URGENT: THIS FRIDAY, MARCH 16
Save Ballerrt Mooroop College!
Rally for Aboriginal Cultural Education - Ballerrt Mooroop College
Ballieu's government is attempting to close Melbourne's Last Indigenous School. This will be met with peaceful community resistance and a rally from Parliament to the Minister for Education's office in Collins St.
The Victorian Department of Education and Early Childhoo...d Development have stated they are closing down the Ballerrt Mooroop College, the last surviving Aboriginal School in Melbourne. The closure announcement was sudden and shocked the school community and school committee. Aboriginal people in the area have worked hard to keep the school, but over the last twelve months the department has taken much of the land away and bulldozed the valuable student and community asset, the Gymnasium/Gathering Place.
We affirm that our children deserve the same educational opportunities as every other Victorian child. Our children have the right to be educated in a culturally appropriate setting. The attempted closure of Ballerrt Mooroop College demonstrates the Victorian Education Department does not respect Indigenous culture or care about the educational outcomes of our children.
We demand:
- the entire school be placed under community ownership and management
- the administration building be used to house community education
- the protection of our Ceremonial Ground and Spirit Tree
- all missing documentation of previous agreements made after the last occupation be returned