From the Head of Barker

Something momentous has been happening at the School. The opening of Dhupuma Barker in North East Arnhem Land at the start of Term 2, 2021, marked a daring new partnership between an Indigenous community in remote Australia and Barker College in our 132nd year.

At a recent assembly after I shared a few images of the unforgettable commencement ceremony, which occurred on 19 April 2021, a Year 7 student asked me the profound but simple question: “Mr Heath, why did we do this?” “Why did Barker do this?” was exactly the right question to ask. Gunyangara is a small community of around 200 Indigenous people over 4,000 kilometres away from Barker College in Hornsby. We already have made connections with the Darkinjung people on the Central Coast of NSW and, in January 2020, we established Ngarralingayil at Wollombi in the Lower Hunter Valley region. Isn’t this enough? I loved the simple honesty of the Year 7 student, voicing the thoughts that no doubt were being contemplated by many others. The short answer to the question is that we were invited, which is no small honour for our School. We were asked to participate in delivering a vision for autonomy and agency amongst remote Indigenous communities. Aware of our work at Darkinjung and Ngarralingayil, the organisers of the annual Garma Festival, invited me to share our story at the Education Forum at the 2019 Festival at Gulkula in the Northern Territory. Barker College subsequently partnered with the Yothu Yindi Foundation to create an education pipeline in remote Australia, one that allows children to remain in their communities without losing access to the opportunities excellent schools in more developed parts of the country can provide. The result is the formation of the Dhupuma Barker School in Gunyangara in NE Arnhem Land, a bilingual school for Primary years children. The Indigenous leaders are the guides, the protectors and the custodians of Yolngu Matha (language) and Yolngu Rom (lore), with Barker providing the delivery of the Australian Curriculum, supporting the children to walk in two worlds to the enrichment of all. There is so much more to share than space in The Barker magazine allows. Perhaps the Year 7 student would not find it satisfactory alone to say that the reason for Dhupuma Barker was that we were invited. The reason to join this mighty work unfolding at such a distance lies deep within the heart of our purposes, of our Mission and our Vision. When the Rev Henry Plume established

Photo by Che Chorley

Barker College in 1890 in Kurrajong Heights, he sought to provide students with a first rate education in a Christian setting that would enable them to matriculate to the University of Sydney and to make their mark on the world. Importantly for that time, among his early students were the four Bowman sisters, who were some of the first women to graduate from the University. Barker College seeks to do something good and beautiful in the world. The writer James, believed to have been the brother of Jesus, reflects on the link between faith and action:

What good is it, my brothers, if someone says he has faith but does not have works? Can that faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacking in daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and filled,” without giving them the things needed for the body, what good is that? So also, faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. James 2:14-17 The gift of an education at Barker should equip our students and graduates to develop a vision to create something good and beautiful in the world Beyond the Mint Gates. Evidence this is more than an aspiration but is deeply embedded in our DNA at Barker is found in the truth that the financial support that enabled us to form the three campuses for Indigenous children in regional (Darkinjung), rural (Ngarralingayil), and remote Australia (Dhupuma) came originally from the generous conscience of members of our Old Barker Association. Securing an impressive ATAR or achieving renown in the Creative and Performing Arts and Sports endeavours has a higher purpose for a Barker student – to demonstrate their capacity to make something good and beautiful happen Beyond the Mint Gates. We expect no less of ourselves as a School. The pages that follow are a celebration of this same spirit as it shines in the darkening challenge of this time of COVID restrictions.

Peace

Phillip Heath AM Head of Barker College