Today our Middle School students and staff gathered for our Sorry Day Assembly. During this time, we reflected solemnly on the injustices endured First Nations People in this land, in particular the Stolen Generations, and sought to remind our community about the importance of this day.
The assembly started with Ms Mikaela Maroudas, Acting Head of Year 8, giving the Acknowledgment of Traditional Owners and Ms Emma Walker, Aboriginal Education Mentor, giving the prayer.
A short, informative video was shown on the history of colonisation in Australia, the ongoing harm it has caused to First Nations Peoples and how the country is trying to heal those wounds.
Head of Middle School, Mr John Partington reflected on his own journey of understanding of the tragedy brought by colonisation on First Nations’ Peoples, starting to learn about it in primary school and continuing through university. In that light, he encouraged students in a positive spirit to learn all they could about Australia’s history.
“You can always learn more,” he said.
He reflected on Genesis 1:16 “Then God said, ‘Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.‘”
He said that as we are all created in God’s image, all people are precious and deserving of equality and justice.
The Middle School Choir sang beautifully Journey to the past from the movie Anastasia with the lyrics very poignant for the occasion.
“Let this road be mine
Let it lead me to my past.”
