By Scott Bradburn, 1st Austinmer Scouts Cub Group Leader

The 1st Austinmer Cub Group (for kids aged 7 to 11) are looking forward to Term 3 activities. These include running a ‘pop up’ restaurant, learning magic from a professional magician, building a bug hotel and rock climbing. They will also have a camping trip to Wombeyan Caves.

In Term 2, activities included a Survival Camp where they needed to cook their own meals, suspended sock wrestling and a night bushwalk. However, when asked for their favourite, there was a clear winner – the First Nations immersion night with ABC Gardening Australia presenter, and proud Cudgenburra/Bundjalung man, Clarence Slockee. Two Cubs have shared some highlights.

A Cultural Immersion

By Orly Passioura and Henry van Wees

There are lots of types of boomerangs and they don’t all come back! If it’s a type that does, you need to throw it against the direction of the wind and if you’re hunting, you can use ochre so that prey can’t smell you. It can also act like sunscreen.

We liked learning how to make fire with only sticks and we learned that only people from a local area can perform a ‘Welcome to Country’. Dancing and singing with the didgeridoo was fun.

Did you know that Indigenous people started the first mines in Australia and traded the rock material?

We enjoyed eating a delicious seaweed salad, kangaroo and octopus tentacles. The mussels were okay but not our favourite.

If Clarence is reading this – you left a Boomerang behind… hopefully it’s the type that comes back!