WHEN appointed school captains, Emme Porter and Cristiano Multari got to achieve a goal, step into a leadership role and celebrate with a trip to Timezone - but they also made history.
The pair - who also happen to be cousins - represent the first time St Kevin's Primary School at Cardiff has appointed two Indigenous students as its captains.
It has had Indigenous school and sport captains before, but never two in the top spot at the same time.
"I feel like we've got to take a lot more responsibility since we are Indigenous leaders to teach kids more about Indigenous stuff, like where they come from and where we are from," Cristiano, 11, said.
"I hope they can look up to us."
Emme, 10, agreed.
"Younger students at St Kevin's can remember me and Cristiano were school captains and they can do what we did - we want to pave a path for other young Indigenous students," she said.
"If they want to have a go they can realise that they can do it."
Emme's dad Jade and Cristiano's mum Kiera are siblings, from Moree. Emme is a Gamilaaray and Yuwalaaray girl and her totem is the emu.
"I'm proud to be Indigenous, I can tell non-Indigenous people our culture and what we've been through and that I'm a proud Gamilaaray girl that now lives and learns on Awabakal country," she said.
Cristiano is a Gamilaroi boy and also has Tongan and Italian heritage, through his dad. His totem is the sand goanna.
"It's good because we can learn about what has happened to our hometowns and what it was like to be our ancestors."
Emme said the students had to self nominate to be captains and then deliver a speech via Zoom to parents and their peers last year.
They were announced at an end of year assembly as the winners of the most votes.
Cristiano said students went wild when principal Mary-Anne Jennings read out Emme's name.
"No-one heard her say my name, so she told me to come up and when there was silence she read out my name too and everyone screamed again."
Emme said she was "very happy" to be appointed to the role.
"My mum rang the school and screamed very loud, she was crying," Emme said.
"It was a good day for her and meant a lot to her that I got it.
"She helped me with my speech. I realised I can believe in myself and that I can be responsible and a school leader."
Cristiano said he wanted to "have a shot and see if I could do it".
"I wanted to be school captain because you get to do good things like speeches to welcome people and talk about cultures," he said.
"I felt happy because I achieved my goal and I took this role to get more responsibilities."
He said his family were also very excited about his achievement.
"I told them and they went crazy."
The pair said it was special to hold a leadership role alongside their cousin, and not just because they got to celebrate with dinner and a trip to Timezone.
"If you want to talk about stuff and speeches with each other you can get more personal with each other and if we need help we can work together at each other's houses," Cristiano said.
Emme and Cristiano are each one of five siblings.
Emme's sister Lily was a sport captain last year and Cristiano's brother Antonio was school captain last year.
Emme still has one brother and seven cousins at the school, while Cristiano still has two sisters and nine cousins at the school.
The school's Aboriginal education teacher Phil Taylor said the appointment was a "wonderful achievement" and reflected how the school had embraced Aboriginal education, which he said was built on awareness, acknowledgement and respect.
"When I see people like these two who are so proud of their culture and learning so much about it and are keen to share it with their peers, I see great hope for our country because I know this sort of work is happening in schools across Australia," he said.
Mr Taylor said the school had 15 Indigenous students.
"Younger kids, whether they're Aboriginal or not Aboriginal, look up to our school leaders," he said.
"They're good role models for all children, I see it in the way they relate to other people, look after the young ones and have very strong family connections.
"For younger Aboriginal kids in the school , they can think 'Hey, that's something I can aspire to, I can be a leader in the school in whatever form'.
"There's the saying you can't be what you can't see and here, we can see it. It's nice we ended up with two, but the important thing is that whatever leadership roles children play in the school, if they can see Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids in that role, it's very good."
For faster access to the latest Newcastle news download our NEWCASTLE HERALD APP and sign up for breaking news, sport and what's on sent directly to your email.
.png?w=600)
