Gawura (The Whale): An Indigenous School within a School

Abstract

St Andrew's Cathedral School, Sydney, is arguably the most city-centric urban school in Australia. It exists in two high rise buildings, one of which it shares with the offices of the Anglican Diocese of Sydney, immediately behind St Andrew's Cathedral, the Anglican Cathedral of the city, and adjacent to Sydney Town Hall. Underneath is Town Hall Station, the beginning of the underground City Circle of the city rail line, one stop from Central Station. It might therefore appear to be an 2012/2013 The Australian Christian Education Forum unusual, if not absolutely odd site for a school for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. On the other hand, for reasons of both history and current demography, it is very appropriate: George Street, the main street of Sydney, located at the front of the school, is a modern 'macadamized' descendant of a track from Circular Quay forged by the Gadigal people, one of the 29 tribal groups of the Eora Nation, the First Peoples of our Harbourside. The name Gawura, 'whale' in the Eora language, reflects that interface between sea and land. It also captures the image of God sending the whale to rescue Jonah, a metaphor for the loftier spiritual and educational hopes residing in Gawura. Moreover, Camp Cove, at the end of George Street, was the site of the original and subsequently tragic interface between white settlement and Aboriginal people. In that respect, the siting of the school is a step towards reconciliation with our Indigenous forbears. Furthermore, an Indigenous school in this location is demographically appropriate, as the main concentration of Aboriginal people in Australia is actually in the inner city suburbs of Sydney. This therefore, in a sense, resonates deeply with Aboriginal experience of the land, their home.