The BHP Billiton Prize is awarded to the school whose project is deemed to have the most significant impact on improving relationships in their local community.

The BHP Billiton Prize is awarded to the school whose project is deemed to have the most significant impact on improving relationships in their local community.
 

Borden Primary School, Borden’s Noongar Heritage

Having no Indigenous students at the school hasn’t prevented Borden Primary from embarking on an ambitious PALS project to explore the town’s Noongar history.

The centrepiece has been a Noongar Heritage Day involving former students and teachers speaking about attending the school, working on local farms and life on the three Government reserves that previously existed in the town.

Read more about this project.

Sustainable Partnerships

This category encourages schools to create sustainable and ongoing community partnerships focused on building better relationships and futures between Indigenous and non-Indigenous people.

This year the entries in this category were of such high quality that the judges awarded two awards!

Riverlands School, Fridays at the Autumn Centre

Category Winner 2009

Riverlands School has continued their community project since PALS first started in 2004. Students enjoy weekly visits with the Indigenous Elders at the Elizabeth Hansen Autumn Centre, a hostel where patients from remote communities come to stay while receiving dialysis treatment.

Art and craft, storytelling, musical evenings, outings, picnics and special meals are shared with the Elders. Elders have also become school mentors and have spent quality time in the classroom, sharing art and culture with the students and accompanying them on excursions.

Read more about this project.

Koorana Primary School, Circle of Life

Category Winner 2009

The school is implementing an Aboriginal Education Plan to expand their culturally inclusive curricular and professional development for all staff in Indigenous education.

As part of this plan, the school created an Aboriginal Sensory Garden at the entrance of the school. The garden was named “Circle of Life”.

Read more about this project.

Hedland Senior High School, Harmony Tree

Category Runner up 2009

The Hedland Harmony Tree has grown from a small idea into an impressive four metre by four metre sculpture made from scrap steel. Indigenous students at Hedland Senior High School from the Port Hedland Education Follow the Dream/Partnership for Success program undertook the challenging task of creating the tree as their PALS project with teachers, parents, local businesses and community members lending a hand to bring their vision to life.

Read more about this project.

Community Development

Community Development projects aim to increase participation, involvement and engagement of Indigenous parents and communities in school life.

Narrogin Primary School, Noongar Boodjar: Dryandra Dreaming

Category Winner 2009

Students enjoyed learning about Noongar culture and history through a series of special activities on NAIDOC Day and an excursion to the Dryandra Woodlands.

“The school and Noongar community wanted this day to be a shared experience between all cultures and this was certainly achieved,” Deputy Principal Jenny Carter said. “All the students had a fantastic day.”

Read more about this project.

Neerigen Brook Primary School, Youth Engagement

Category Runner up 2009

Neerigen Primary works alongside at-risk students in the local Armadale area at the Champion Centre to boost the students’ self-esteem and encourage them to re-engage within the school environment.

The project aims to engage Aboriginal students at risk to participate in hands-on activities such as music – drumming, guitar, songs, performing art and cultural dance – to increase student interest in returning to school.

Read more about this project.

Environment

Environment projects identify Indigenous culture as an important part of the Australian landscape and aim to create a welcoming environment that encourages participation from Indigenous people.

Baldivis Primary School, Koondarn Biddi Koorling Kootadining: Dream Trail Walking see and Understand

Category Winner 2009

Over the past five years the school has undertaken a comprehensive program in Indigenous studies focusing on establishing Noongar partnerships with the local Indigenous community.

The project traces the significant landmarks of the Kwinana Rockingham regions, with distinctive signage telling the Dreamtime story of the site or of cultural practice that occurred at each place. A colourful brochure was designed showing the route of the trail.

Read more about this project.

Osborne Primary School, From all the lands on earth we come; I am, you are, we are Australian

Category Runner up 2009

Students at Osborne Primary come from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds. Many students come to the school with very little or no knowledge and understanding of the rich heritage of our country, culture, values and traditions.

For their project the school organised a week of activities to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, to broaden and deepen students’ and teachers’ understanding of Aboriginal cultures and to communicate to the Aboriginal students a sense of pride in their identity and enhance their self-esteem.

Read more about this project.

Health

Health projects contribute to a more health conscious and knowledgeable community through sustainable education initiatives in the school and wider community.

Riverlands School, Bounce High

Category Winner 2009

Riverlands School currently has five Indigenous students from disadvantaged backgrounds attending the school on scholarships. These students face great challenges adjusting to life in the city, having come down from the Kimberley with limited prior educational experiences. Intermittent hearing loss and other learning difficulties add to the challenges they face.

The school, in partnership with Sonic Learning, trialled an intensive reading intervention program called Fast ForWord. The program slows down sounds so the brain can hear them (and learn them) once the sensitive periods for early acquisition has passed.

Read more about this project.

Culunga Aboriginal Community School and St Stephen’s School, Sowing the Seeds

Category Runner up 2009

The students from Culunga and St Stephen’s win again with their vegetable garden!

Read more about this project.

Education

Education projects endeavour to increase student attendance, participation-rates and engagement in school activities.

East Waikiki Primary School, Connecting Communities

Category Winner 2009

Teachers at the school have always been committed to implementing an Aboriginal perspective across the curriculum to varying degrees but in the past they have independently pursued various approaches to Indigenous studies. In consultation with the local Indigenous communities, Government agencies, students, staff, and the AIEO a Scope and Sequence document was developed for Indigenous Studies to guide teachers. It is a sequential planning tool that identifies opportunities for incorporating local traditions and providing valued and authentic opportunities to support effective Aboriginal cultural understanding throughout the curriculum.

Read more about this project.

Wandering Primary School, Involvement

Category Runner up 2009

Wandering Primary School is a small rural school with no Indigenous students. In the past, there were many Indigenous students at Wandering because it was the nearest school to an Aboriginal mission that has since closed down. Teacher Jenny Dunn believed the students were missing a vital part of the town’s history.

The students participated in a day of cultural activities to learn more about their Indigenous heritage, with local Elders visiting the school to tell their stories about the history of the area.

Read more about this project.

Arts & Culture

Arts and Culture projects encourage a greater understanding and appreciation of the State’s rich Indigenous culture and heritage and contribute to preservation of these attributes.

Moorditj Noongar Community College, Stitched Together

Category Winner 2009

Moorditj College students collaborated with students from Riverlands School every Friday for a term to work on creating and stitching the dolls, with the resulting friendships and cooperation a benefit to all.

The aim of the project was to allow students from both schools to gain an understanding and acceptance of others that are from different backgrounds.

Read more about this project.

West Beechboro Primary School, Katitjiny Noorn

Category Runner up 2009

A mosaic snake entwined around the buildings of the school, protecting the children and promoting the knowledge of virtues that bring the people of the world together, is the finished product of West Beechboro’s project.

The children wrote their own Dreamtime stories about the snake after listening to stories from Elders in the community. One story was then selected by a panel to be published and embedded in the school’s culture and future.

Read more about this project.

Further Awards

The judges were so impressed with the high quality of PALS projects this year that they wanted to recognise the wonderful efforts of schools that just missed out on category prizes.

Approximately 20 projects were short listed following the first round of judging, and the expert judging panel had a tough job determining the final winners.

High Commendation

One Arm Point Remote Community School, Ardyaloon Culture Program

One Arm Point Remote Community school is located approximately 200 kilometres north of Broome on the Dampier Peninsula. The school works together with community Elders to capture local community knowledge and history into the school curriculum. With community consultation the school has developed a cultural studies program to support and value cultural knowledge of the Bardi/Ardyaloon peoples.

Innovation Award

Edale Kindergarten, Sharing our NAIDOC Day

Edale Kindergarten is a double unit purpose built kindergarten, with one side an Aboriginal kindy and the adjoining unit a multicultural kindy. There has been virtually no contact between the parents of both kindergartens. The Aboriginal kindergarten hosted a NAIDOC Day and invited all the parents and children from both the Aboriginal and multicultural kindergartens, along with members of the wider Aboriginal community.

School Community Award

Palmyra Primary School

Palmyra Primary has a small number of Indigenous students. Aboriginal culture has often been presented in a traditional context, giving some students the misunderstanding that Aboriginal culture is only a traditional and not a living culture. The school ran various activities for their PALS project, giving the students an opportunity to meet and share in song with contemporary Indigenous songwriters/musicians. They participated in and performed at a local multicultural community festival and celebrated Harmony Week, learning some Noongar words and simple songs in the Noongar language. Students also participated in dance workshops to create a contemporary dance piece inspired by traditional Aboriginal dance.

To view these and other fantastic PALS projects, visit the PALS website.