Land Down Under: NAIDOC DAY!

I think Thursday was my all time favorite day of school in Australia yet! Last week was NAIDOC week which stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee. Basically it is a celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and an opportunity to recognize the contributions of Indigenous Australians in various fields. A group came to the school and performed songs and dances and also put on many different activities for students. There was a face painting station, boomerang throwing, music and dance, painting, playing of the didgeridoo, and many more. The war paint and dancing gave me the creeps at the beginning, but by the end I was really into it and wanted to get up on stage with them and perform (which I later did).

The funniest/worst part of the day was when one of the boys in Bonnie's class decided to spread a rumor that I wanted to go out on a date with one of the Aboriginal dancer boys (which I totally did not!). This then got around the entire school and all the kids kept going up to him and then coming up to me and it just turned really awkward. Like I am not joking while doing recess duty I had crowds of students stalking me asking about it. One of the 6th grade boys planned out this whole date for us and I asked him if he was planning to come and pay for us! haha The kids all thought it was hilarious though and made us have an awkward 2 minute conversation that really was painful while everyone watched.

Here are some pictures from the days events.