Principal
Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!
The theme for NAIDOC Week across Australia is one we could all adopt not only in respect to race relationships and interactions but in our daily lives. We have been celebrating NAIDOC Week at Nudgee this past week because the official week falls in the mid year school holidays.
There have been a range of activities throughout the week to highlight and celebrate the rich contributions our Aboriginal and Torres Strait boys make to school life. Some readers may have viewed the NAIDOC Week video that we recently created. Given that we did not have an assembly this week the video clip is one means of speaking directly to our community. Further details of the many activities are included in the Identity section of the newsletter.
We are proud of the partnership that we share with AIEF (Australian Indigenous Education Foundation) which supports a number of our Indigenous boys. This partnership, which also exists in other schools, is focused on closing the education gap for Indigenous young people and it supports their education in boarding schools around Australia. It enables pathways to be created through school and beyond to employment, training and tertiary education. In doing so, it is changing the lives of these young people.
Our Year 12 AIEF scholarship students recently joined their peers from schools around the country to attend the AIEF Graduation celebrations held at the iconic Sydney Opera House.
This year was a particularly special occasion as students were joined by alumni from the AIEF Classes of 2020 and 2021 who had their graduation events upended due to the impact of the pandemic. One of the graduates from the class of 2012 appeared in The Australian newspaper at the time of the celebration to talk about her journey to boarding school and life 10 years after graduation. You can read the story here.
The practical actions of the past week to celebrate NAIDOC Week, as well as our long term partnership with the AIEF, are connected to our strategic direction as a school through our values of Justice and Community. Further to that, they are also associated with the Charter Touchstones of EREA that are embedded in our school culture. The Touchstone of Inclusive Community means that as a school community we strive to be accepting and welcoming and that we are committed to the common good.
Beyond Nudgee College, the Catholic Church is also on a journey with our indigenous brothers and sisters. This journey is captured in the snapshot of data that was shared with the College Leadership Team this week.
More broadly than both the school and the Church, all Australians are entering a new phase in understanding our race relationships. This phase presents a new opportunity for us all to grow as a nation. What I have seen around the school this past week is an insight into a better future for our young people particularly our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander boys.
Mr Peter Fullagar
Principal