National Reconciliation Week
“Grounded in Truth: Walking together with courage”
The theme for this years’ National Reconciliation Week was based around trust and truth as this is the basis for all strong, effective relationships.
“Reconciliation is ultimately about relationships and like all effective relationships the one between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and other Australians must be ground in truth” – CEO Karen Mundine. “ There can be no trust without an honest, open conversation about our history”.
To commemorate National Reconciliation Week at Heatherhill Preschool, we held our RAP re-launch for 2019. Mayor Cr Roz Blades started with a wonderful speech about the importance of Reconciliation and how connecting with our local aboriginal community is so important. She congratulated our service on all the goals we have achieved and continue to work on, ensuring our service takes the right steps towards Reconciliation.
Aunty Pat Ockwell opened our re-launch with a Welcome to Country and shared a bit of her cultural heritage, as she has lived in the Dandenong region for over 30 years. Aunty Pat will be visiting again soon to read stories to the children about our two moiety ancestors; Bunjil the wedge-tailed eagle and Waa the crow.
The children and adults were then invited to walk through the smoke Matthew Gardiner had prepared outside for us. The children listened as Matthew shared the meaning and importance of a Smoking Ceremony.
Shortly after the Smoking Ceremony, children and adults were invited to contribute to a group Aboriginal flag collage to commemorate all those present on the day. The children were asked what each colour of the flag represented. They enjoyed painting all the adults hands too!
We would like to thank Mayor Cr Roz Blades for attending our Reconciliation Action Plan Re-Launch and for her ongoing support in the important work we do. I would also like to extend a great big thank you to Aunty Pat for visiting our service again and sharing her kindness and compassion with our children, teachers and families.
