Students from Wongarbon Public School embraced the return of NAIDOC Week celebrations on Thursday after what they describe as a 'long break'.
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Wongarbon Public Schools newly-appointed principal Jody Hall, who has been in the role for a month now, went all out to ensure her first NAIDOC Week would be one the students wouldn't forget.
"The kids participated in a lot of different activities," Mrs Hall said.
"They made NAIDOC-coloured bath salts and Johnny Cakes, and they also made their own out of clay, which they created themselves after a story time presentation."
The NAIDOC Week celebrations are not only fun and enjoyable, but aim to teach the students about the authentic indigenous culture through activities such as making Johnny Cakes which is a traditional Aboriginal bush scone.
School captains Hannah Payne and Jayden Murray said they were excited to celebrate and hope it was something that would continue to be celebrated in the years to come.
"My mum was happy when I told her we were going to be celebrating NAIDOC Week, I think she said the school hadn't held NAIDOC Week celebrations since my big sister graduated," Jayden said.
"The school hasn't done anything for NAIDOC Week in a long time."
Jayden said he thought the celebrations were 'really fun' and he's happy he was able to experience NAIDOC Week before he heads off to high school in the new year.
"It's a lot of fun," he said.
Hannah said Jayden and her were given the task of helping out with the decorating, and were also given the honour of doing the Acknowledgement of Country, which she said was a really fun opportunity.
"We hung up the streamers and some other things like that," Hannah said.
"We really just helped with the decorating and the teachers did the rest."
The students were given free NAIDOC Week-coloured cupcakes which were provided to them by the school, for morning tea.
For lunch time, they were also provided with a free sausage sizzle where they had the opportunity to try traditional indigenous foods such as kangaroo and emu, and their very own Johnny Cakes.
Mrs Hall said they had taken a few extra steps to help ensure COVID-19 safety measures, like separating the ingredients for the Johnny Cakes into individual plastic bags, but they were still able to celebrate the occasion nonetheless.
Members from the Aboriginal Education Team were also at the public school on Thursday to help with the celebrations.
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