My name is Isabella Carroll and I am a Year 11 boarder from Byron Bay and a descendant of the Kamilaroi people.

The theme for 2021 Reconciliation week is ‘More than a word. Reconciliation takes action’. This means that we are making a movement towards braver and more impactful actions.

At KRB we are supporting this action by learning during pastoral classes about what reconciliation means, why we celebrate it and about National Sorry Day and its importance. To make this engaging for all year groups we made a variety of activities for students to complete this week.

These activities and events included making pledges as a school. These were made to express what actions we as individuals and a school are going to do. Every year group from ELC to 12 wrote a pledge onto a hand which was cut out and displayed on a large piece of board, one for every year. At the end of our Cultural Diversity Assembly, the whole school came outside onto the Fernan Fields where some of the KRB indigenous students, including myself, had the opportunity to speak to our fellow classmates. After we spoke, I called upon a Representative from every year group to come forward and plant a pledge into the Fernan Fields. This was KRB as a school standing forward and taking action.

A few of the younger Indigenous students also went around to classes and got everyone to put their fingerprints onto a canvas. This just shows who we are as a school community, taking action on this year’s reconciliation to make change, and acknowledges the wrongdoings of the past.

This year was so important to all the indigenous community as it was the 20th year of Reconciliation Australia so we tried really hard to make this week memorable for all students and staff, so the whole community could really get to understand what it means to us. It is so important that KRB as a school recognises Reconciliation Week as that they understand what has happened in the past and can now start to take action in many different ways.

Bella Carroll
Year 11 student