The need to thank the animal you’ve killed for giving itself to keep you alive was one of the aspects of Aboriginal culture taught to more than 200 Aboriginal students at Allowah Day on Thursday, May 25.
“You don’t need to have a corroboree out the front of the KFC drive through, but in here, in here (he beats his chest) you need to be grateful that animal gave up its life,” Yamandirra of the National Parks and Wildlife Service told the assembled kids.
Held in bright sunshine at the Shaws Creek clearing at Yellomundee Regional Park at Yarramundi to the loud tink of bellbirds, the day included seven activities which the kids rotated through in groups.
Yamandirra’s vigorous and entertaining talk off in the bush about Aboriginal culture was a highlight, while the hypnotic rhythms of the drumming class (boom boom clap, boom boom clap) resonated beneath the activities.
Yamandirra in his talk explained the small boomerangs as sold in tourist shops were used as decoys when hunting ducks. Young boys would send one or more spinning above the waterhole emulating hawks, and the ducks would dive for cover. The young boys would grab them and wring their necks. They would then thank the ducks from their heart for giving their lives, he said.
Students from five high schools attended – Richmond, Colo, Hawkesbury, Windsor and Riverstone – and several primary schools.
Activities included art – painting gum leaves and mounting them on wood, and painting a silhouette of a burnt tree on an Aboriginal flag – as well as drumming, an emu dance for girls and kangaroos dodging a predator dance for boys, and a game which emulated hunting. Students pelted plywood cutouts of emus and kangaroos with tennis balls out of ball launchers, emulating spears thrown out of woomeras.
There was also a game of buroijin – a game of passing played originally with a kangaroo skin, but with an AFL ball on Allowah Day. The game was overseen by Amy Sarandopoulos who helps mentor kids in the Young Indigenous Pathways Program at Richmond and Windsor high schools.
The Gazette asked Tabeal West in Year 8 at Windsor High what she thought of the day. She is originally from the Murri people in Queensland. “I think it’s very important – I really like it,” she said. “I know how to sing the Aboriginal anthem now.”
Shauna Ferris, also in Year 8 at Windsor High, said “it’s amazing – it’s the best thing. It makes me feel a lot calmer – I feel a connection with all the land and that.”
Allowah Day is held each year as part of Reconciliation Week, ahead of Sorry Day. Allowah is Darug for ‘sit down here with me’.
This is the fourth year it has been held at Shaws Creek, which has been named by the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage as an Aboriginal Place, defined as somewhere of cultural significance.
The spot is important due to the abundance of cultural art, artefacts and shelters found in the area.It was also a place that could sustain large numbers of people, with water from the river and root vegetables on hand.
Teacher Kerrie Corr of Windsor High said the day had been going for 10 years and had been growing and growing due to the number of Aboriginal students in the area.
“35 per cent of kids at Windsor South Public School are Aboriginal,” she said, adding it was about 25 per cent at Windsor High. She said some kids had come to Windsor High due to its Aboriginal cultural program she runs and more schools were hearing about Allowah Day and asking to be part of it.
“A lot of kids [involved in earlier Allowah Days] will come back and run different groups as well,” she said, pointing out two students from Windsor High who were running the boys’ dance group this year.
She said as it was a mixture of primary and high school kids, the transition to high school of kids who had been to Allowah Day in primary was easier, as they already knew some of the high school kids.
