On Friday the 17th of March, 20 Warners Bay High School students from years 7-11 travelled to Taree to participate in a dance workshop hosted by Chatham High School in collaboration with Bangarra Dance Theatre. This was the 2nd workshop WBHS has attended, the previous workshop was located in Sydney.
The bus trip there was extremely long! After toilet stops and the inevitable ‘Are we there yet? Where are we going again? How long till we are there? Do we have to dance?’ These kids were ready to get stuck in and get moving. All students were lucky enough to get a bacon and egg roll on arrival after pledging their support to Close the Gap. This prompted some important questions about Closing the Gap, its importance and the impact it has and still does on our people today.
Students participated in a range of activities and were split into boys and girls and learnt modern Aboriginal Dance. The two groups would perform together but each had unique movements to add to the dance. Students were able to show off their skills in a range of dances. They all had smiles on their faces and their laughter could be heard from across the hall. Overall, the day was fantastic! All students had a ball and learnt so much from the experience, and were able to meet other Aboriginal students from around the region. It was amazing to see some of the students catching up with mob they hadn’t seen in a while.
The bus trip was fun and we were able to interact and get to know other Aboriginal students.
I love to dance, so this workshop gave me an opportunity to do so whilst connecting with my culture.
We got free food and got to dance with other students from around the region.
