Building Bridges

A number of Year 11 students participated in the Building Bridges program this year. The final event was the ‘Creative Day’, which took place on Friday 2 September. Each of the schools in our region came together in Mount Eliza and heard from Adam, a local Indigenous man, about the plants and horticulture of the area. We weeded foreign grasses from the area so Indigenous grasses could be planted there instead. This was actually quite relaxing and we had lots of fun talking to the students from other schools who we’d befriended throughout the program. They also taught us about the Indigenous plants in the area during a short bushwalk. We learnt about the variety of plants that grow in the area and their nutritional and medicinal uses. We were invited to try eating some of the plants, interestingly a lot of them were more salty and bitter due to growing right next to the beach. We were told that often Indigenous people would live into their 90s or older because their diet was so healthy and full of nutrition.

The other key part of this day was the Smoking Ceremony we all participated in on the beach. Specific plants were gathered representing different aspects of Boonwurrung culture such as the women or the community. This tradition is performed when people from one group enter the land of another. It welcomes them and the particular plants burned have a distinctive smell, specific to each Indigenous group.

I found this day a very fitting way to conclude our Building Bridges journey. We had gone to each of the participating schools and learnt about their different religions, traditions, and beliefs, then we completed the experience by learning about the culture and traditions of the land we’re all on.

Mary Tobin
Year 11