His Excellency, the Honourable Chris Dawson AC APM just gave State Governor Awards to two schools here in Western Australia this year (and these are not awarded every year, but only when there is some clear outstanding performance in education that needs to be recognized) one of them being MERRIWA PRIMARY SCHOOL. ...Which is basically from where we started the Autism future employment project (still is physically mainly located there) and I don't need to go on about how many of us are on the Board there, and other stuff associated with those amazing people and their supporters some of whom include yourselves (it is designed to be a project transferable worldwide where there are dynamic, interested people available in other places).
This school is in an area which is in the lowest socio-economic percentile in the State (believe me, if we let them, some kids would come to school not having eaten the night before or the morning either, and there are potential issues about where they slept/if they slept at all), and has the highest number of different ethnic groups represented in its student population (around 35 different ethnic groups from all over the world!). This year, we had afternoon and evening 'pizza meets' where the State Education Department provided interpreters so that the parents of these kids from all over the planet were able to clearly comprehend in their own language what the grades being given to their children actually meant. 'C' being a very good grade, for example, and which meant that the child was doing everything asked of them.
When the Governor carried out his usual tree-planting thing that he does wherever he goes out on official duties to make awards and so on, one of our local Aboriginal students gave the 'welcome' address extemporaneously, with a very moving statement of how proud he was on behalf of his community and his people. ...And this from someone in Primary School. We are talking some serious chops here!
This last month all the children of the whole school met with Aboriginal Elders, and all of them made bush damper, from a recipe given by one of the students' grandmothers.
...I think I'll have to get this recipe from them and post it up on the FB 'Rave Festival Cookies' page now.
Culture is handed on in inter-generational processes where the slightly older children, having learned key things from their Elders, are then able to pass these things down to the very young ones. It is a fact that much of the ancient ways and understandings are highly sophisticated and kept and maintained as incredibly precious things - and it is a matter of enormous generosity that the Elders are at this time choosing to share what they know to the current crop of children and to the wider community here and around the world.
Gouryella - Ligaya We've played it before here a few times already. |
As you know we have been promoting here in these pages, deep connection with the tremendously ancient past, and pretty esoteric ties to a strong positive future but linked to that past -, despite current problems in the world. 'Gouryella' with its official music video clip, is the most obvious expression of those kinds of ideas.
'Gouryella' is a global hit by Armin Van Buuren and Ferry Corsten, and the word (which means 'Heaven') is taken from probably the Wiradjuri Eastern Australian Aboriginal language - whereas we speak mostly Noongar over here in the West.
There is far too much going on right now to make anything like a decent report of it all here right away. But things will unfold...
One of you here I know is involved in Ultra Frisbee sports in the US, and this month too, our Ed Support Campus had their kids all outside being taught the art of the frisbee.
Meanwhile - here's the personal message from JES to the school: