A tiny school located at the top of Nitmiluk Gorge is in the running for a national landcare award, after students embarked on a journey to find an endangered creature.
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Manyallaluk School is the Territory finalist for the 2022 Woolworths Junior Landcare Team Award, which acknowledges a school, youth organisation or young community landcare team that contributes to raising awareness, sharing knowledge and promoting participation of landcare amongst young people.
As part of the school's STEM and learning on country program, which involves students from preschool to year six engaged in literacy and numeracy learning connected to their country and culture, the school has taken students on a quest to discover the elusive and endangered pokipain.
After years of toiling, the students successfully located the secretive echidna, using spy cameras.
"Being nominated for the Woolworths Junior Landcare Team Award is really special for our school and community because it recognises not only the effort that we all put into this project, but it also highlights Indigenous knowledge and skills and two-way learning," principal and classroom teacher Ben Kleinig said.
"It celebrates the knowledge our kids already possess and helps blend it with the Australian curriculum, especially writing and STEM.
"Our next challenge is to capture video footage of the pokipain."
The school's quest to find the pokipain also taps into the work students are doing to investigate how the natural environment has been impacted by large numbers of feral animals.
Manyallaluk School is now in the running for the National Landcare Awards, which will be held in Sydney later this month.
Now in its 30th year, the awards are an opportunity to celebrate and honour landcare champions from urban and rural communities excelling in sustainable agricultural practices, environmental protection, conservation of land and waterways, coastlines and biodiversity.
Landcare Australia CEO Dr Shane Norrish said he was blown away by both the calibre and commitment of each of the teams, who exemplify the mission of the Junior Landcare program to empower children to play an active role in ensuring the safe future of their environment and local communities.
"Junior Landcare recognises the vital role that young Australians play in caring for the land, their environment and other natural resources," Dr Norrish said.
"The finalists who have been shortlisted highlight the various ways that young Australians are rolling up their sleeves and developing skills, sharing knowledge, and fostering connections with place and community."
In 2020/2021 alone, over 130,000 children participated in junior landcare projects, gaining awareness of environmental issues and engaging in hands-on projects centred around the themes of biodiversity, food production, waste management, and Indigenous perspectives.
Annie Hesse
I am an award-winning media and communications professional with experience across print, digital, social and radio broadcast, as well as photography and videography. I am the NT Correspondent at Australian Community Media and I write for my hometown newspaper, the Katherine Times. I love telling people's stories, and I am passionate about giving those a voice who may otherwise remain unheard. When I am not busy putting pen to paper, I spend time in my garden, go bushwalking or travel across the Northern Territory, Australia or the world. In my spare time I write, illustrate and publish books.
I am an award-winning media and communications professional with experience across print, digital, social and radio broadcast, as well as photography and videography. I am the NT Correspondent at Australian Community Media and I write for my hometown newspaper, the Katherine Times. I love telling people's stories, and I am passionate about giving those a voice who may otherwise remain unheard. When I am not busy putting pen to paper, I spend time in my garden, go bushwalking or travel across the Northern Territory, Australia or the world. In my spare time I write, illustrate and publish books.
