Louise's story about learning culture and language

Uranquinty Preschool is a small, community-based rural preschool just outside Wagga Wagga in New South Wales. The preschool operates three days per week and is run by a management committee. We employ four educators including a teaching director.

Our journey with ELLA began in 2017. At the same time that we were deciding which language to choose, my eldest daughter met a friend who happened to be Indonesian. A new Australian, Will has been happy to embrace our culture and share his. As Australia is so close to Indonesia, we felt it would be important to learn more about Indonesian language and culture.

In 2017, Uranquinty Preschool was nominated as one of three finalists in early childhood for the National Narragunnawali Reconciliation Award. This award recognised our commitment to embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives into our teaching practice and programs. With our commitment to the language and culture of the traditional owners of our land, we felt we could also commit to learning about other cultures and languages.

We continue to successfully implement the ELLA program as we enter our second year. At the same time, we continue to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives, and our programs often intertwine as we explore the Indonesian and Wiradjuri ways. Our ELLA experiences extend out across all the curriculum areas as we explore culture through cooking experiences, games afternoons, stories, dance and music. We embrace the five outcomes of the Early Years Learning Framework, offering the children a wide range of experiences and opportunities with the support of our Aboriginal and Indonesian friends.