Bermagui Public School's NAIDOC week celebrations on Tuesday, June 28, were a whole-of-community affair.
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Teachers, parents, and students from Narooma High, as well as volunteers from Narooma Red Cross and Gadhu Health in Eurobodalla, joined the children's festivities.
One highlight was the Koori cook-off. Four teams of Year 6 students cooked up aromatic dishes for the judging panel:
- Team Garraywaa (meaning Milky Way) presented kangaroo red curry with Warrigal greens.
- Team Balingdjang's (Salt Water) offering was lemon myrtle fish curry with rice
- Team Guranguran Gulaga's (Lightning Mountain) entry was chicken curry with mountain pepper
- Team Walimbura (Shark) served beef stir fry with ginger.
Bermagui Public School teacher Julie Kirk, who supervised the cook-off, said each team used the Dhurga dictionary to create their team's name. They also designed the artwork for the four menus.
In the judges' opinion, Team Garraywaa won the cook-off.
A formal NAIDOC assembly with traditional singing and dancing kicked off the celebrations, followed by the cook-off and giant school picnic with kangaroo spaghetti bolognaise.
The celebrations concluded with an afternoon of cultural games, crafts and stories, including a virtual reality Constellation game. Three 30-minute rotations of children repainted the snake on the pavement of the school's courtyard in the colours of the Aboriginal flag and with the Dhurga alphabet.
Another painting activity was a second totem. For the school's NAIDOC celebrations last year, Gary Campbell, former Aboriginal Education Officer at the school, painted a totem with the word Njindiwan, meaning everyone.
This year he decorated the second totem as Walawaani, or welcome. After the children have adding the finishing touches, it will join last year's totem facing out towards Wallaga Lake Road.