A ST Gabriels Primary School prep student received a medal from Prime Minister Julia Gillard after winning a national colouring competition.
Jorja Owler, along with the entire school entered The National Aborigines Islanders Day Observance Committee Week School Initiative competition.
The judging panel received more than 91,275 entries to the colouring-in and short story writing competitions and 20 awards were given out in each state.
Teacher and librarian Trudy Duxbry said Jorja was sent her medal and an mp3 player last month and when she found out she had won “her little face lit up”.
Ms Duxbry said she was working on aboriginal culture with the students when she found out about the competition and thought it “fitted perfectly”.
She said the prep to grade three students coloured in an intricate lizard dot-painting-style picture and the grade four to sixes wrote short stories or poems about reconciliation.
“It was really special for the kids to see that a prep had won it,” Ms Duxbry said.
“It will inspire them… you don’t always win it, but you can give it a go – and Jorja gave it a really good go and won it.”
In a letter to the school NAIDOC Week 2012 School Initiatives executive director Dylan Williams said “the ultimate aim of these initiatives was to provide our kids with a greater understanding on the importance of friendship and cultural diversity”.
