Yindyamarra to Our Country Written and illustrated by Stage 2 students from Kooringal Public School Creative Catchment Kids Creative Catchment Kids is an initiative of Wirraminna Environmental Education Centre. It aims to improve engagement between our funding partners and school students by providing opportunities for positive and authentic ventures that encourage students to develop creative solutions to agriculture and natural resource management issues. www.wirraminna.org/creative-catchment-kids/ Wirraminna Environmental Education Centre The Wirraminna Environmental Education Centre is located in Burrumbuttock, north of Albury in southern NSW. Since 1995, the centre, which is adjacent to Burrumbuttock Public School, has provided opportunities for discovery and learning about the natural environment, the ecology of the local woodlands and the beauty of native plants. www.wirraminna.org Enviro-Storie s Enviro-Stories is an innovative literacy education program that inspires learning about natural resource and catchment management issues. Developed by PeeKdesigns, this program provides students with an opportunity to publish their own stories that have been written for other kids to support learning about their local area. www.envirostories.com.au Yindyamarra to Our Country ‘Yindyamarra’ means ‘Respect’ in Wiradjuri Authors & Illustrators: Stage 2 students School: Kooringal Public School Our Culture In 2016, students involved in the Creative Catchment Kids program researched and wrote stories about Aboriginal culture in their local communities. The program was generously funded by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet through the Indigenous Advancement Strategy. Creative Catchment Kids is part of Enviro-Stories, a PeeKdesigns education program. Acknowledgement We would like to acknowledge the Traditional Owners of this land and thank them for sharing their knowledge and culture with the wider public. Aboriginal & Torres Strait Islander people should be aware that this document may contain images and/or names of people who have since passed away. I N N A M A R R I E R W T N E E C N V N IR O O TI NM CA ENTAL EDU BURRUMBUTTOCK © 2016 Wirraminna Environmental Education Centre, www.wirraminna.org Design by PeeKdesigns, www.peekdesigns.com.au 1 Foreword We planned a trip to Wirraminna Environmental Education Centre and while there, we met a Wiradjuri Aboriginal artist named David Dunn. The children and staff enjoyed this experience. The Stage 2 teachers decided to explore the students’ interests and plan a unit about “Our Country”. OUR DREAM... Mr. Owen Dunlop offered us a chance to be part of the ‘Engage in Literacy Program’. We felt honoured and knew instantly that we could combine our students’ interest in Aboriginal culture with our school focus of improving students’ writing through producing a book. SO WE BEGAN… We formed into student collaborative learning teams. Each team took responsibility for a page in the book with a specific focus. What a pleasure to see our students working together, planning, drafting, discussing, writing, illustrating and using technology to produce their pages. We invited a guest speaker, Aunty Joycelan, to visit our Stage 2 classes. She talked about the process to adapt and illustrate Dreamtime stories to make them suitable for young readers. During our learning, we planned a day visit to the Riverina Environmental Education Centre near Wagga Wagga. It was a truly hands-on experience! We met Mr. Tony Rudd, a Kamilaroi man with so much to share. The students proudly talked about what they knew, asked lots of questions and thoroughly enjoyed the day! I would like to thank everyone involved in our journey to produce this book. Ms. Kim Baker - Book Coordinator Stage 2 teacher, Kooringal Public School Acknowledgements Stage 2 Teachers Mr. Tim Harris - Stage 2 Assistant Principal Mrs. Edwina McLaren - Stage 2 teacher Ms. Julie Smith - Stage 2 teacher Mrs. Tamara Edmunds - Stage 2 teacher Ms. Kim Baker - Stage 2 teacher Supported by Mrs. Beverley Jenkyn - Acting Principal Miss Hayley Bell - Aboriginal Education Coordinator and classroom teacher Mr. Owen Dunlop - Executive Officer, Petaurus Education Group (Wirraminna Environmental Education Centre) Mr. Darron Watt - Relieving Principal, Riverina Environmental Education Centre Mrs. Joycelan Williams - Wiradjuri woman Mr. David Dunn - Wiradjuri artist Mr. Tony Rudd - Aboriginal Community Liaison Officer Members of the Aboriginal community 2 Aboriginal places Aboriginal language has been around for thousands of years. In our area and across Australia many towns and city names are derived from Aboriginal languages. MEANINGS OF PLACES Adelong - along the way Geelong - land or cliffs Balarang - place of swamp oak Grong Grong - very bad camping ground Ballarat - resting place Jindabyne - valley Berri - a wide bend in the river Parramatta - heads of water Cootamundra - guudhamung, meaning turtle Wollongong - seas of the South Canberra - meeting place Wagga Wagga - dancing man, or place of many crows Coolamon - basin shaped dish Yanco - sound of running water Echuca - meeting of the waters Source: www.abc.net.au/indigenous/map/ By Maggie, Piper, Darius, Olivia G, Olivia F and Kaden. 3 Local Aboriginal Places Wiradjuri is in the Riverina. It is a very large area compared to other Aboriginal regions. The Wiradjuri region has lots of local towns including Wagga Wagga, Orange, Bathurst, Tumut, Cowra, Griffith, Narrandera, West Wyalong and Young. Murrumbidgee River North 10 Wagga Gobba 11 Beach Wiradjuri Wagga Reserve Pa rk Wiradjuri e n ACCESS POINTS Bridge P mbidgee River r e g a n Wiradjuri Track Murru L a rs St 12 g Wollundry Loop Trave Fi o t o z Hampden Bridge m n a & Sculpture Garden B u e r Racecourse c ic kw e Toilets ic S t h t t S S THE WIRADJURI WALKING TRACK S d BBQ t oo 13 g w n t Wagga r S n u oo o G g t r Beach S Flowerdale La Camping o ry t d o n S llu o a r t M W e t k u c 1 c Flowerdale r o a T Visitor Information Centre 1 Lagoon D 14 One of the many cultural areas is Forayth St Railway viaduct 2 9 Spring St t S South 2 Mason St Wagga Wagga – s Wagga Tumbarumba Railway 3 the Wiradjuri Walking Track. The Edward St Bayli Wagga Edward St STURT HIGHWAY Botanical Gardens 4 t S Staunton Duke of Lake Albert viewing point 5 e l k Y Park Kent Park c i A e Railway St 3 Railway culvert 6 v Wiradjuri Walking Track is about N W Chasto n St c H A Coleman St G y Silvalite Reserve 7 8 M I e H n T b Pomingalarna R o Pomingalarna Park 8 U D r Park ST D Flowerdale Lagoon 9 42 kilometres long. Some of the Museum k Urana S o t o C Gooba Beach 10 n Lor i t a S t Wiradjuri Reserve 11 d ASHMONT Baden p TURVEY 4 a C Hampden & Wiradjuri 12 starting points for the track are PARK l Powel Dr Fernleigh Rd l Macleay i Bridge & Sculpture e H v r e m Garden s a i e d y Botanical l a l R R ilw i Wagga Beach 13 located at the Wagga Wagga t a Gardens 7 r R W Y rn e e Zoo b Wollundry Lagoon 14 A h l ut A o t W S in S e Lake Albert 15 a k e a C M d k S I tanley L R r St Beach and Information Centre. P u o B M ield f Y n MT. AUSTIN L le O G 5 GLENFIELD TOLLAN D KOORINGAL Red Hill Rd SCALE 6 Jubilee LLOYD Park BOURKELANDS 0 km 0.5 1 1.5 2 km TATTON 15 NORTH Lake Albert 4 By Lauren, Leslie, Kaycee and Titus. Stage 2 Visits Wirraminna Wonderful Marvellous Interesting Incredible Resourceful Natural Relaxing Native Amazing Awesome By Amellia, Casey, Kean, Noah, Ashley, Makaide, Brianna, Layla, Abot, Brock and Jayce. 5 Riverina Environmental Education Centre Kooringal Public School visited this special place. The centre helped us to learn about Aboriginal culture. We had an awesome, amusing and amazing time. Tony talked to us about the Aboriginal culture. He showed us the music that some Aboriginal people play. Sydney and Quentin played the digeridoo. He also showed us the weapons that they used to hunt. Tony told us about the animal skins they used for clothes. He showed us the rope that the boys used for climbing Uluru. Tony, Darron and all the other staff showed us how to make huts with sticks, bark, leaves and branches. We had to line long sticks on top of the other sticks and put the bark and leaves on. Aunty Joycelan went around and helped some people make their hut. They took photos when we were finished. It was so much fun! We used spears and boomerangs, to hit the targets. The targets were an emu and two kangaroos. We had to be taught how to throw a boomerang and the spears. We can’t wait until next time! 6 By Automne, Cooper, Shakyla, Curtis, Lucy and Riley M. Aboriginal Tools COOLAMON SPEAR BULLROARER Coolamons are bowl shaped Spears are made from dried A bullroarer is an Aboriginal wooden structures that are grass, trees and flowers. Spears version of a mobile phone. It made out of the bark of are used to hunt animals is whirled in the air by a piece trees. They used the bark such as kangaroos, wallabies of string and because of a little off the branches or roots and lots more. Spears were hole in the top and bottom, it of the trees, leaving a mark mostly carried by men. They makes a whistling sound. Each called a tree scar.