being, belonging with my brave brothers this is my home, where I belong. As I’m living off my country, following in my ancestors footsteps, gazing upon the stars, this is my home, where I belong. As I’m watching the boomerang drift through the breeze, waiting for it to return like an echo, I know…we are Aboriginal and we are this land. As I’m listening to my elders tell the spiritual dreamtime stories we pass down from generation to generation, I know…we are Aboriginal and we are this land. The homecoming, birth and death, corrobborees, rituals are what we celebrate, we are Aboriginal and we are this land. By Sophie