In acknowledgment of National Reconciliation Week (27 May to 3 June), for this story celebrating 125 years of MLMC we have focused on the College’s connection with First Nations people. We look at how these relationships started and then developed between school students and Aboriginal communities.
In 1999, the College became involved with a special student exchange program set up with the remote First People’s school at Jigalong. Located in the East Pilbara in Western Australia, on a reserve at the edge of the Great Sandy Desert. It is home to the Martu people, whose contact with Europeans was only recent and as a result they have been able to maintain strong traditional ties to their lore, culture and values.
A small group of students and staff from Year 10 and Year 11 were given the opportunity to visit the community at Jigalong for 10 days where they interacted with the students there and participated in activities including "visits to local rock holes, making damper in a dry river bed, playing footy and helping out in the classroom". The aim of the program was to raise awareness about Indigenous culture in the school and the importance of the ‘Closing the Gap’ campaign.
It proved such a success that the visit to Jigalong became an annual event and it paved the way for students and staff from Jigalong to come to Melbourne and visit MLMC.
A few years earlier, in 1997, the College was involved with an outreach program to visit the Ltyente Aputre people at Santa Teresa community at Tennant Creek, in the Northern Territory. Under the leadership of Campus Minister Paul Skippen, students visited the community annually for a number of years and assisted with maintenance and activities that engaged the children.
