NAIDOC Week

NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians from all walks of life. The week is a great opportunity to participate in a range of activities and to support your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

Due to COVID 19 the official date has been postponed from July until 8-15 November. As a school, however, St Michael’s is participating in celebrating the amazing history, culture and achievements of indigenous Australians, this week.

This year’s theme “Always Was, Always Will Be” acknowledges that hundreds of nations and cultures once covered this continent. All were managing the land - the biggest estate on earth - to sustainably provide for their future. Through indigenous land management systems like fire stick farming, they transformed the harshest habitable continent into land of bounty.

The very first footprints on this continent were those belonging to First Nations peoples. Each year we are invited to celebrate and share the uniqueness of this magnificent culture during NAIDOC Week. NAIDOC 2020 invites all Australians to embrace the history of this country – a history which dates back thousands of generations.

Students from St Michael’s started the celebrations with a wonderful Liturgy on Monday. We will now engage in a week of varied activities. Students across the whole school will design and tell a story on their own story stick.

Students in Stage Three have taken up Wingecarribee Shire Council’s activities. Year 5 will be creating boomerangs and learning to weave a small bowl. Year Six have taken the challenge of learning to knit a scarf in indigenous colours and learn to weave a bowl. All materials for these activities have been generously provided by the council.