This year's NAIDOC week was packed full of exciting events. On Wednesday 31 July, five Catholic schools from the South Coast came together to celebrate indigenous culture at the Yuin Banaan event. The indigenous students and staff of Carroll College, Broulee; St Bernard's, Batemans Bay; St Mary's, Moruya; St Patrick's, Bega and Lumen Christi, Pambula converged on Captain Oldrey Park in Broulee to participate in a range of fun and educational cultural activities. They experienced bush tucker walks, traditional damper cooking, basket weaving, dancing and much more. Thank you to all of the agencies who supported the day and the people who gave their time to share their cultural knowledge with everyone. 

This year our NAIDOC ceremony was based on the theme Voice, Treaty, Truth - let’s work together for a shared future. The students created a wonderful presentation about how Indigenous Australians have used their voices to tell the truths of the First Australians. Thank you to the Gunyuu dancers Jordan, Thomas and Max for sharing some traditional dances with us. 

We have also had the pleasure of having Buddy Martin, the ACT NAIDOC Artist of the year here in the College for the past few weeks as our artist in residence. Buddy has worked with our students to paint a wonderful mural at the front entrance of the College. He has also been working with the students to assist them in creating personalised artworks on boomerangs and clapping sticks.

Our Gurumbangma Indigenous Mentoring and Transition Program starts next week for Indigenous students in Years 5 and 6. The program has been designed to support Indigenous students from our feeder primary schools to transition to high school. If you know of someone who would like to be involved, please contact the College.

Catherine Davis                                                                              
Aboriginal Education Assistant