Sea of Hearts

Guest article by Charmaine Greenwood, RAP Leader and Assistant Director - Goodstart Early Learning Red Hill

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day is held annually on 4 August and gives Australians the opportunity to show their support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. It also provides a platform to learn about the impact that culture, family and community play in the life of every child.  

RAP Leader and Assistant Director, Charmaine Greenwood, shares one of Goodstart Early Learning Red Hill’s ongoing projects that demonstrates their commitment to reconciliation through genuine and authentic practice that embeds Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures.  

Since 2021, Goodstart Early Learning Red Hill has activated its Sea of Hearts project annually for National Reconciliation Week. Founded by a team reflective process with cultural mentor Jackie Bennett, the Sea of Hearts challenge was influenced by Jackie’s Hearts of Healing project, which was inspired by the Tent Assembly’s Sea of Hands.

Jackie began a conversation about our roles as leaders in reconciliation. She invited us to reflect on what the word reconciliation means to us, then write this reflection on a cardboard heart. Four years on, Sea of Hearts has become a thriving National Reconciliation Week movement, with more than 4000 hearts counted across the nation this year.

Our Red Hill Sea of Hearts is installed along a community pathway behind our service, with hundreds of hearts displayed for all to see. As the number of hearts grows each year, we need an efficient way to share the hearts from past years while making space for new contributions. To achieve this, we’ve created garlands that drape from the trees using hearts from previous years. Meanwhile, the new hearts are installed in the ground.

The Sea of Hearts has continuously evolved as more team members have been actively engaged in the planning process and more people beyond our service participate. This year’s planning was driven by the Reconciliation Committee, a distributed leadership initiative, with the goal of stretching the project further to businesses and schools in our neighbourhood.

Thanks to the collaborative effort of our cultural mentors Jackie, Cecelia and Ranu, alongside the Goodstart Red Hill team, more centres and communities are engaging in the Sea of Hearts movement each year.