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News Flash - Mortlake
Jenny's Kindergarten Mortlake
This week the centre celebrated NAIDOC Week, during the week the children listened to a range of traditional Indigenous music and dancing. The children were fascinated to see the traditional clothing and instruments that were being used.
Across all the classrooms within the service collaborated to bring to life two very beautiful projects. The children learnt the song ‘Taba Naba’. Taba Naba is a popular dance about going out to the edge of the reef fishing. Like a folk dance it is joyful, describing the activities of everyday life. It is a dance everyone can share, and sharing is still very much part of Murray Islander life with kin, with in-laws, with the whole island, with people outside.
Today people sing old and newly composed songs about their winds, the birds, the sea creatures, the plants that go with the time of their wind. These are not just songs or dances which they enjoy. They are saying 'We are this kind of people, not like that group over there.'
'Taba naba naba norem,
Come let us go to the reef,
Tugei pe neiser mi, dinghy ge nabatre,
While morning low tide, let us go in the dinghy,
Mi ko kei serer em nebewem,
Let us wade to the edge of the reef,
Taba naba norem.
Come let us go to the reef.
Together we created our own Rainbow Snake to display in the centre hallway, the children learnt about the Rainbow Snake and how it shaped the world.
