Sign of the black cockatoo

Your kids. My kids. All the same. That is how the Aboriginal elder Yambal describes the cultural exchange program at Cockatoo Primary School.
Yambal’s photograph hangs on the wall of principal Darrelyn Boucher’s office, a reminder of the school’s buddies far away in East Arnhem Land.
The bearded elderly man in the photograph teaches art and imparts his wisdom to the children from Cockatoo who visit the Northern Territory every August.
Thousands of kilometres separate the semi-rural Cockatoo primary and the Ramingining Community Education Centre, where 99.5 per cent of the 200 students are Aboriginal or Torres Strait islanders.
Across that massive distance, Darrelyn has seen an enchanting relationship develop among the teachers and students of both schools over 15 years since the exchange project began.
The link started when an assistant principal visited Darwin. Darrelyn has inherited the project and watched it grow.
“It took 12 months of planning. We gave ownership to grade 5 children, who were studying Aboriginal history.”
Two staff and four students went on that first visit to Arnhem Land in 1994.
“They hunted turtles, swam in billabongs, made spears, lit campfires, and created art,” Darrelyn says.
And when the first visitors from Ramingining arrived at Cockatoo, the children were equally dazzled as they saw for the first time shopping centres, escalators, trams, and Balandas – non-indigenous people.
The cultural project is a flagship of the Cockatoo school, which this year has 262 enrolments, including two indigenous students.
It is a school Darrelyn has stuck by despite opportunities to move on and diversify her educational career.
She is in her 11th year as principal. She arrived as a brand new recruit straight out of college in 1975, returned in 1986 on promotion, worked in the junior school for two years, took maternity leave, and slipped into the assistant principal’s job after some coaxing from the principal, who on his retirement six weeks later had already arranged for the letter of offer for his replacement to be signed, sealed, and delivered.
“I said no, but the letter was behind his back,” Darrelyn recalls.
The job would have taken her out of the classroom, she thought, where she believed she could do the best for the students.
As it turned out, despite her administrative responsibilities, Darrelyn has never really severed her classroom involvement and the welfare role that goes along with it.
A troubled child has her full attention and prompts another plan, another strategy to set that child on a better path ahead.
A mentoring program is what we need for this person, Darrelyn might decide, or a relaxation program, and before long it becomes a staff commitment as they all take under their wings responsibility for the child who needed that little extra boost that sparked the idea in the first place.
It works a treat, for the principal to ask the question: How can I keep this little fellow from going off the rails?
“It is a nurturing role. We treat kids with respect. And we take a common approach.
“It is a journey for us all here,” and I’m proud to be at this point and part of the journey.”
Three beliefs explain Darrelyn’s professional drive: a school is part of the wider community, the welfare and happiness of the children and staff come first, and a principal can make a difference.
The Arnhem Land project reflects these beliefs. Darrelyn sees it as an opportunity for teachers as well as for children, so she enables training and leave opportunities for staff to go to Ramingining for longer periods.
“One of our teachers liked it so much up there she stayed.”
There is something beyond ourselves, something spiritual, in the indigenous experience, Darrelyn has learned.
The first time the Ramingining children came to Cockatoo, a community leader, John, came with them to check out what influences they might encounter.
It was early October.
“One solitary yellow-tail black cockatoo flew overhead as John gave his speech to our school assembly.The cockatoo is John’s totem. It seemed symbolic.
“The connection to the land and to one another is so strong.”
Five or six children have visited Cockatoo every year since then. They stay in the community, and so the school and the community get to share in the cultural exchange.
“Ramingining kids tend to be quite shy,” wrote their teacher Coralyn Armstrong in the education publication Dare to Lead in 2006.
In the exchange program they write letters and emails, speak English outside of school, and form friendships that continue for years.
“Sometimes it is like pulling teeth getting kids to write something in English, but when it comes to writing to the Cockatoo kids, they are really enthusiastic.”
As Darrelyn and the staff and students prepare for the 2009 visit to Arnhem Land, it is like planning to meet up with old friends, so much knowledge and understanding has built up over the years, under Darrelyn’s leadership.
Yet she takes little of the credit for the success of the program other than to say she does everything to enhance it.
She insists the programs at Cockatoo are only as good as the people she works with, the staff and supporters who take responsibility for it all; those people are the reasons for the school’s successes, she says.
Occasionally thoughts of moving on to another school creep into her mind.
To stay or to go is never entirely her own decision; staff and the school board have the power to choose their principal.
And they have chosen Darrelyn.
“I have questioned whether it is good for a school to have the same principal for so long. But I have a passion for this school, and a fire in my belly for my work here.
“I still get excited about how to improve the school’s welfare.”
Darrelyn and her husband Garry have two children, Erin and Lucas. The family lives in Emerald, and Darrelyn has been a keen participant in the Cockatoo Pony club for 13 years.