More than 200 secondary and primary school students and parents participated in what will become and annual event for Reconciliation Week on Tuesday.
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Initiatied by Illawarra Sports High School Aboriginal education officer Lisa Poole-Locke 23 Indigenous high school students walked with primary students to The Healing Place at Hooka Creek, Berkeley.
They were met by Aboriginal elder Uncle Gerald Brown who did a Welcome to Country, performed a smoking ceremony and painted some of their faces with ochre.
The students then proudly carried the Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander flags back to school..
"It was the first ever Reconciliation Walk here at the high school with students from the junior schools. It will be every year now. It was great to see the understanding the kids got about reconciliation and being all together. As a mum and a grandmother and a teacher it was so nice to see them walking together wearing the coloured badges so proudly".
Mrs Poole-Locke said there were four primary schools involved.
"There was Berkeley Primary, Berkeley West Primary School, Warrawong Primary and Farmborough Heighs Primary School," she said.
"Normally schools celebrate Reconciliation Week but we wanted to do it together.
"I want our culture to be passed down from generation to generation.
"It is really important so I wanted the parents to pass it down to our students here at the high school and then the high school students to pass it on to the primary school kids. And then hopefully our culture will carry on".
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