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Term 3, 2020
 
NAIDOC Week
 
NAIDOC Week's theme, 'Always Was, Always Will Be' was celebrated in Week two from the 20-24th July 2020.
We held a special NAIDOC Week Assembly on Wednesday 22nd July and we were privileged to have our special guest and Traditional Owner Ashley Saltner doing the Welcome to Country. As this assembly was first intended to be live-streamed, two videos were produced and were played at our first whole school assembly since Covid. The first video featuring Karl McKenzie from our Indigenous Education Advisory Committee and a group of our Indigenous students, enacted a visual representation of the 65000 years of origin of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples compared to Captain Cook's arrival in Australia only 250 years ago. The second video featured our very own Indigenous Teacher Aide Bacho Salam and his Grandfather who had a yarn about what this years NAIDOC Week theme meant to them.

To finish off we had a specially choreographed Hip Hop Dance performed by a group of Year 5 and 6 students. This dance was created, choreographed and taught by three Year 12 students. The students were gifted with special t-shirts with the theme 'Always Was, Always Will Be' and they performed beautifully at both the Senior and Junior Assemblies that day.

 
To get the students involved in celebrating NAIDOC Week, we introduced them to the game of 'Gorri' which is a bowling ball or disc game played by Aboriginal boys and men in all parts of Australia. Traditionally, a piece of rounded bark (disc) was rolled by one of the players for the other boys to use as a target for their short spears. This was modified for the students so that they used tennis balls to throw at the exercise balls with the aim of the game to move these exercise balls across the end line. A lot of fun was had by all!  We also ran an art competition and handed out canvases for the students to showcase what the theme 'Always Was, Always Will Be' meant to them. We had an overwhelming amount of entries from the Junior school and a handful of entries from the Senior school. The artworks were judged  by 3 staff members and prizes were awarded to the winners which included gift vouchers and Indigenous merchandise.
 
National Aboriginal and Torres Strait

Islander Children's Day

 


National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children's Day was celebrated on 4th August 2020. As this was a half day of school for the students due to Parent Teacher Meetings, a lunch was hosted and the movie "In My Blood It Runs" was shown to our interested Year 7-12 students. The movie was a documentary from the perspective of a 12 year old Aboriginal boy from Alice Springs who is struggling to balance his traditional Arrernte/Garrwa upbringing with a state education. 

Burara Mentoring Program

Years 10, 11 & 12


The Burara Mentoring Program (launched in 2019) has not had an opportunity to have an event since COVID -19. So we jumped at the idea to have ex-student, Tamika Mitchell, who was visiting Townsville come in as our guest speaker which was held at our Yarning Garden on Tuesday 25th August after school. She currently works for DFAT (Dept of Foreign Affairs) in Canberra. She spoke to our Year 10, 11 and 12 Students about her experience and journey since she left school in 2016 and all the opportunities available in the Government sector. Very inspirational!

These students will have the opportunity to attend this years Burara Mentoring Camp at Abergowrie at the end of the term, from Friday 18th to Monday 21st September. The students together with their mentors will be a part of a cultural immersion and building rapport activities.

Look out for photos to come in the next newsletter!
 

Shalom College Reading Program


This term we reintroduced our partnership with the neighbouring Shalom Christian College for our reading program. A group of our Year 9 and 10 students have been spending one morning a week before school reading books with the the young (Prep to Year 2) students of Shalom College.
 

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander

Graduation Liturgy


 


Congratulations to our 2020 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students who attended the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Graduation Liturgy on Thursday 3rd September. The Liturgy which was held in Emmaus Hall and presided over by Bishop Tim, was a celebration of all Year 12 Catholic secondary students from the Townsville Diocese. Special congratulations to the Ryan Catholic College Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students who attended this Liturgy; James Dass, Sierra Laidlow, Courtney McCormick, Hilary McKenzie, Mason McKenzie, Lani Mitchell, Malachy Mitchell-Smith, Chelsea Munns and Ryan Pullinger. It was a wonderful celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students from across the Townsville Diocese. Thanks to the wonderful Year 11 students, Anushka Tanna, Tenason Stark, Shelby Mullins, Tara Arndt and Tenacious Gallego who acted as guides, ushers and readers. Your assistance was greatly appreciated.

Yarning Circle
We have had four Yarning Circles this term with Year groups determined from our Indigenous Homeroom classes. To commemorate the last Yarning Circle for the Year 12s, a special Year 8 and 12 Yarning Circle was held on the 24th July with special guests, Indigenous Education Advisory Committee member Karl McKenzie and past staff member Cheryl Sorbello, attending. The theme for our other year levels has been stress management where we have yarned about ways to manage our workloads to reduce stress.



Chantel's Year 8 English class used the Yarning Circle as a classroom for one of their lessons as they studied Indigenous poetry this term.
 
What's New?!?!

Innovative Acknowledgements of Country
Ryan Day - 31st July 2020

Ryan Day commenced with one of our innovative Acknowledgements of Country involving students from both the Junior and Senior campuses. It was a very special occasion that saw both campuses come together for the first time this year. As you can see we had some enthusiastic didgeridoo players!

Endeavour Awards - 19th August 2020
 
The Endeavour Awards were presented during Assembly this year for the first time due to Covid restrictions (normally an after hours event). It was a great opportunity for our students to perform another innovative Acknowledgement of Country. We paraded the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags with students circling them to symbolise the continuous perseverance of their culture. Two Year 10 students Brianna Cassady and Alix Parsons read a specially written acknowledgement to honour the endeavour of the First Nations people. 
We were also very proud to see so many of our students receiving an Endeavour award.


Work Experience

Yr 11 student Anushka Tanna did some work experience at Yumba-Meta which is an organisation providing housing and support services throughout Townsville to disadvantaged individuals and families, in particular Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. She impressed them so much that they have offered her a Traineeship which we are currently exploring.


Indigenous Literacy Day

This year to celebrate Indigenous Literacy Day on the 7th September, we asked students to tell us what their favourite book is and why, to go into a prize draw to win a signed copy of "Who Am I?" by renowned Indigenous author, Anita Heiss. It was wonderful to read the responses and our lucky winner was Emily Clark in Yr 8 whose favourite book is "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L'Engle.

Junior Campus

On Friday 11th September, the Junior Campus was spiritually blessed.

Staff and students were invited to participate in a traditional smoking ceremony by the Wulgurukaba people. This was arranged to inaugurate the Yarning Circle and the Labyrinth (a maze like structure that draws on the ancient symbol for wholeness that encourages meditation) on our Junior Campus. This special liturgy started with a Welcome to Country and brought everyone together from both campuses with reverence and respect for First Nations peoples and the presence of God. At the end of the smoking ceremony, we were presented with an intricately carved message stick that had images of the 2 totems of the Wulgurukaba people, the brolga and the white cockatoo on one side and the shield, foot and hand prints of the people on the other. This stick will now remain with us and is to be used whenever we convene a Yarning Circle.

EMERGING LEADERS

Term 3 is coming to an end. Congratulations to all students on your efforts this term and we look forward to ending the year off strong with a big Term 4.
 

Acquittals

The acquittal process to determine student's incentive level is due to start at the beginning of Term 4. The wonderful Kate Saunders (Emerging Leaders Administration Officer) is busy quantifying attendance and academic improvement and the whole team is getting ready to look at each student's engagement trackers from this year. A big reminder to all students that you will need to ensure all of your engagement for Terms 1 and 3 is logged in your engagement tracker document before the start of Term 4. These are a paper copy, for the Year 7 students and an online copy, located on the Emerging Leaders Google Classroom for Years 8-12. Due to time constraints, there will not be another chance for the Emerging Leaders team to catch up with each student individually. This means that it is imperative that all engagement is written down on the tracker in order to ensure the correct incentive level is achieved.

Once the acquittal process has been completed, student's achievements will be celebrated at an awards function during Term 4. Keep an eye out for more details around this.

 

Homeroom

It has been excellent to see so many more faces each morning in the Emerging Leaders Homeroom (I21 Classroom). We hope that students are enjoying the quiz questions and cultural videos that we have been playing. All students have been receiving a raffle ticket on entry to the homeroom and another ticket if they correctly answer the quiz questions. This raffle ticket puts the students into a draw to win a MAJOR prize at the end of term. Term 3's prizes will be drawn in Week 1 of Term 4. 

 

Emerging Leaders Homeroom is a great opportunity to check in with each student as well as to communicate important messages as they arise. All students are required to attend Homeroom on their allocated day. 

 

Monday: Year 9's

Tuesday: Year 10's

Thursday: Year 7's & 11's

Friday: Year 8's & 12's

 

Homework club

Once again, we have had a great term of Homework Club.  Many students have been embracing the opportunity to work with the Emerging Leaders staff to complete homework, assessments or even to just study. If you have not yet attended the Homework Club and would like to attend in Term 4, please see Pria, Kirby or Kate.


Kirby Smith
HPE Teacher
Emerging Leaders Program 

Didge Ya Know?

Coming up next term ...
Year 12 Workshop & Farewell - TBA
IEAC Meeting - Wednesday 21st October
Graduation Liturgy - Wednesday 18th November
Opening of Native Garden - TBA
Yarning Circles 
Friday 16th October - Years 9 & 10
Friday 23rd October - Years 5, 6 & 7
Friday 6th November - Years 8 & 11

 Year 7 & 8 Billabong Sanctuary Excursion - Week 8 Thursday 26th November

Days to wear your Indigenous Shirts in

Term 4 2020 

Friday 9th October - First Sea of Hands - Canberra Native Title
Friday 30th October - Battle of Pinjarra
Thursday 26th November - Anniversary of Pope John Paul II's address to Aboriginal People in Alice Springs





 
 Have a safe and deadly holiday from the Indigenous Education Team!

For any queries, please contact us at indigenous@ryan.catholic.edu.au
From Pria, Kirby, Georgia, Amy, Michelle, Bacho, Shannon and Kate.

 
Copyright © 2020 Ryan Catholic College, All rights reserved.


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