Upon the return to School for Term 3 our students celebrated NAIDOC Week in a combined Junior and Senior School Assembly. 

Traditionally celebrated during the school holidays from 2 to 9 July, national NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia to celebrate and recognise the history, culture, and achievements of First Nations peoples of Australia.  

NAIDOC Week is an opportunity for all Australians to learn about First Nations cultures and histories and participate in celebrations for the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth.    

Year 8 students shared reflections from their Central Australia journey during the NAIDOC Week Assembly

Our Year 12 Student Executive led the NAIDOC Assembly, which also included reflections from Year 8 students, Olivia Grasso, Tiffany Shen, and Samantha Kudnig on their experiences during the Central Australia Camp and what they learnt about Australia’s First Nations people and cultures.  

NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee. NAIDOC is traced back to the Aboriginal groups of the 1920s who sought to raise awareness in the wider community of the status and treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Communities.  

St Catherine’s School’s Reconciliation Action Plan was created in 2021, after considerable planning and community engagement. A Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) is a formal statement of commitment to reconciliation. At St Catherine’s School, we value the rich cultural heritage of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and respect their deep and abiding connection with the Land. We acknowledge the Wurrundjeri people as the Traditional Owners of the Land upon which our School is built and, with their guidance, we seek to further our appreciation of their custodianship of the Land so that we may share this responsibility with them. 

As part of our Reconciliation Action Plan, we are committed to learning about reconciliation in Australia. To further develop our knowledge, we are working in partnership with the University of Melbourne, as part of the Ngarrngga Project. Ngarrngga is a Taungurung word meaning ‘to know, to hear, to understand.’ The Ngarrngga vision is for all Australian students to have the opportunity to deeply connect with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledge systems, histories, and cultures.  

The Ngarrngga Project is creating innovative curriculum resources for educators to facilitate in their classrooms, in addition to professional development. This is a signature project for the University of Melbourne and a collaboration with the Melbourne Graduate School of Education, Indigenous Studies Unit, and Indigenous Knowledge Institute. The teaching resources are based on evidence and created by Indigenous Knowledge experts and teachers.   

The Ngarrngga Project aims to: 

• Expand Resources 
• Build intercultural competency 
• Embed teaching practices 

A group of St Catherine’s staff will participate in this Program to further develop their knowledge of First Nations histories and cultures and use the Ngarrngga resources in the classroom enabling the teaching of reconciliation, concepts, histories, and cultures within our curriculum.  

We look forward to working with the University of Melbourne as part of the Ngarrngga Program, commencing in Term 4.