Activity Day at Mallan School

Extract

On August 23, the Aboriginal educators, Kathy, Bruce and myself, and the cultural officer, Doug Nicholls, spent the day at Mallan School, which is about 20 minutes drive from Swan Hill into New South Wales.

When we arrived by bus the children, parents and teacher had the fires already going. Doug and Bruce, with the help of half of the students, put the clay balls in the fire while Kathy and I organised the other half of the students to paint one another’s faces along with the teacher and the parents. After everyone had their faces painted, they checked to see if the clay balls were hot enough to cook their lunches. Their lunches ranged from fish, chicken, duck, potatoes to eggs.

After putting the tucker on to cook, Doug and Bruce led everyone for a walk through the bush, showing them scarred trees and finding some red ochre. Bruce showed the children how to mix the red ochre with water.