Celebrating NAIDOC Week
August 13, 2025
NAIDOC Week, an annual celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, is sometimes referred to by First Nations people as ‘blak Christmas’, reflecting the tone of joy at this time. As it occurs in our holidays, we wanted to mark it (albeit a little late) and we were delighted with glorious weather to enjoy a Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony by Ganga Giri of the Bunurong Land Council.
We had the pleasure of hearing Ganga play the yidaki (didgeridoo) at last year’s RAP Launch and so we were excited to have him join us again. He shared with us about the different leaves that form part of the smoking ceremony, and the symbolism of them:
- Manna Gum leaves: representing community and parents
- Cherry Ballart leaves: representing the children of the community. The Cherry Ballart cannot grow without the Manna Gum
- Wattle: representing the ‘warriors’
He then played the yidaki for us, demonstrating how this incredible instrument can sound like various animals and birds. Talking with Ganga beforehand, he spoke about the joy of sharing ceremony in a school environment. As I listened to the music echoing around the oval and looked around at our students from Foundation – Year 12 I was struck by the depth of listening to sounds that have been played for tens of thousands of years.
An understanding of the profound privilege of living in a country with the oldest continuing culture in the world is something we hope our students will take with them from Casey Grammar School. Giving our students from Foundation the opportunity to hear from Aboriginal people sharing about their culture and ceremony is one element of this.
