The school won the Reconciliation Australia Narragunnawali Story award and the Cultural Category award. 

“We’ve performed in Wakakirri on four occasions and this was the first year we were nominated for National Story of the Year,” assistant principal and producer Trent Burns said.

“We really wanted to do well up in Wollongong on the night and anything else was a bonus.”

The production was open to students from years three to six and involved 115 participants.

“The excitement of the day was what we hoped for them to get out of it, being able to participate in a big production like that,” Mr Burns said.

This year Cambewarra Public told the Aboriginal Dreamtime story about how Nowra was named after the black cockatoo. 

Teacher Tracey Wellington assisted to evolve the concept for the production.  

“We had to have permission from our elders and the Aboriginal Education Consultant Committee Group (AECG) to share a Dreamtime story. They were very happy we were doing something,” she said.

“The children got to learn links and connections with local stories and they were proud of what they achieved and proud of learning about Aboriginal culture.

“I was with the boys practising the dance from the beginning, to watch them finally get it, to feel it and make that connection for them, it was awesome,” she said.

Teacher and assistant to Mr Burns Joel Irwin said it was a long process.

“The work they put into it, the amount of hours, the struggles and the emotions they go through to get to that big event, it’s a big culmination,” he said.

“One of the other amazing things was when one of our leads, Grace Fuller, introduced the night at the WIN Entertainment Centre by doing an Acknowledgement of Country in language in front of the entire audience, which was pretty cool.”