By Callum Ludwig
The Tourism Network Yarra Valley business group has given its $1000 donation to Cire Community School in Yarra Junction.
Cire is using the funds to build an Aboriginal kitchen garden for the students to utilise on campus as part of their hands-on learning.
Principal of Yarra Junction Cire Community School Tyson McNamara said the existing garden and proposed indigenous garden provides unique learning opportunities for students.
“We have found one of the really good ways of engaging students is through the garden by getting out there getting their hands dirty, and being able to see the benefit of their hard work by actually producing food growing crops,” he said.
“From there, we have a commercial kitchen with a chef, where the students learn how to cook the food up, and they feed their community with it.”
The garden will not only provide fresh produce but provide an opportunity for the students to learn and relay information about the history of the First Nations people in the Yarra Valley.
Mr McNamara and committee member from Tourism Network Yarra Valley business group Cath Allan said learning about the history of Aboriginal culture in the Yarra Valley is incredibly important for students.
“At the school, we use the eight ways of learning, which is an Aboriginal thought process they used to teach their young children and have found it’s a really great way of supporting students. So many of our students have never been exposed to First Nations culture,” Mr McNamara said.
“In a way, the garden and its produce is essentially teaching students history lessons. It is teaching them respect for our culture out here and an understanding of the people and country that has come before us,” Ms Allan said.
The eight ways of learning is an interconnected method and practice of teaching, consisting of story sharing, learning maps, non-verbal communication, symbols and images, land links, non-linear thinking, deconstruct and reconstruct and community Links.
Mr McNamara said the existing garden at the school and the proposed Aboriginal garden have been designed, constructed and maintained by the students.
“They do all the landscaping, the woodwork. They decide what to grow, when they grow it, they purchase all the mulch and soil,” he said.
“Our principles are authentic hands-on learning. If we can teach our students something by getting them out of the classroom and doing something, then that’s the way we do it.
Ms Allan said opportunities like what is provided at Cire schools encourage students to go on to careers in what they love, particularly in the strong tourism, hospitality, agricultural and horticultural sector of the Yarra Valley.
“What we want is for local kids to find an interest in a love of tourism and hospitality. They may learn how to start cooking here and discover a bit of a passion,” she said.
“We want to teach these kids to find an interest in something first which can then flow on to them finding careers and jobs and hopefully keeping it local out here and supporting the businesses running our local community.”
