Gawa Christian School

Gawa Christian School (a campus of NT Christian Schools Association) provides distinctly Christ centred Education for Indigenous children living in the northern homelands of Elcho Island in Arnhem Land. Gawa Christian School values education of the whole person. We delight in the gifts and talents that God has given each of us and aim to meet individual academic, spiritual, emotional and physical needs of all our students.

Christian communities, learning together to live life as God intended, offering hope for the world.The mission of Gawa Christian School is to be a learning community where God is glorified in everything we do. Our aims Students and school:

• To inspire and equip this generation of children to express Christ together at school, home and abroad.
• To develop the intellectual potential of each student and help them to reach their full potential using their God given talents, skills and abilities.
• To develop self disciplined, wise, kind and happy students.
• To value and respect each student as a unique person gifted by God.
• To assist students to appreciate their rich cultural heritage.
• To develop and nurture students positive attitude towards themselves and others.
• To provide a supportive and nurturing environment for schooling that translates to enthusiastic students full of hope for their own futures.
• To encourage excellence in our students and in our teachers.

Parents, grandparents and community

• To encourage a genuine fellowship between school and community.
• To facilitate positive relationships amongst all members of the school community (staff, students, parents and community members and elders).
• To develop a school that meets the specific needs of the community and achieves genuine two way learning.
• To encourage Christian parent direction and involvement in the school.

By the early 1980’s, after the official end of the Mission era and the beginning of self-determination, some of the older people began to talk of returning more permanently to their homelands. One old man Ngulpurray had a vision for his kin to live in the Gawa/Nanginyburra region. Gawa was chosen as the preferable homeland site. After many years of struggle and limited support Gotha and Colin’s desire to become a Christian School was granted in 2004. Gawa opened under the banner of NT Christian Schools. Now 55 students from three homelands attend Gawa Christian School and the small community of Gawa is thriving. God has chosen this place for His people.

Mayawa is the younger class of about 20 students, from Transition to Year 6. They are delightful children who enjoy singing, dancing and playing games. Their classroom teacher, Christa, is assisted by our valuable Yolngu teacher aides Wendy, Sylvia, Daphne and Ronnita. Mayawa class has been a delight to teach in term 1. They have been learning about the wonderful way God made plants. They planted their own bean plants, watering them and taking care of them, in great anticipation of one day harvesting beans.

They have gone on bush walks with Gäwa elder Waluŋ, learning about Yolngu bush foods, and surrounding habitats, collecting nyik (bush currants) and a variety of seeds to sort. They’ve even been writing a class book ‘Nyumukuliny Maŋutji Nyik’ (The Itsy-Bitsy Nyik Seed) which has been fun. This term, we have had some younger new students join our class and it’s exciting to see them learning new skills. We’ve had the joy of a new helper, Ronnita from Ban’thula. Her cute, kinder-aged daughter, Shiloh, joins in with the big kids.

Mayawa students have enjoyed learning praise dances. The older girls in our class taught the rest of the class the hand motions to the songs. They then performed one of their favourite dances for assembly called ‘Victory’, to the delight of Damala class and staff.