Students from Carroll Public School, Tambar Springs Public School, Mullaley Public School and Boggabri Public School as well as students from Gunnedah’s G.S. Kidd Memorial School gathered at the Boggabri Public School to enjoy a day of friendship, activities and to celebrate NAIDOC week.

The assembly was opened with a welcome to country by Jamie (aka Frog) Hogbin.

During the assembly, students who had achieved over 90 per cent attendance were awarded certificates of merit.

Year 1/2 performed a song and the ‘Heal Country’ cake was cut by Blanche Biles and Aunty Leonie Chapman.

In welcoming special guests, parents, teachers and students, Boggabri principal Benjamin Carter said: “as an educator and a school leader, I inherently believe that it is my role to promote and encourage all students to actively engage and participate in activities and opportunities which build, develop and deepen their understanding of the culture, values and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the oldest continuing culture on the planet as they do the cultures and values of all Australians.”

“Over 65,000 years ago the very first footsteps on this continent were those belonging to the First Nations people, I hope that the footsteps that we take today continue to follow in the footsteps of those that have come before us demonstrating our ongoing respect for the spiritual and cultural connections to the land, waterways and sea”.

Boggabri Public School Aboriginal education officer Blanche Biles and the principal Benjamin Carter, put together a day which included the students participating in basket weaving, rock art, scratch art, painting and boomerang painting, damper making, tracking animals, learning Aboriginal words by playing lingo bingo and games.

Of special interest was a display and talk by Uncle Tom Barker from Lightning Ridge.

Uncle Tom grew up in Brewarrina and now lives in Lightning Ridge, but he has his father’s artifacts and proudly showed the children and explained how they were made and what they were used for prior to demonstrating throwing several styles of boomerang.

The children were impressed when the boomerang came back and Uncle Tom caught it.

Aunty Carol Brydon demonstrated basket weaving skills while next to them was the campfire and damper cooking.

The students mixed up the damper and cooked mini dampers and then loaded them up with lots of butter and golden syrup or homemade lilly pilly jam.

The 171 students enjoyed a cupcake for morning tea while the adults enjoyed a piece of the celebration cake and a cup of coffee.

At lunch time the Boggabri staff cooked a barbecue lunch for the students.

See more like this:

To order photos from this page click here