Kids aiming to scale new heights in fight
“I may just be an 11-year-old boy but I have a voice to be heard.”
This is the voice of Brett Harris, a Year 6 student at Wulguru State School.
Brett and his classmates have launched a passionate plea to have a Townsville icon renamed and are taking their fight all the way to the top.
The students want Mount Stuart to be called Mandilgun-mount Stuart. Mandilgun is the Indigenous name for the mountain.
The students have taken up the fight as part of their subject history, civics and citizenship.
The students are getting ready to launch an e-petition and hope to garner enough support so it can be tabled in state parliament.
Teacher Sandi Burt said she was very proud of her students for taking action on what they had learnt in class.
“This motion arose as a result of their history studies of the timeline of Indigenous rights in Australia’s history, studies of the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights and this year’s NAIDOC theme around the notion of custodianship – Always Was, Always Will Be,” Ms Burt said.
Brett is ready to make sure their campaign is a success.
“It all starts from one believer then it grows like a flower,” Brett said.
“Mandilgun was once a brave warrior and still is a warrior. The story goes that Mandilgun and Yunbenun were pitching rocks at each other in a fight until they lay down and made Mount Stuart (Mandilgun) and Magnetic Island (Yunbenun).
“If you are wondering what happened to the rocks they threw that touched down in the middle, these rocks produced Cootharinga (Castle Hill). Cootharinga means ‘pile of red rocks’.”
Ruby Todd is part of the movement and said Mandilgun was a big component of everyday life.
“Every morning I see it. I can see it when I walk to school. I can see it when I sit on my veranda. Some mornings my dog is even out on Mandilgun,” Ruby said.
“It is not right for young people like me, an Aboriginal Australian, to grow up not knowing these names. I will work hard to help change this.” Leallah Midolo said it was time for Mandilgun to “come out of the dark and step into the light”.
“We need to pay respect and be proud of who we are and where we live and to do that we need to pay attention to our First Nations people,” Leallah said.
“What if we change the name to Mandilgun? Well, you might think I am just an unreasonable kid but we kids care.
“We kids have learnt our history, we kids are part of a positive change by knowing our past to build a better future for all.”