Cultural+Day

Cultural Day

Three primary schools in South Gippsland, who share an Indonesian focus, have combined resources and developed a cluster approach to the provision of LOTE (Indonesian). This cluster includes Tarwin Valley (Meeniyan), Toora, and Alberton primary schools and is administered by Indonesian LOTE teacher Janet Bland. This cooperation has resulted in two very successful Indonesian cultural days. These cultural days were organised for August 12th (Alberton and Toora) and August 13th (Tarwin Valley - Meeniyan), which is as close as possible to August 17th Indonesia's Independence Day. It is on August 17th that Indonesians celebrate independence and their development from a number of isolated islands to a united country.

Visiting performers from 'Baguskan" Nita and Aaron entertained the children with the Ramayana story through shadow puppets and conducted workshops on Indonesian dance and playing traditional gamelon instruments. Added to this were class lessons in batik, masks, kite making, angklung music (bamboo musical instruments) and Indonesian cooking. The Indonesian cooking and tasting proved to be extremely popular.

Children contributed to the occasion by wearing traditional Indonesian clothes or by dressing in red and white, the colours of the Indonesian flag. Children were also invited to enter the colouring competition of the Indonesian coat of arms.

Due to the combined efforts of staff and students the Indonesian cultural day was successful on so many levels. The culture and life style of our closest neighbors were presented in an inspiring and exciting format, children forged new friendships and teachers had the opportunity to work cooperatively to achieve brilliant outcomes for students.

Comments on the day

" When Alberton Primary School students arrived I was a little worried about making friendds but it wasn't hard. We did five activities. They were all pretty cool and exciting . When we did cooking the room smelt awesome. In mask making we could decorate our masks in any way we liked with the paint in front of us. There were loads of Indonesian instruments in the drumming session. The pattern was 65652121." Kate.

" It was a fantastic day, absolutely fantastic when Alberton Primary school came for our marvelous Indonesian Day on the 12th August. I thought the instruments were awesome. I got to play the gong and it vibrated up my arm. I also played the saon (a type of xylophone) which made a loud ting." Shelbie.

"On Wednesday the 13th, we had an Indonesian cultural day. It was great! The food was delicious. There were lots of activities and there was a shadow puppet show. My favourite things were cooking and eating the food. It was the best day ever." Alice.

" Yesterday was amasing and we were really active. My favourite bit was the cooking and the dancing. When the boys had to dance in front of the girls it was embarassing." Dylan.

"A fantastic team effort; that produced a brilliant outcome for our kids." staff memeber.