There’s been a lot of things happening at the creek! Perhaps the most important is that we finished our first 5-weeks along Merri Merri with 1/2s learning area last week and it was great! But our program has far from ended and there are many exciting things we want to share.
Uncle Dave Wandin coming to meet 1/2s learning area
On Tuesday 18th June at 12pm we’ll have the honour of welcoming Wurundjeri Elder Uncle Dave Wandin to our school. Uncle Dave is visiting us to have a conversation with 1/2 students about their experiences walking and learning with Country at Merri Merri creek. It will be a wonderful opportunity for our students, teachers and community to get to talk and share their learning with Uncle Dave.
Uncle Dave is one of the keepers of water and fire knowledge of the Wurundjeri tribe and has ample experience sharing this knowledge with young people. The Firestick project - a partnership between Uncle Dave from the Wurundjeri Tribe Land Council and Dixons Creek Primary School - was awarded with the Australian Disaster Resilient National School Award in 2018. The book "Shh The Parent Trees are Talking" was produced during this project and can be found here: https://firesticks.app.box.com/s/t3rbla9aki7mo7tfb1i6x2q64ylv9h2e
Parents and carers of 1/2 students are welcome to attend the session.
Learning to read Country – Reflections of the 1/2 creekulum with Uncle Bill Nicholson
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To prepare for one of theIndigenous knowledge weeks of the creekulum for 1/2 students we had a consultation session with Angela Foley from Merri Creek Management Committee, weaver Adrienne Kneebone, Sarita Galvez and Uncle Bill Nicholson. We discussed the program so far and how children have been making interesting findings along the creek, such as seasonal markers of Warin season (cold and wet season). Over the last five weeks, children have found rain moth’s casings, moth’s tunnels next to trees, fungi, we listened to the wind through the leaves and have felt the rain, seen the water from the streets of Coburg falling through the drains right to Merri Creek and harvested native grasses according the law of Country. All these are local seasonal markers and makings. In response to these stories Uncle Bill said “these children are learning to read Country, this is important because they are learning now how to take care of it.”He continued to talk to us about the importance of enacting the law of Caring for Country for Indigenous and non-Indigenous people living on Wurundjeri land.
Reconciliation week – Reflection by Sharmila Blair and Sirous Safari
Last Thursday the 30th of May, we held a gathering about "what reconciliation means to us" after school. We moved around a circle and had mini "listening post" conversations with parents and their children about the meaning of reconciliation for us as a school community. I believe at the heart of reconciliation is acknowledgment of past wrongs committed against the First Peoples of our nation, and embracing the real stories.Storieswhich are vastly different from those manyparents were taught in school during the seventies and eighties. It is about encouraging our children to learn this story and to discussthe difficult questions about our history. Reconciliation also involves responsibility in the here and now. For me, as a Moreland Primary parent, it is about moving towards community, it is about conversation and connection, it is moving out of our comfort zones towards others who are different from us.
We are planning to continue creating spaces for connection, reflection and discussion. More information soon. If you’d like to contribute with ideas, please drop us a line at creekulum@gmail.com.
Creekulum for 5/6s
In close collaboration with 5/6s teacher team, we are now preparing and planning our creekulum program for 5/6 learning area and we are very excited about what’s coming! Uncle Bill Nicholson will deliver the Indigenous Knowledge component, Angela Foley from Merri Creek Management Committee, Briony and Gregory from Scale Free Network and Meg Petrie (Storyteller/ACMI) will be running digital storytelling workshops. Students will start their program at the end of this term and continue as soon as they get back in Term 3! Soon students, parents and/or carers from 5/6 learning area will receive more information and a consent form to send back to school. And we will need parents, carers and/or grandparents volunteering to walkto the creek and join in the sessions. If you have any comments/questions get in touch via email to creekulum@gmail.com.
Social media & communications
We have now set an Instagram account of our creekulum project. Follow us in @creekulum_moreland_primary to keep up to date.
Also Marty and Mariko (Isa’s parents) and Tom (Juna’s dad) are making magic with an amazing website/blog and a communication plan. In parallel Chris (Astrid and Thea’s mum) and Emma (Nell’s mum) are preparing a seasonal project plan to have at school and online.
Upstream – Zine
The team at Upstream are getting ready to put issue two to bed. Students from all year levels have so far contributed articles, interviews, games, stories, poems and pictures. The deadline for submissions is now Monday the 17th of June, so if you have something you've been thinking about, time to get it done! Contributions can be made to the art room on Monday lunch times, to any of the editors, or to nathanwhitcher@gmail.com
Podcast – Upcoming!
Bryan (Sam and Nahuel’s dad) will begin a new adventure at MPS: our very own podcast program! What is a podcast? It’s like an online radio, so if you like sound making, sound recording and having conversations maybe these podcast sessions are for you. They are designed to be children-led and create an inclusive space for students of all learning areas. This will happen fortnightly at lunchtime starting on Tuesday the 18thJune. Parents/carers that want to get involved please contact Bryan (bryan@galambo.cl).
Young Dark Emu – Listening to Uncle Bruce Pascoe
This is an extract of a recent opinion piece published by Uncle Bruce Pascoe in The Guardian speaking of his recently published book “Young Dark Emu”.
“…We need our children to care about the planet like those who have saved the whales for the enjoyment and reassurance of all. We need our children to consider the orthodoxy of the world, and examine it for its merit. That is called education.
When I was told at school that Aboriginal people were wanderers and the most backward people on Earth, I was ashamed rather than rebellious. Inquiry had been drilled out of me. By the time elders had drilled it back in, years after I left university, I began using the greatest research tools of all: curiosity and doubt.
We don’t need the kind of doubt that cripples us into inaction, but the kind that inspires generous thirst for investigation. I want students to read Young Dark Emu, not to vindicate my own opinion but to raise a platform for vigorous inquiry and generous doubt”
Read more in: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/jun/01/bruce-pascoe-teach-your-children-to-rebel-teach-your-children-to-doubt
And this https://www.theguardian.com/books/2019/may/24/dark-emus-infinite-potential-our-kids-have-grown-up-in-a-fog-about-the-history-of-the-land
