Get up! Stand up! Show up!

NAIDOC Week was during the first week of the school holidays so we acknowledged this important occasion in Week 1. This year’s theme was ‘Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!’ which challenges us all to support institutional, structural, constitutional, and environmental change while celebrating First Nations peoples who have been driving this change for generations. We are encouraged through this theme to ‘be the light’ by standing up and walking alongside First Nations Peoples as true allies and advocates.

Year 10 were privileged to have Maluerindi’s Fred and Chaydin Reid—proud Dunghutti/Gamilaroi men who came and shared stories, dance and culture with us. Fred shared deeply personal stories that provided insights into the effects of the Stolen Generation on the lives of First Nations People. Our students were so respectful, asked pertinent questions and described it with words such as powerful, eye-opening and moving.

Other Year groups spent extended PC learning about NAIDOC Week and watched the Indigenous episode of ABC’s ‘You can’t ask that’. This promoted discussion and dispelling of myths and stereotypes.

Our Senior Leadership Team cooked up a storm at the BBQ to raise funds for our friends at ‘Little SFX’. Little SFX, as we affectionately call it, is St Francis Xavier Primary School at Lake Cargelligo, the furthest point of our Archdiocese—we have a long and connected history with them as ‘Big SFX’. The school was opened in 1929 and is built on Wiradjuri Country and home to the Nyampa and Barkindji peoples.

So how are you going to “Get Up! Stand Up! And Show Up?