Djeera Gadhu (Ocean Stories)

Connecting through Shared Dreaming

Alongside community Elders, students revitalised the tradition of orality, learning culture and stories first hand through embodied experiences, that cultivated pride and enhanced wellbeing and connection.

Through the Djeera Gadhu program, First Nations students from Dharawal and Yuin Country listened to and learnt dreaming stories that connect them and their communities to each other and to Country - land, sea and sky. Through learning the Crimson Rosella story of the Dharawal, Black Cockatoo of Yuin and Whale Songline of the East Coast, new dances, poems, song and artworks were co-created in celebration and response.

These new poems, song and dance continue to be shared with community through a range of performance opportunities and in late 2024, in collaboration with Coomaditchie United Aboriginal Corporation, a new dreaming story book on the Crimson Rosella with language and art created by participants will be published.

Djeera Gadhu Camp

The connections formed during the 2024 program deepened at the Djeera Gadhu Cultural Camp, a two-night immersive experience held at Bundanon on Wodi Wodi Country, june 2025. This free camp brought young people together for bushwalks, arts and crafts, language, storytelling, yarning circles, creative workshops and dance, culminating in a Corroboree and community celebration that families were warmly invited to share.

The impact of Djeera Gadhu reaches well beyond the artworks it produced. By learning story and language directly from Elders and from each other, students cultivated pride in their identity, strengthened their wellbeing, and built lasting connections between two communities and to the Country that holds them. Ocean Stories is a living reminder that when culture is shared through voice, movement and making, it carries forward.