In week 6 our Year 8 and 9 Students, along with students involved in the SAASTA Program participated in a full day workshop “Generations of Change”. This is an Anti-Racism program that was founded by Reconciliation South Australia and ActNow Theatre in 2014 which sees students and teachers come together to learn about racism and discuss anti-racism strategies for their school.

The program is divided into three stages of learning for students to understand and stop racism: “Learn, Respond and Prevent”.

“Learn” focused on identifying the problem of racism and its impact on the individuals who experience it. Students were asked to define racism from a personal perspective and invited to share first or second-hand instances of racism and how it affected them. A performance was delivered by a musician with first-hand experiences of racism which shared with the audience through song and spoken word.

The “Respond” section of the program combined peer discussions and activities with the chance to explore different approaches to counter instances of racism as they appear. Students led a discussion about race, culture and discrimination supported by ActNow Theatre. The centrepiece of this section was the interactive theatre performance, ‘Responding to Racism’, highlighting the impact of persistent racism in the daily lives of First Nations’ peoples, migrants, and refugees. It showed a scene with a young Aboriginal footballer, his non-Aboriginal team captain, and a young Muslim woman riding the bus home from school at the end of the school day. The performance had a beginning, middle but no end or resolution. Students were then invited on stage to trial the many ways in which they can react and respond to racism.

The third and final section of the program, “Prevent”, was arguably the most important aspect of the day’s activities and paves the way for ongoing and sustainable change. The day concluded with a planning session, where students worked together in small groups to consider how they might take action against racism in our school community. Students were provided with the motivation and belief in their own capacity as agents for social change. Teachers and students were supported to consider a plan of action moving forward at GHS.

Staff were very impressed with the quality of the program and our students’ engagement in the day. We thank the Generations of Change team for coming to GHS and inspiring and empowering our students. Thanks also to our Aboriginal Education Team at GHS for facilitating this powerful event.

Middle School Coordinator - Kate Seidel