Term 3 in Bush School is always both a challenging and a wonderful time of the year. We begin the term at the end of the season of Makuru, and throughout we celebrate the beautiful season of Djilba, culminating in our joyful Djilba Festival on the last day of term. It is also the season of peak illness amongst staff and students, as well as unpredictable changes in the weather, requiring of us a great deal of flexibility in our plans as we adapt week by week to changing circumstances.

Yet out of this unpredictability arise unforeseen opportunities. A great example of this is a last minute suggestion several weeks ago that children wearing gumboots might make a bridge across our giant puddle for others to cross. This turned into two weeks of several children working with great focus, collecting wood, sawing, designing and cementing. They created a great bridge and a very good mud patch.

We are blessed in our Bush School setting to witness firsthand the behaviour of the koolbardis (magpies) as they go through the nesting process. Each year we look out for signs of which local tree a pair of koolbardis will choose to build their nest in. The children get to witness nest-building, egg-sitting and chick-rearing behaviour in a totally natural setting. And we have the added bonus that our koolbardi friends are used to having the children around, leaving them be when we come in close to observe. The children have sung songs about koolbardis, listened to the ongoing trials and tribulations of Mr and Mrs Koolbardi during story time, written and drawn about koolbardis in their journals, and, with Sylvia’s assistance, even built a giant nest of their own.

We have been fortunate in the last couple of weeks to have Lyra and Ari’s mum Linda join us at the Earth Station to share her skills in weaving with bush materials. Those children that have managed to persevere have produced some beautiful little bush baskets to bring home.

Story Map project

Another ongoing project is the creation of a place-based Story Map of the creek, our campsite and the surrounding forest. This was inspired by Uncle Eugene’s suggestion, when we first built the Healing Hut, that we create a songline for our bush setting. He didn’t give any indication of how we should go about it, so the idea has been gestating for a while. Over the years of Bush School a body of stories, songs and knowledge relating to the seasonal changes in the bush have taken shape. Then last term we walked the contours of the creek, drew its shape in the earth, and added details of our special storied sites into our bush journals. The project has unfolded slowly as we have yarned about it, tried different materials, waited for suitable weather, and felt our way into the right approach. We now have a beautiful piece of milled sheoak that is gradually being transformed into a lasting map to hold our stories of the creek and the forest. The end product is still a bit of a mystery, but the children have enjoyed sanding and drawing onto this beautiful piece of wood. We are considering how they may incorporate the use of balga resin and wood burning as part of the creative process. The long-term intention is to explore ways of using the map as a mnemonic device to help the children remember stories, songs, Noongar language and detailed ecological information about the bush setting. Thank you Eugene for this intriguing suggestion, hopefully the path we are pursuing will be a fruitful one in the creation of a contemporary songline for our school setting.

Bruce