From the Chair of Council

What is Woven into our Lives

A Whole of School Assembly on Monday 26 April 2021 – with pleasant sunshine, we gathered outside. Barker College’s annual ANZAC Service was memorable, as it always is, for the excellent order of service in the tranquillity of the OBA Sound Stage and its surrounds.

The birds sang during the Minute of Silence. We listened to the bugler’s rendition of the Last Post and remembered. Souls stirred. 106 years before Australian and New Zealand troops landed at Gallipoli. They scaled the steeply inclining hillsides “in a raked boot-scrambling roar” – poet Les Murray’s words – “and the sooling prints turned black with names when currents drifted the landing buoys to the heights of thyme and rosemary”. ANZAC day started as a way to mourn the men killed in a heroic but ill-fated campaign at the periphery of a much larger war. It has become a day acknowledging all of the men and women who have served our nation in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations. Over 1000 former students of Barker College answered the call to serve our nation in the major conflicts of the twentieth century. 92 Barker boys made the ultimate sacrifice and did not return home to their families who still grieve for them. Since 17 June 1916, the Barker College Community has remembered our fallen. On that day, Barker’s second Head, Mr William Carter, unveiled the School’s original Roll of Honour. Before the whole school assembled, 92 students from Years 2 to 12 came forward before the Laying of the Wreath and placed a small cross of remembrance as the ninth Head of Barker College read the names of each of Barker’s fallen during World War 1 and World War 2. That we remember Barker’s fallen each year in this way is tangible expression of the Christian framework within which Barker College operates. The Gospel (John 15:13) states: “Greater love has no one than this. That he lay down his life for his friends.” Stone monuments or memorials such as the Roll of Honour which now appears on the stairs below the Middle School quadrangle are important ways of remembering. However, I believe that Barker’s ANZAC Service is a more powerful experience of remembrance, especially for the students. It touches the Education of the Heart. It speaks of an abiding and driving purpose for the future of all involved in the School. As we remember each of the 92, we are touched by the bravery they had, and which we must have, to defend our freedoms and to cherish always values like selflessness, discipline and courage in the face of adversity. It is values like these which underwrite the vibrancy and vitality of communities within our nation such as Barker. Experiences like the annual ANZAC service at Barker serve to equip this generation of Barker students with graciousness and humility, and a sense of character and confidence in the Barker way. The great statesman of ancient Athens, Pericles, said this and it surely resonates through the centuries: "What we leave behind is not engraved in stone monuments, but what is woven into the lives of others."

David Charles (75) Chair of Council

Looking Forward and Looking Back

Early in Term 2 there was a block of several hours where our community looked both forward and backwards.

One Monday morning at the staff meeting over recess, the Head of Barker described in detail the opening of Dhupuma Barker, painting a vivid picture of Barker’s newest Indigenous campus in Arnhem Land. Less than an hour later, the whole school had gathered on the OBA Sound Stage to commemorate ANZAC Day. These two moments, side by side, represent two customs that build strong communities. Strong communities regularly look back to learn from and honour those who have gone before. On ANZAC Day we remember those who sacrificed their lives to secure the peace we enjoy today. The reading of the 92 names of Barker students who gave their lives in WW1 and WW2 has become a regular reminder of the sacrificial service that has woven strands through our community for more than 100 years. Healthy communities will also look ahead. Inspired by the past we pursue the challenges of our day. For Barker it is asking “how might we use what God has given us now to play a role in shaping the next generation of Australians?” Committing to Indigenous education, where we walk with local communities to provide culturally sensitive education, is one enduring way of doing this. This pattern of looking back and looking forward is a familiar one for Christians and Christian communities. We look back on what God has done, to the promises declared in the Old Testament and the fulfillment that finally came in Jesus. Looking back reminds us of God’s faithfulness and strengthens our trust in him today. This also causes us to look ahead with hope, joy, contentment and purpose in Him. As we do this with our faith, may we as a School continue to treasure our past, which enables us to inspire every learner today, so Barker may contribute to the nation we want tomorrow.

Rev Peter Tong Senior Chaplain