Rain, rain go away – come again some other day!

The whole of Fremantle Primary School listened intently as Uncle Neville Collard shared stories of growing up in regional Western Australia and spoke of catching goannas and the lessons he learned as a young boy from his grandmother and relatives. Once the rain cleared, Uncle Neville lit a fire using fallen leaves from the playground and the students walked through the cleansing smoke before being swept back to class by gusts of wind.

A keen group of Green Team students stayed on to prepare a Six Season Garden of native plants. Situated next to the designated area for the school’s yarning circle the garden will enable the students to learn about endemic species. Future opportunities include recording flowering and fruiting times, investigating the uses of native plants and watching birds and insects using the plants in the garden.

At Fremantle College students from Clontarf Boys Program and Deadly Sista Girlz used their creative skills as they learned about traditional ecological knowledge and language from Joe Collard. Between heavy rain showers they gathered plant materials from the school grounds to inform their creations before sharing their impressions with their peers. Friends of Clontarf Hill (Dwerda Weelardinup) joined in as a follow up to the activities they hosted at the Hill earlier in the year.

Caring for Noongar Boodja – Elders, schools and community working together – was coordinated by Perth NRM and was supported by funding from the Western Australian State NRM Program. The successful project facilitated many students from All Saints College, Fremantle Primary Schools and Fremantle College to undertake Caring for Country activities with their local community and learn from Elders and Knowledge Holders.

If you would like to know more about this project and the programs that Perth NRM coordinates, please contact Ingrid Sieler, Senior Manager Stakeholder Engagement at [email protected]