BOOMERANGS, spear throwers and emu eggs were handed around to a circle of Japanese exchange students as they learnt about Aboriginal culture at Eaton Community College yesterday.
Sixteen high-achieving students from Nakagawa and Hoshigaoka Junior High School are on a six day trip to Bunbury as part of a Hakuho Global Children’s Language Network Scholarship.
The trip comes after four Eaton Community College students on scholarship recently returned from a two-week cultural exchange of their own, experiencing home and school life in Japan.
Aboriginal artist Troy Bennell was on site to entertain the students by imitating animals on his didgeridoo and using artifacts to share snippets of Aboriginal culture and history.
Mr Bennell, who runs Ngalang Wongi Aboriginal Cultural Tours in Bunbury, said he was honoured to share his culture with the Japanese students.
“We are all one after today,” Mr Bennell told the students.
“We are all human beings and although the difference is our skin color, our language and our appearance, we all bleed and our blood is one color – red.
“So to me, we are all one.”
Wakagawa Junior High student Ryuta Itabashi said his English had improved significantly since being in Australia and the view of Back Beach had left a big impression.
Spending two nights and three days with their host families in Bunbury, Mr Itabashi said school and home life was vastly different to Japan.
“In class in Japan, everyone has to be really quiet but over here in school there’s lots of group work and students work with each other and that’s more interesting and fun,” he said.
“I’ve had lots of really good Aussie beef and staying with an Aussie family was good because it gave me a first hand look into the Aussie lifestyle.”
