ANZAC Day

ANZAC day this year was a very proud day and highlight for us all. To acknowledge and honour our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander diggers, Darkinjung Barker, for the very first time, proudly marched in the Wyong ANZAC march.

For this momentous step into the local history books, we invited Darkinjung Aboriginal Land Council, Yerin Eleanor Duncan Aboriginal Health Services, Central Coast Pelicans Netball, along with other organisations, our families and community members to join us. What a wonderful, significant moment it was! The mob were marching, the crowd were cheering, and our hearts were brimming with pride. Our amazing School Captains, Oliver and Ruby, led the way with our new school flags proudly flying high! Oliver and Ruby also respectfully laid a wreath during the ceremony on behalf of our school.

The welcome we received, through the cheering crowds and the yarns afterward, about our presence in the march was overwhelming! For most of the people marching with us, it was their very first time ever to march, and it was certainly the first time honouring our mob. Our wonderful kids stood strong and proud with some wearing their family medals and they represented our school with absolute pride. The Central Coast Pelicans wore their netball uniforms, organisational staff wore their work attire, and our families and community members wore Aboriginal designs. What a wonderful sight it was to look back and see the colourful shirts and our proud mob standing strong together! It was the most special day and one we will remember for a long time to come!

Afterward we were invited by Darkinjung Local Aboriginal Land Council to attend their ANZAC digger exhibition. It was just wonderful! There was so much to take in: slideshows, reading material, banners, along with army uniforms and equipment were wall to wall. It was lovely to take the time to share along with the community. We are hoping for our march to be bigger each year and that our families and community will add to the exhibition.

Our triple celebration and challenge at both campuses has been another highlight. We celebrated and acknowledged Close the Gap Day, Harmony Day and World Down Syndrome Day. The triple challenge was to represent Close the Gap - wearing an Aboriginal design, Harmony Day - wearing orange and for World Down Syndrome Day - wearing mismatched, colourful, crazy socks. Amarli was our ambassador for World Down Syndrome Day and joined us at both campuses. Amarli and Mrs Sturt shared an Acknowledgement of Country with us in sign language. We share an Acknowledgement each day at our campuses and at our weekly assemblies, but it was lovely to learn another way to respect Country. We were thrilled when Amarli and Mrs Sturt then taught us all how to do it. My heart was full, watching everyone excitedly learning and just having a go! Amarli joined in the activities, had fun with all the kids and also helped Mrs Sturt cook a BBQ lunch! Our staff embrace our special days with enthusiasm so that our kids have wonderful school experiences.

The biggest hit of the day was our colourful tie-dye activity. We started with a white shirt and we watched some different ways to design and prepare their fashion masterpiece. We dipped the shirts in water, tied them up in unique designs with elastics and then … the best part ... added the colourful dyes. We then had to be patient and leave them for a few hours. The excitement was building, we took the elastics off and W-O-W ... right in front of our eyes we were amazed with the transformation of our tie-dye originals! It was the BEST day ever!

Mandy Shaw Director of Aboriginal Campuses