The 2025 NAIDOC Week theme, “The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy” has guided us as we explored the strength of Country, the power of storytelling and the importance of Indigenous voices, knowledge and achievements. Across our centres, children have participated in a wide range of immersive experiences that honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and promote reconciliation through everyday practice.

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Exploring Culture Through Play and Creativity

Children engaged in small world play and loose parts exploration to express their ideas and learnings about land, community and connection. Using natural materials such as gum nuts, bark, ochre-toned sand, and stones, they created their own imaginative Country-inspired landscapes.

Some of our centres also explored print and mark-making with clay, using native leaves and textured bark to press patterns and tell visual stories that connect to the Makuru season, a Noongar seasonal calendar that marks the cold, rainy time of year and the return of the birds and animals.

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Artistic Journeys and Symbolism

Symbolism has been a strong focus, with children learning about traditional Aboriginal art styles and creating their own representations of meaningful symbols, animals and dreamtime stories. Many rooms collaborated on group murals featuring native animals, bushland and handprints, reflecting connection, community and creativity.

At some centres, children designed nature-based art using paints inspired by earth tones and ochre. These pieces captured the colours of Country and allowed for meaningful discussion about the environment and its sacred significance.

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Music, Dance and Movement

Music and rhythm brought our centres to life as children explored traditional instruments such as clapping sticks. Many created their own sets using painted wooden offcuts, learning about beat and tempo while listening to Indigenous music.

Our educators facilitated movement sessions inspired by traditional dance, celebrating animals and the land. Children mimicked kangaroos, emus and lizards as they stomped, jumped and slithered in celebration of the animals that are deeply connected to Indigenous storytelling.

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Storytelling, Language and Yarning Circles

Storytime held extra significance this week. Across all centres, children gathered in yarning circles, listening to Dreaming stories and engaging in reflective conversations about land, people and culture. They also listened to audio recordings of yarning circles from Elders and storytellers, developing their understanding of turn-taking, respect and collective wisdom.

Children have been introduced to Noongar language, learning simple words for animals (like dwert – dog, kaarda – lizard), colours (mirda – red, wooyan – blue), and greetings. These language sessions sparked curiosity and joy as children connected words to the world around them.

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Bush Tucker, Cooking and Sensory Play

The children explored native ingredients like lemon myrtle, which was used in a baking experience led by our educators and the enthusiastic help of some of our Kwila children. While mixing and measuring, the group discussed the many uses of the lemon myrtle plant beyond food.

Other rooms made damper and engaged in sensory play using bush herbs and spices, encouraging exploration through smell, touch, and taste. These experiences created rich opportunities to talk about sustainability, seasonal food, and traditional knowledge.

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Learning from Community and Celebrating Achievements

At Tall Tree Subiaco, we celebrated Indigenous achievement by learning from local stories, including an article by Aunty Carol Petterson on the significance of birds in Noongar culture. Children created clay birds using inspiration from native species and learned how bird calls can signal messages about the environment and seasons.

We also welcomed Brenton from Yalkarang Consulting for an incursion. Brenton introduced the children to Noongar songs, words, animals and colours. His story, Thank You, Rain, perfectly aligned with the Makuru season and deepened the children's connection to Country.

On of our Tall Tree Leederville families spent the morning with our children. They celebrated with the Emu dance which is a traditional Indigenous dance  followed by cooking some kangaroo and damper.

Connecting to Country

Some of our educators and children ventured beyond the centre to our local park to walk on Country, collecting natural items like fallen leaves and flora to bring back for use in multimedia art projects. These excursions supported conversations about strength in Country and helped children understand their place within it.

Looking Ahead

NAIDOC Week may be one week in the calendar, but the commitment to celebrating and embedding First Nations perspectives is ongoing at our centres. Through shared stories, meaningful conversations, artistic expression and connection to nature, we are laying the foundations for lifelong respect, empathy and understanding.

We’re proud of how our educators and children have embraced the week, honouring the past, engaging with the present and walking together toward a future of shared learning and reconciliation.

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