National Sorry Day

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Kaya, 26 May is National Sorry Day, a day where we as a community remember and acknowledge the mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who were forcibly removed from their families and communities, who would become known as ‘The Stolen Generation"‘.

Today, all of our students and staff listened to a video prepared by Mr Boundary, our school AIEO, who shared his own painful experience of his family and how they were impacted by this policy. Jayden’s father, Uncles and Aunts were removed from their family and forced to live away from his Grandparents.

The story that Jayden shared with our school community gives a first hand and very powerful message of how this mistreatment adversely impacted and continues to impact generations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. I would encourage all families to discuss Jayden’s message with their children tonight and collectively as a community we can work towards not only greater understanding and awareness of this important date, but also move towards greater reconciliation within our entire community.

On this Sorry Day, Dianella Primary College acknowledges the Wadjak Noongar people as the traditional custodians of this land on which we learn and pay our respects to elders past, present and emerging and we acknowledge the past mistreatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. We thank Jayden for his very personal recount and for educating our school community about the importance of this day.

Anthony Middleton