Song and dance have always been a key way for Aboriginal people to connect with their culture.
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This term, students across the Highlands have used this to learn more about Aboriginal culture.
Council funded a traditional song and dance program.
This program has been rolled out at Bowral High School, Moss Vale Public School and Mittagong Public School.
The focus of the program has been for Aboriginal children to connect to their culture and to share it.
Both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal students have been involved in the workshops and will perform a dance at the NAIDOC Week opening ceremony.
Dwayne Bannon-Harrison from Ngaran Ngaran Culture Awareness, a Yuin man, has worked with council’s Aboriginal Community Development Officer Melissa Wiya to run the workshops.
“It was about connecting to culture, about being proud, being respectful, about not being shameful person who they are. It was about expressing who you are through song and dance,” Ms Wiya said.
“I think the message is to share our culture. We’re giving Aboriginal children a chance to connect but it’s about sharing the culture and being proud and celebrating the rich culture we have.”
The 2017 theme is Our Languages Matter and as such Ms Wiya said they had incorporated Gundungurra language into the program.
Ms Wiya said one of the Black Cockatoo dancers who took part in the 2016 NAIDOC celebrations travelled to Picton to learn more about traditional song and dance.
“So why not give our children a chance to learn song and dance here?” she said.
“Dwayne came up and met with Aunty Val to get permission for her to provide knowledge and the Gundungurra language and how children would connect and what dance was going to be about.
The children have been heavily involved in putting the dance together and chose the animals which will feature in the dance- goanna, kangaroo and emu.
The dancers will be both boys and girls and they will dress up in traditional costumes.
Students at Bowral High have also been working on a dance which acknowledges the Dreamtime story of the Gundungurra people.
Ms Wiya said they were also creating a documentary of the program.
“I think it’s very important. We haven’t had Aboriginal culture in our education curriculum so the workshops have given insight into where we can go with bringing song and dance and language into schools.”
She said she hoped to introduce the program to more schools throughout the year.
