Kye Foster dream job | January 5, 2024 | Illawarra Mercury - video Dailymotion

Illawarra Mercury

Koonawarra Public School teacher Kye Foster is getting ready to fully immerse himself in the state's first Aboriginal bilingual school at Gumbaynggirr Giingana Freedom School in Coffs Harbour. Video by Koonawarra Public School

Transcript

00:00 I went to a school in Coffs Harbour.

00:02 Nice.

00:03 Big change, big change heading north.

00:05 It's the first bilingual school in NSW.

00:08 It's where my family comes from.

00:10 So I made the decision to head up north for a year or so

00:14 and get back on country and heal some of those wounds

00:18 left from a bit of history.

00:21 Yeah, nice. I heard from a few kiddos, and I saw it on Dojo,

00:24 and a couple of kiddos are worried that they'll never see you again.

00:27 Is that the plan?

00:29 No, no, no, that's not the plan.

00:31 The plan is that I will be back at Coonawarra.

00:33 It is a leave from Coonawarra, but the plan is to go back to country

00:38 to learn the language, to really connect to the culture there

00:41 and see what it means to be Gominggidari, to be two paths strong on country

00:47 and to have those connections, those opportunities that my parents

00:51 and grandparents missed out on, and hopefully bring that knowledge back here

00:56 and see how I can help embed that in Beelawarra and at Coonawarra.

01:01 Yeah, when I first heard it I was sad, but then I got excited about

01:06 the prospects of you coming back with all that knowledge.

01:09 And I know how important your culture is to you, and getting back on country

01:14 is something that you've wanted to do for a long time.

01:18 And when we first saw this school pop up back in the day,

01:21 it's always been on your bucket list to go up there.

01:23 So really supportive of you going up there and ticking that item off.

01:27 And stoked to see what you learn and what you can bring back.

01:31 Yeah, thanks. I'm really excited. It's something we go up to a lot,

01:35 up to Nambaka there, where my family comes from.

01:38 And to actually move up there is pretty scary, it's a big change,

01:42 but it's something that needs to happen, and I feel like it needs to happen

01:47 for me personally. My family's really supportive of it,

01:50 and they're really keen for that to happen too.

01:53 So to move bigger than just me and my responsibility,

01:56 it's something that's huge for my Nan and my parents and my aunties and uncles

02:01 and all of those that were impacted from that dark part of Australian history.

02:06 [no audio]

Kye Foster dream job | January 5, 2024 | Illawarra Mercury

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