[Text on screen reads, ‘NSW Department of Education. Dancing our stories, strengthening our connection.’]

[Text on screen reads, ‘Ash, Worimi and Kamilaroi, Hunter School of the Performing Arts’.]

Ash

Hello, my name is Ash, and I'm a proud Worimi and Kamilaroi girl. I would like to acknowledge our traditional custodians of the land that we're on and pay my respects to our elders past, present and emerging. For they hold our memories, traditions, cultures and hopes of Aboriginal Australia. We must always remember that under the concrete and asphalt this land is, was and always will be traditional Aboriginal land.

I would also like to extend my respect to any Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders here with me today and those who are viewing.

[Screen shows, a group of girls dancing in a Yarning Circle]

[Text on screen reads, ‘Awabakal (Newcastle)’.]

[Screen shows, individual student dancing]

Charlotte, Wiradjuri, Hunter School of the Performing Arts

As I've always danced like, since I was a little kid, when I first began doing Indigenous dance it kind of like, gave me a sense of purpose towards every movement that I did and I just, I really found that so, like inspiring. I felt, like, such, like a sense of connection, I guess, with my community. And, like helping other people to also feel that sense of connection.

[Screen shows, three students sitting being interviewed to camera]

Nasya, Darkinjung Country, Hunter School of the Performing Arts

Dance is something that I've done for a really long time, and it's been a way for me to connect with community around me. And then once I started getting, like into Indigenous dance, it helped me connect with, like, Indigenous community around me, and it helped me learn more, like, about my heritage.

Dance, like, it helps me show my connection to country because, like I feel that when I dance, I feel my connection to land when I'm dancing, so I think that then shows through my movement when I'm performing.

[Screen shows, group of students dancing in Yarning circle]

Hilary McEntyre, Worimi/Wonnarua mob, DreamTime Dance Company

I make sure that every dance has a story behind it, we have a meaning and that the dancers can feel proud.

And not only are they just dancing, like it's giving them something to feel connected about. So, if we're dancing about animals, we're paying our respect to that animal, if we are dancing for our spirits, we're paying our respects to them. There's something that is really special when we dance, 'cause a lot of the times I always put stomping in our dances.

When I put stomping in the dances, it's to invite our ancestral spirits up to dance with us and I think that's really special.

Georgia, Worimi Country, Hunter School of the Performing Arts

I don't know, it gives me, like a sense of community, being able to tell stories through my movement and also have that connection to, like my ancestors and elders.

Anya, Kamilaroi, Hunter School of the Performing Arts

Dancing with my community is such a beautiful thing, because as we join together it helps us remember our culture that was tried to get taken away from us so many years ago and the way that we as Aboriginal people have persisted and not let it be forgotten.

I hear stories from my Elders and I also get to hear them from my friends' Elders in other Aboriginal communities around me. So yeah, being as a community makes us stronger.

Hilary

So, when we dance, it doesn't matter if you're uncoordinated or you're the best dancer in the world, everybody can do it and I, that's what I love.

There's no front row, there's no back row. We have, you know, 6-year-olds all the way up to the elderly dancing. Everybody gets involved and the stories behind whatever dance we're dancing, everybody can understand it.

Nasya

When I'm performing, I think I feel a responsibility to both, like, pass on and represent, like, cultural knowledge, but also to respect my elders and acknowledge that that's who I've learned knowledge from.

[Screen shows individual student dancing]

Anya

The responsibility I feel when I do Indigenous dance, is kind of a responsibility to make my ancestors proud and make my family proud. Every single time I dance, my mum is usually watching me, so I usually dance for her.

Hilary

The one thing that I love when I do dance is when I start, like, it's not just about the dance.

Like, we get into that character like I'm getting the ochre and putting that on my skin. Putting ochre on is another way of connecting to Mother Earth because ochre comes from, you know, rock or clay and that's just one way when I put it on, it's just that another connection and I put it on, I've been taught it's, like, spiritual.

So, I put it on with stripes and handprints, and to me, that's connecting to my ancestral spirits. That's what it means for me, that's where it starts. So then when, once I move to the dance and I take it to community, I just love getting out in community, getting into schools and teaching. Because for some kids, this may be the only culture that they have access to.

That child feels proud of themselves in that one moment, I’ve given them one safe place to dance, then why else wouldn't I do it?

Charlotte

Every time I dance, I always kind of feel like my ancestors' hands are, like, touching me and it kind of gives me that, like, sense of motivation to just continue learning more about my culture.

[Screen shows, NSW Government Waratah logo]

[End of transcript.]