MY JOURNEY SO FAR: BUILDING UNDERSTANDING & RESPECT OF FIRST NATIONS PEOPLE

By Louise Nancarrow

Associate Director of Students

Pre-Kindergarten

Teacher – Primary

School

I would like to share some aspects of my personal journey towards growing an understanding of our First Nations People. My personal journey has of course spilled into my professional life and combined to impact me in every way.

I started working at CGS in 2009 as a Teaching Assistant at Northside. I was encouraged to study teaching, which I began in 2011, studying part time and working full time. Six years later becoming a qualified Early Childhood Teacher.

My studies changed my life, and I am forever grateful that I did persevere and complete the degree. The most significant impact was studying an Aboriginal Perspectives Unit. I felt ashamed as I began to understand how much I didn’t know about the history of this country. I gradually built my passion and became determined to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait perspectives in my everyday teaching.

I was never interested in tokenistic integration – more interested in genuinely embedding Aboriginal culture, knowledge, stories, music, art, drama etc into my class every day. This soon became a part of what I did, just making links and connections when I could and building on the interests this led to.

I knew however, that I wanted to connect with a Ngunnawal Elder, to try to bring in some genuine, local Aboriginal learning. I have worked with, and continue to work with, many wonderful Aboriginal people and am fortunate to have made a strong connection with Tyronne Bell, Ngunnawal Elder.

Tyronne worked with my class and other classes at the ELC for several years and then again when I moved to Year 1. The impact of his engagement at School and on Bushwalks to Redhill have been profound. Tyronne, who now works with his son Jai, shares his culture and history in a relaxed, non-scripted, responsive manner. His visits have always led to significant ongoing learning that has been deep and important to the children and staff he has worked with. I am incredibly grateful I have this connection with Tyronne.

Tyronne and Jai changed their direction over the past years and have spent a lot of time working towards reclaiming language. They have also been involved with new subdivisions in Canberra, sharing their understanding of the land and significant features. They design and create gardens across Canberra, including the Mununja Garden at the Arboretum and the Casino. They also work with the CSIRO, studying bushtucker and bush medicines from this region. Consequently, Tyronne has become less able to work in Schools as much as he used to.

Fortunately, Tyronne continues to work with us and I am so pleased that he does. He has told me that he knows I ‘do it right’ and by that, I think he means that he knows I have the best intentions as I embed the learning Tyronne has shared and continues to share. It is an honour to have this trust. I have learned that building trust and strong connections can take time and effort but is always worth every bit of that effort.

I have had the pleasure of seeing the learning build in children, staff and parents over the years. I ask for feedback sometimes and am always overwhelmed with the deep understanding children from as young as 3 have. I believe that this learning is incredibly important for our country and our world.

Student feedback:

After the incursion, a child was digging around the base of a tree. A staff member noted the roots of the tree were exposed and commented that they were like the roots that Jai had spoken about, in context to making the boomerangs. The child said, “yeah but I don’t need it – we only take what we need”.

Parent feedback:

“Very impressive. The local knowledge was very interesting. This gave me more understanding and respect of Indigenous people.”

“Brilliant – I really loved it. I thought the children were more engaged in terms of learning about the land, compared to when they just play and run.”

Staff feedback:

“I really liked Tyronne and Jai’s approach with the children. It was really emergent and responsive to their connections. It was fascinating. I really liked that you can tell Tyronne does not say the same thing every time – it is not scripted and really natural.”

– Sophie Ebbage

“We are privileged to have the friendship of Tyronne and Jai and that they share their culture, language and heritage with all of us.”

– Tricia Brodrick