Reconciliation Means…

The story we dream for reconciliation is based around mutual respect and friendship. Our school is based in the inter-city of Sydney on Gadigal Country which is part of the Eora Nation.  We are a small school with one hundred students enrolled. There are thirty-five different nationalities within our school, of these nationalities we have twenty First Nations students (both Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander) who are all living off their home Country.  The children live in close proximity of each other so their lives are very much inter-twinned twenty-four seven.  Therefore, cultural respect and friendships play a big part in their way of life. The school staff are committed to ensuring that the students in the school know that the land our school is built on is Gadigal Country and that the Gadigal people are the custodians. We have a school Acknowledgement of Country that is shared with the school and community on special occasions. Within our classrooms each class has written an Acknowledgement of Country which is personal to them and is read each morning before the daily lessons begin.  We spoke about what reconciliation means to us and what we might be able to do to make our school a place where everyone is treated equally. Our idea of friendship, respect and fairness we thought would be a way we could strengthen our connections and relationship within our school and community.