On Tuesday the 26th of October, I went on an aboriginal camp at Wollombi. I arrived at Glendale Tech at about 7:45 am. Not everyone was there till about 8:00. We were supposed to leave at 8 o’clock but some peole were late, so we didn’t leave till about 8:30. The bus was a bit squishy because of all of the luggage. We only had a little bus and it didn’t have a spot to put the luggage in, so we had to put it down the aisle, under the seats or ontop of us. When we got there we had time to have some morning tea, work out our cabins, put our stuff in the cabins then get back on the bus and go to Baiame’s cave. Baiame is the creator of the world, and we went to his cave and had a look at his drawing. He has big wings so that everything is under him. As long as everything is under him we will look after it and keep it safe. That meant everything was kept safe. After looking at him and his cave, we got back on the bus and went to the mountain tops. When we got there we then went on the high platform. That was a deck that you stood on and looked at all of the mountains that the aboriginal people walked in from to go to certain places. After looking at all of the mountains, we went to the other side and had a look at the rock carvings. When all the people were trying to find their way they would look at the carvings and go their way. E.g. Pregnant women would follow their path and go to the birthing area’s but men were NOT allowed there. After looking at all of that we go back on the bus and went back to main camp. When we got there we had a drink and some lunch. Then we felt a bit hot and went for a swim, in the dam. When we were finished swimming we played some touch footy. While playing touch footy, we had to dodge the nuggets (horse poo) and make sure no bugs hit us in the head, like a bug did to Mr Atkins. When the game finished we went up to camp and had our showers and had dinner. We thanked Aunty Joslin for the meals of the day. When it became dark we went and had our campfire. The campfire went until about 10:00 pm. We told stories, and just talked about history of aboriginal culture. At 10:15 we went to bed.

On Wednesday the 27th of October when we woke up we had a breakfast. After breakfast we went and got dressed then went for a bush walk. We walked for about 45 minutes there and sat at the family cave for about 15-20 minutes, then left again. It took longer on the way back because it was all uphill on the way back. Mr Atkins slipped on the way back, so did Tyra. We all had a good laugh when it happened. When we got back we had morning tea and a drink. After morning tea we went down near where we had our campfire and started drawing some of our own stories into the dirt. My story was about both human and animal suffer the same things and can work together to fix it. After reading all the stories we went up to main camp and had a drink. Then we came down to the circle, and did some aboriginal dancing. We did that for about 45 minutes. Then we got really hot and went for a swim again. After our swim we went up and had some lunch. After lunch I started throwing the vortex with Mr Atkins and some other kids that wanted to join in. After throwing the vortex, Tyrone said do we want to play touch footy again? So we went down and played some touch. After touch footy we had our dinner. After dinner we then danced around the campfire. After our dancing we then watched the older aboriginals do their dances. When all the dancing was finished some people went up into the hairy mans cave. After some people had seen the hairy man they kept seeing things. After Uncle Paul had come down, he then took us down into the bush in the pitch black. After all of that! We then went to bed. What a long day!

On Thursday the 28th of October at Wollombi, we got up and started to pack our things back in our suitcases. Then even if we were or weren’t finished we then had some breakfast. After breakfast Miss Andrews asked us all if we had finished packing and we all said yes, so she said okay now we can go for that little bush walk. We then got a drink bottle and walked up to a cave. At that cave we made a marking, a hand print. We had to get white oak stuff, put it in our mouth, put our hand up on the bit of the cave and splash it out of our mouths. After you did all of that a hand print would be there. After everyone had done their hand print, we went back to camp. When we got there we threw the vortex while waiting for morning tea. After morning tea we got all of our stuff out of our cabins and packed it on the bus. We went a different way home, but I think it was longer, but even more fun!

I loved the trip to Wollombi, it was an amazing experience for aboriginal culture. We learnt respest for our elders, we learnt to always believe. Always believe in ourselves and everything around us. Anything can happen. Always believing is what keeps you going.