Moodjar Consultancy – Noongar Space-Naming Workshop

On 21 November 2024, Niki Davison and Dylan Collard, from Moodjar, expertly led a representative group of the St Mark’s community in a workshop to name important spaces on the St Mark’s campus.

The School has, in its Strategic Plan, four strategic focus areas. One of them, “Rounded Character: Our community is characterised by an aim to ‘grow good people’ who are ethical, respectful, honest, empathetic, confident, capable, and concerned citizens of the world”, is very relevant to the School’s aim to establish a better understanding of and connection to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture.

Within this strategic focus area, we specifically seek to “Work to understand, learn with, and serve others, including those of diverse identities, communities, and beliefs, and those experiencing hardship or disadvantage”. The School has engaged with Moodjar Consultancy this year in three projects to help achieve this strategic objective, including the space-naming workshop.

The School campus has a number of important spaces that are used every day by our students and community. The School Council agreed to name these spaces with appropriate Noongar names that reflect the purpose of those spaces. The School engaged Moodjar to provide expert advice and support so that the process was a respectful one, ensuring that the richness of the knowledge and culture of Aboriginal people who have lived in this area for thousands of years were recognised and respected. Five spaces were examined: the Cafeteria, the Quadrangle, the green space in the Primary School between the Art Room and the Year 4/5 Building, the Primary Oval, and the Secondary Oval.

The St Mark’s group included people representing Primary School students, Secondary School students, staff, parents, the P&F, the Old Scholars’ Association, the School Council and the School’s Executive.

The group was asked to brainstorm how each of those spaces is used by our community, and then the focus was narrowed to three of the major uses or purposes. At this point, it was clear that the spaces were used for quite different purposes. The group was then provided with a range of Noongar language resources, and we looked for words that corresponded to the purposes identified. Then, we looked at how some Noongar words could be combined to accurately describe that space's purpose. The group was greatly assisted by Dylan’s knowledge of the Noongar language, he is a Noongar language teacher, as we learned how to connect and correctly pronounce the words.

As a result, we have discerned five beautiful names for these important spaces. Professor Len Collard is reviewing the names for their suitability, and when approved, the names will go to the School Council for their consideration. We hope to be able to share the names with our community early next year.

I am looking forward to when these beautiful Noongar names are simply part of the lexicon of language at St Mark’s, when members of our community use the words as naturally as we say ‘Joondalup’, or ‘Karrinyup’, or ‘Yellagonga’. Our students will be immersed in Aboriginal culture simply by being on our campus, and our connection to Aboriginal people will be strengthened.

Thank you to each of the people who engaged wholeheartedly and enthusiastically in the workshop for their contribution to an excellent outcome for St Mark’s.