ABORIGINAL students were proud to share a taste of their culture during Ross Hill School NAIDOC assembly.
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The Dhirrabu Yinaar dance troupe comprised of Kalliyah Brown, Skakohia Binge, Kadijah Kim, Shikeesha Brown, Chloe Connors and Gemma Murray took the stage.
They performed to the sound of the didgeridoo, played by young year 1 student Ky-mani Duncan. The name means Deadly Women in Aboriginal, and the six dancers performed a traditional dance, decked in all black outfits, body paint, gum tree branches and bird feathers.
Teacher Samantha Duncan said the girls practiced daily for seven weeks for the performance.
“The moves they derived from traditional movements in dance that were handed from generation to generation via my great-aunties and grandparents and such,” she said.
“So I brought that into the school to teach them.”
Year 5 student Gemma said she was happy and proud to perform the dance.
She giggled when her friend Chloe felt a little too shy to talk.
“She’s in year 6, and she’s proud like me,” Gemma grinned.
Samantha sat with Ky-mani as he piped out small growls from the didgeridoo.
She said he’d began learning the traditional instrument as a baby and said it was deceptively hard to master.
“Especially to get yourself around the circular breathing technique, he’s still learning yet but he’s not quite there yet, bless him,” she said.