Cultural Exchange

In Society and Environment this term, we have been learning about Aboriginal culture.  We started by writing down all the things we already knew about Aboriginal people, and then thought about the things we would like to know.  We realised that there were lots of different ways to research the things we wanted to know, including reading books, watching videos, surfing the net and conducting interviews. 

 

On Wednesday, we were able to learn a lot more about Aboriginal people when a group of students from Kiwirrkurra Remote Community School visited our school.  Kiwirrkurra is situated in the Central Desert, near Lake Mackay, so these students had travelled over 1400 kilometres to spend a week at the Dampier Camp School!  We worked together with the Kiwirrkurra students to create some great art work, including lots of fantastic dot paintings. 

 

While we were at work, we were lucky enough to have a visit from David Wirrpanda of the West Coast Eagles, who was in the area as part of his work with the David Wirrpanda Foundation. 

 

The Kiwirrkurra students were really keen to have a look around our school, so we walked around in groups, with the Dampier students acting as guides.  They really enjoyed visiting the classrooms, computer lab, sports shed, office and  library.  They especially liked the ocean view from our balcony!

 

Just before they left, the Kiwirrkurra students presented our school with a beautiful dot painting, created by Monica, one of the Aboriginal Education Workers who was accompanying them on their trip.

 

We would like to thank all those people who made this very unique and meaningful cultural exchange possible - including the staff and students of both schools, Mr Lally from the Dampier Camp School and Fiona from the David Wirrpanda Foundation.

And, a huge, big thank you to Mrs Bain, who co-ordinated the afternoon!

The next day we recorded some things that we know now, like:

	I know their names and how to pronounce the name of their community. -Maddison
	I know that they love throwing a vortex and they can throw really well. -Flynn
	They used some Aboriginal words and they told me what they meant. -Lily
	I know that their school is different from ours because they were really surprised at what our school looked like. -Sarah
	I know how they do dot paintings now, using more than one colour. -Michael
	They speak a different language and English is their second language. - Rachel
	I learnt that they don't have a playground at their school. -Shae
	They all looked alike. I think they are related. -Jarrad
	I found out that they like to go hunting and they really like honey ants. -Jamie

 Rachel and Lily were really proud of their dot paintings that they worked on with Amanda and her friend, Adrianne. Here they are: