THIS week is NAIDOC week, which is the annual event that celebrates Indigenous culture, history, and recognises the contributions to the community of Australia’s firs nations’ peoples.

To coincide with the week, the winner of the Port Stephens Council’s Aboriginal Projects Fund Grant scheme has been announced.

Uniting Early Learning Medowie childcare centre is revelling in its successofbeing awarded a $2000 grant in this initiative.

The project will introduce young children to indigenous cultures through art, music, dance, storytelling, language, and excursions with local Indigenous community members and their regular educators.

Titled, Actioning reconciliation and growing Worimi wisdom with the youngest in the Medowie community, the project brings together members of the Worimi community, early childhood educators, and young children to learn about the local Worimi culture and history.

Centre Director, Ms Edith Gippel told Medowie News Of The Area, the funding, “Enables local Aboriginal wisdom and culture to be passed on to our children at Medowie’s only community based long day care centre.”

“We hope to enrich not only the children’s learning journey but also to build the skills of teachers so that they have a strong knowledge and skills set to enable them to include the richness of our local Aboriginal history in their teaching in the future.”

The funds will assist in employing a local Aboriginal person who will regularly visit the childcare centre to educate the children about important aspects of Aboriginal culture.

The children from this Medowie childcare centrewill grow up with first-hand knowledge, experience and respect of the local aboriginal culture.

The centre staff members are looking forward to learning from the local Worimi people so that they can educate the young children in their care about this important knowledge.

“The opportunity for intercultural and intergenerational learning is really exciting,” Ms Gippell told News Of The Area.

NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee.

For more information about NAIDOC week, go to: http://www.naidoc.org.au/

For more information about Uniting Early Learning Medowie, phone or email: 02 4982 9622, medowieel@uniting.org

 

By Heather SHARP