• Explore as a class what the theme for the calendar for cultural diversity calendar for 2026 "Towards Peacer" means.
• Discuss what this theme means to the students considering their different school, personal and community contexts.
• Explore the languages featured in each month including related literature.
• Investigate significant events, features and relationships within the students’ personal, school, local or global community.
• Reflect on the ways that artists make artworks that are then interpreted and valued differently by audiences.
• View artworks that have been made for different reasons and consider the who, where, when, why and how of these works.
• Identify possible symbols and techniques artists use in making their artworks to convey their message, meaning or subject matter.
• Investigate traditions, forms, materials and techniques in artworks that are suitable for portraying this subject matter.
• Consider the various ways in which the students, as artists, could present their work visually for possible inclusion in the calendar for cultural diversity.

July’s language is Wiradjuri, one of approximately 35 Pama-Nyungan languages once spoken in the area now known as New South Wales. During the 1800s, Aboriginal peoples across the state bore the brunt of European invasion and their languages were an early casualty with active suppression and the emergence of English as the common language between the different language groups.

The Wiradjuri are one of the largest Aboriginal groups in Australia, both in population and area of country. Their land covers a vast area across the central west slopes and plains of NSW, from Nyngan to Albury, and Bathurst to Hay. The Wiradjuri lived along three rivers, the Murrumbidgee, the Gulari (Lachlan River) and the Womboy (Macquarie River) and their country was known as the land of three rivers. Their language is the most commonly spoken Aboriginal language in NSW.

The 2021 census reported 1479 native speakers of Wiradjuri primarily in NSW. Ngurumbi is one of six seasons observed by the Wiradjuri, the cold season, when the people pulled their possum skin cloaks close around them, showing the patterns etched into the hide with hot sticks. This was the time of cold rains and snow on the mountains. The rivers were low in water but they were rising. The west wind came. It was the hardest time to obtain food, so the time to dig out animals hibernating underground.

People moved camp away from the cold and frost of the river. The Southern Cross was high in the sky. Based on its position, the people knew what season it was and when it was the time to collect emu eggs. The Wiradjuri people did not name the days of the week, but worked in cycles of the sun, the moon and the stars.

Aboriginal Language and Culture Nests aim to revitalise, reclaim, and maintain traditional Aboriginal languages and cultural knowledge in NSW schools. The North West Wiradjuri Language and Culture Nest has established strong links in communities in Dubbo, Narromine, Peak Hill, Trangie, Gilgandra, Wellington and Mudgee and government schools located within these communities.

Over 2000 students from the area are involved in Wiradjuri language and culture programs.

For more information about Wiradjuri language resources teachers may visit:

Wiradjuri Workbooks: Volume 1 Ngumbaay, Volume 2 Bula. Diane Riley-McNaboe, Lynette Riley

Wiradjuri dictionary WCC language program

Land of the Wiradjuri Paul Greenwood

Traditional Wiradjuri Culture Elizabeth Shenstone & Paul Greenwood

Submissions for student artwork for the 2027 Calendar for Cultural Diversity will open in Term 2 2026

Schools may submit up to 4 entries.

Photographs should be submitted although the original artwork will need to be available for shortlisted schools.

File name of artwork should include name of school and title of artwork.

The following information should be gathered before submitting each artwork:

• name of artist/s
• year/s
• title of artwork
• name of school
• traditional country on which school is located
• name and email of teacher contact
• description relating to the work on the relevant annual theme (approximately 25 – 50 words)
• completed authority to publish form. For whole class or whole school artworks, a member of the school executive can complete the form on behalf of the school.

Artwork should:

• reflect the theme
• link to curriculum area
• be the work of a single student or a group of students.

Possible techniques, forms and styles may include (and are not limited to):

• drawing, cartooning or sketching – using pencils, inks, felt pens, charcoal, pastels or crayons
• photography and digital media – using apps, computer software, digital or other cameras for photography
• mixed media – collage, photo montage
• 3D – sculpture, textiles, fibre, installations using found or other objects and materials
• painting – watercolour, oil, acrylic or gouache paints, sgraffito
• printmaking – etching, monoprinting, linocuts, collagraph, or bas relief.

Students should consider their use of artmaking practices and qualities such as:

• line, shape and form
• proportion, space and perspective
• colour – light and dark and shading
• texture
• repetition and patterns
• points of interest and emphasis
• signs and symbols and so on.