Students at Lawrence Hargrave School participated in the Nawi Canoe Project, where they were tasked with the challenge of building a full-sized traditional Aboriginal canoe made of stringy tree bark collected from the New South Wales Forestry.
The students built the canoe under the supervision of Aboriginal instructors at the Australian National Maritime Museum in 2014, where they stripped away the dead bark and heated it over a fire where it was then folded into shape. Once constructed, students then launched the canoe at Chipping Norton lake.
The Nawi Canoe Project has come to an end, with the installation of the canoe at the Australian National Maritime Museum (ANMM). The canoe is now part of the Eora First People Exhibition at the ANMM. The Department of Education has made a short film about the Nawi Canoe Project. The film was part of Education Week 2015, with the theme Celebrating Local Heroes.
The film was played at the launch of Education week 2015 and was viewed by the following dignitaries:
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- The Governor General of NSW, The Honourable David Hurley
- NSW Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione
- Acting NSW Education Minister Leslie Williams
- NSW Secretary Department of Education Dr Michelle Brunigies
