NAIDOC Week falls during the school holidays (July 5-12) so Mudgee Public School dedicated the last week of Term 2 to recognising the nation’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
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All students were given the opportunity to sample kangaroo, emu and crocodile sausages on the school’s ‘Bushtucker Day’ last Thursday as well as some wattle seed damper as a side.
Throughout the week the students also completed activities around the NAIDOC celebration in their classrooms.
Mudgee Public principal Alan Kerr said, “this was the second year of our ‘Bushtucker Day’ and it is a great way to engage our students in understanding of our Indigenous Australians”.
“Our thanks to Mr Troy Whittington from Mudgee High School for making the damper and his expertise in barbecuing the sausages on the day”.
Mudgee High School also held its NAIDOC celebrations last week, while Cudgegong Valley Public School will hold celebrations after the holidays.
NAIDOC Week - held in the first full week of July - is the national celebration of the culture, history and achievements of Australia’s Indigenous people and to recognise their contribution to the country.
This year’s theme – We all Stand on Sacred Ground: Learn, Respect and Celebrate – highlights Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ strong spiritual and cultural connection to land and sea.
The National NAIDOC Committee encourages all Australians, young and old, to embrace the 2015 National NAIDOC theme and to respect and celebrate local and national sites of significance or ‘sacred places’ and to learn of their traditional names, history and stories.
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, a sacred place could be a geographic feature like a river or lake, a beach, bays, inlets, hills or mountain ranges.
They could also be ceremonial grounds, galleries of rock art or engravings, or places used for gathering for cultural practices.
The theme also acknowledges that 2015 marks the 30th anniversary of the ‘Handback’ of Uluru to its traditional owners on October 26, 1985.
NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee, they encourage all Australians to participate in the celebrations and activities that take place across the nation during the week.
