Grace Lutheran Pre-School was busy celebrating NAIDOC Week during the last week of term two.With the service closed for the school holidays, when National NAIDOC Week is celebrated, the pre-school chose to celebrate the week before so they wouldn’t miss out.
On Tuesday and Thursday, July 2 and 4, Paul Spearim came to the pre-school to share stories about the rainbow serpent, the emu and the kookaburra. He taught the children to look after their friends and make new friends every day. Paul also taught the children three Aboriginal dances and some of the Aboriginal language.
On Friday afternoon Uncle Crackers (Craig Whitfield) came to the pre-school where his niece and nephew attend to share some of his Aboriginal culture. He showed the children the traditional hunting tools, talking to them about how the Aboriginal people would hunt for food and cook it. He brought many different parts of animals including echidna spikes, goanna claws and emu eggs. The children used the goanna claws to pretend they were goannas and were digging in the dirt.
Uncle Cracker then got the children to dance like kangaroos and emus while he was playing the didgeridoo.
Grace Lutheran Pre-School service leader Megan Fleming said it was an amazing experience to share this week and the children thoroughly enjoyed the visits from Paul and Craig.”Half of our children are Aboriginal and it’s really important to make sure the Aboriginal culture is embedded into our program every day,” she said. “We will be working with Paul and Uncle Cracker to make sure we can keep teaching the children about the Aboriginal culture in the most respected way. We would like to say a big thank you to Paul and Uncle Cracker for sharing this amazing experience with us and we look forward to working with both very soon.”
