At Magill School, our Acknowledgement of Country recognises that the land on which our school stands always was, and always will be, Kaurna land. We respect the Kaurna people as the Traditional Custodians of the Adelaide Plains and honour their deep cultural, spiritual, and historical connection to Country.
In 2025, we launched a new Acknowledgement of Country video that brings this message to life in a way that celebrates both Kaurna culture and the incredible diversity of our school community. This acknowledgement is not only about recognising the past - it’s about showing that we value and respect the cultures, languages, and identities that make our community strong today.
The words in our acknowledgement, which is narrated by a number of students within our school, including all of those with Aboriginal backgrounds, are as follows:
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This is Kaurna land. We honour the Kaurna people as the Traditional Custodians of the Adelaide Plains, and thank them for sharing this land – where we learn, grow, and play together, as a community of Magill School. Our school is home to students and families from more than 50 cultures. We walk together – Aboriginal and Torrens Strait Islander peoples, and people from across the world - embracing and celebrating our diversity, and respecting Country, history, culture, and each other. Guided by our values of respect, honesty, responsibility, and excellence - we honour the past, live the present, and shape the future. |
The video also draws on the same collaborative artwork created by our Aboriginal students in 2020, with guidance from our Aboriginal Community Education Officer (ACEO) and translation by Kaurna Warra Karrpanthi with thanks to Jack Buckskin. That project combined student-written words with Aboriginal art symbols to share their understanding of what an Acknowledgement of Country means, and to reflect our school as a meeting place - a place for learning, sharing knowledge, making friends, and playing together.
In the new video, these powerful words are voiced alongside images of our school and its surroundings, and our students and staff, showing the acknowledgement as a living, shared practice. The video opens and closes with a welcome sung in Kaurna language by Jack Buckskin - a proud Kaurna man and language leader - reminding us that this is Kaurna Country. The final moments of the video feature the 2020 artwork, honouring the creativity and cultural insight of the students who made it, and ensuring their contribution continues to be part of our story.
We ask that when viewing the Acknowledgement of Country - whether in person at assemblies or major events, or in video form - our community shows the same respect as when hearing the National Anthem. We do not clap, but instead take a quiet moment to listen, reflect, and hear the message.