This year the Wingaru team have worked with two amazing Aboriginal artists – Dunghutti artist Aunty Cynthia O’Brien-Younie, and Marlee Webb, an emerging Darug artist – to bring you some new Christmas crafts for you to share with your class.

I get emails from teachers at all times of the day and night – all year round. Which is why I am not at all surprised that despite the fact term 4 of 2021 is not over, teachers are already reaching out to get ready for 2022.

Lockdown in Sydney is certainly not the NAIDOC week I had planned but I am loving the celebrations of community and culture that I am seeing online and in the media. I hope you are getting to participate in some great events!

NAIDOC is just around the corner and for many Aboriginal people, myself included, it’s a favourite time of year. It’s a time when Aboriginal culture takes a front seat, when we get to see our culture and our people front and centre.

The end of term 1 of course means Easter and the chocolate eggs and craft that come with it! While Easter is not an Aboriginal celebration, eggs were a big part of customary life and looking at how Aboriginal people used eggs is a great perspective for all age groups.

How is it half-way through January already? Time seems to pass faster and faster. My boys are growing too fast and I wish there was a way to slow down time, just a little.

Well, here we are at the last full week of school here in NSW and the final challenge chatter email. I hope you’ve had a great week and an even better term despite the craziness that always is Term 4.

The tree is up, the elf has arrived and Christmas craft has started coming home from school – Christmas has arrived!

NAIDOC is coming up and this year’s theme ‘Always was, always will be’ is a great theme to build your planner around.

​This week we announced the #PlanningWithWingaruandMrJ Challenge – an initiative to get teachers thinking and talking about including more Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander content in their classrooms.

One question that teachers regularly ask me is how often they should include Aboriginal content or perspectives in their classrooms.

I have always been exposed to natural medicines and cultural ways of life. My Dad, Andrew Gall (kurina), always hunted for food when I was young.

This week marks 250 years since Lieutenant James Cook explored the east coast of a largely unknown southern continent in the Endeavour and ultimately claimed the entire land for the British. Despite significant protests, the Australian Government recently planned extravagant events and monuments at enormous expense to celebrate that history*.

Anzac Day is usually an occasion where schools come together to remember those who fought for our country, many of whom made the ultimate sacrifice. Our children sit in assemblies and learn about the wars that Australia has been part of and how we continue to commemorate those events and the people who fought. Some children would also normally participate in Anzac activities with their families or extra-curricular groups.

This week we have been celebrating eggs! Eggs are an important part of bush tucker. The types of eggs available to Aboriginal people differed depending on the environment they lived in.

This week we are celebrating eggs! Eggs are an important part of bush tucker. The types of eggs available to Aboriginal people differed depending on the environment they lived in. Each day this week we will have an activity sheet to explore the types of eggs included in the traditional Aboriginal diet.