Pilgrimage to Uluru Journal
Pilgrimage to Uluru Journal 2009 and previous years, click banner below.
What is the Pilgrimage to Uluru?
For each of us in our relationships with friends, with neighbours and families and between cultures, boundaries get crossed without recognition or respect. The Uluru journey encourages reflection on our own lives at every level. Participants are equipped with resources to assist in the process of reflection and a map of aboriginal Australia, identifying the hundreds of nations that existed before settlement and whose boundaries are crossed every day. A Pilgrim's Journal is provided to all participants and a teachers' handbook provides guidance and ideas for the process of the bus trip. As a permanent record of their trip the children write their own reflections, they are given the Schools in Harmony bandana and invited to stamp their hand prints on the pilgrimage mural when they arrive. During the first journey in 2001 there was a development of connection with central Australian indigenous leaders who extended a welcome to children as they came, a connection that has strengthened over the years.
Pilgrimage to Uluru responses
"It was a wonderful experience where you learn so much, like about Australia and its different cultures, you get to discover some parts of yourself and other people, it is awesome. "
"Awesome! I’ve never seen or done anything like this before. "
"It was terrific. The activities were great! I would most definitely go again. "
"It was fun, life changing, and tiring. "
"I would say that it changed my life in many ways for me it was dramatic. "
"Really full on, but awesome. It s great because of the relationships you build so quickly and being able to go to places I wouldn’t have been able to go by this age and learn stuff."
"I learnt about stuff I didn’t even realise existed in me and in the world. "
"It was awesome people were caring and loving and I really hope that we have get together times. "
"It helped me become a little more independent and open. "
"I have learnt heaps about the Aboriginal culture and learnt heaps about myself. I learnt to trust more and to get along with others."
"It was an experience I will never forget."