News from Yiramalay
Term 3 at Yiramalay has been very busy with daily classes on country including community projects, sport, graduations, festivals and symposia. The first Wesley College Council meeting to be held at Yiramalay took place on 24 June with some members there in person and others joining by teleconference.
The last event before students returned home for the Term 2 holidays was the Kimberley Cup, an interschool sports carnival hosted by Broome Senior High School, and which we participated in for the first time. It involved a number of schools from across the Kimberley with the main events being basketball, netball and football. It was great that Yiramalay was represented at such a significant community event and we were very proud to have four of our students recognised - Tanalia Kitching was awarded runner up for Most Valuable Player for basketball and three of our boys, Reace Brooking, Darren Kirkman and Hakeem Davey, were invited to be part of the All Stars boys’ basketball team.
In July a number of staff attended the Yapaneyepuk Symposium in Melbourne. The theme of the symposium was Walking Together to Make a Difference and was designed to deepen their knowledge and understanding of Australia’s first people, ways of doing, being and learning.
At the recent Group 17 graduation there was much excitement, as members of the Friends of Yiramalay arrived to join in the celebration and for most of them, it was their first visit to Yiramalay. The group was established by Georgie Raik-Allen and Romy Moshinsky in 2014.
In August, Yiramalay students and staff, as well as our Principal Dr Helen Drennen and two Glen Waverley students, Cameron Binks, Year 12 and Kiera Bates, Year 11, attended the Garma Festival hosted by the Yothu Yindi Foundation and held on country near Nhulunbuy in the Northern Territory. There were over 2,500 people at the festival from all over the world. The theme of the festival wasBuilding Our Future, Strengthening Our Lives and the vision for the Yothu Yindi Foundation is for the Yolngu people (the local traditional owners of the land) and other Aboriginal Australians to have the same level of wellbeing and life opportunities as non-Aboriginal Australians.
On the way to Garma the group visited Charles Darwin University. This was really valuable for the Aboriginal staff and students to find out what was on offer and better understand how they can begin a tertiary education.
Yiramalay continues to support students with their learning and personal development so they can swim the river and reach the other side with education and can really take advantage of the opportunities that life presents. If you are not sure what I mean by swimming the river watch a YouTube video called Swim the River by Ian Trust.
