Students Of Canowindra Public School competed in the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance (NAIDOC) Public Speaking Challenge at the Cowra Civic Centre on Thursday, June 16.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
The students crafted their speeches around the impact that the NAIDOC week theme of “Songlines - The living narrative of our nation” has on Indigenous and Australian culture.
The theme promotes the traditional songs, stories, dance and art of the indigenous Dreamtime stories which carry significant spiritual and cultural connection to knowledge, customs, ceremony and Lore of many Aboriginal nations and Torres Strait Islander language groups.
The students learnt that songlines take a person on a journey and are intricate maps of land, sea and country, that describe travel and trade routes, the location of waterholes and the presence of food.
The students learnt that in many cases the songlines on the earth were mirrored by sky songlines, which allowed people to navigate vast distances of the nation and its waters.
Songlines can vary in length from a few kilometres to hundreds of kilometres, crossing through traditional Country of many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander language groups.
NAIDOC week encourages all Australians to explore and celebrate how, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people remain connected to Country and have been able to maintain and share sacred stories and ceremonies for tens of thousands of years.
This was the first time students from Canowindra Public School took part in the annual speeches, indigenous and non-indigenous students were paired together to come up with and present their speeches.
The students also had the opportunity to listen to indigenous Australian actor and Play School presenter Luke Carroll.
Luke talked to the students about his upbringing, his roles over the years on Australian TV shows and movies and the importance of his indigenous culture.
