NAIDOC Week 2022: Newton Moore Senior High School students celebrate Indigenous culture

Students and staff at one of Bunbury’s high schools celebrated Indigenous culture in a special student-prepared assembly, complete with awe-inspiring performances.

In a first for Newton Moore Senior High School, students spent several weeks preparing an assembly celebrating Indigenous culture before presenting it to the school.

Along with the assembly, which featured performances by students, the school celebrated NAIDOC with a morning tea, activities and a visit from Roo Rescue WA to teach students how to help local wildlife.

Newton Moore SHS Aboriginal & Islander education officer Tania Hill, who helped choreograph the performances, said year 7 to 12 students spent six weeks during recess and lunch preparing the performances.

“One dance was about the cleansing of the school and it was performed for the opening of the assembly,” she said.

“Another dance performed during lunch was about waking up and picking berries and nuts for the day, then the emus would eat what was left.

“As night falls the girls would clean the area before they lay to rest and during the night the spirit trees would come alive and dance around the girls to protect them and give them good rest and good dreams.”

The students also had help from Cameron Bennell, who came to the school to teach several male students how to play the didgeridoo.

“This year’s NAIDOC Week theme was Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! and the young girls and boys at Newton Moore SHS have definitely shown us how it is done,” he said.

“For me, being a Noongar man myself, it makes me proud to be a part of the NAIDOC Week celebrations with the young fellas and pass my knowledge on to the next generation as my Elders have taught me.”