NOT often does the entire student and teacher cohorts of every school in the Portland district converge on the one place, but last week they did to celebrate NAIDOC Week with the theme For our Elders.

From preps to final year students, around 2000 children filled the Portland Foreshore on Friday morning and, for the number of them, were remarkably quiet and respectful.

Students listened to reflections on NAIDOC Week from classmates, teachers, and the local Indigenous community, joined in a song with the Koondoom Yarkeen Karweeyn dance group, before marching in school groups back out along the path.

The national theme for this year’s NAIDOC events was ‘For our Elders’, and the schools’ efforts to properly acknowledge that was commended by local Elders present on Friday.

Gunditjmara Elder Aunty Denise Lovett said it was a special thing to see such a crowd there to celebrate her community.

“How fantastic is that, what a wonderful thing,” she said, as the children streamed off their busses and marched in on foot.

Portland North Primary School principal Cate Elshaug, who took on organising the event, said she was proud of the genuine respect and appreciation shown from schools and students for the Gunditjmara culture and people.

“It's a really underpinning belief that we (the principals) all have - that we have a duty and a responsibility to acknowledge and celebrate our local First Nations culture, and this is one of the ways that we're doing that,” she said.

The event stepped up in scale significantly earlier in the year when the schools were able to secure a $10,000 State Government grant to fund it, which allowed them to make special banners for each school to march under, help with transport and other costs, and scale up the rest of the morning’s activities.

While the schools would have footed the bill if necessary, but Ms Elshaug said the extra budget had helped the schools to engage with the Gunditjmara community with the goal of building better connections.

“We don't want to be learning about them, we want to be learning with them and from them, and I guess this is symbolic of that,” she said.

“It was a great way to try and start the connection, to say we want to connect with you, we want to be part of what you're doing, you can be a part of what we're doing.”

Ms Elshaug said the area is fairly unique in Victoria at least, in teaching language and culture, which she put down to the eagerness from the various principals to work together on the program along with the efforts of those in the Indigenous community who are keen to share.

Among them is Jayden Lillyst, who is one of the teachers who, according to Ms Elshaug, is beloved by the students.

Mr Lillyst said spreading the local Dhauwurd Wurrung language back out across the district meant a lot to him, and contributed to a more culturally safe place for his community.

“My mum, my nan, my great nan, they were never allowed to speak the language, so this is a big turnaround for this area,” he said.

Often, if they see him at the supermarket or anywhere else outside of school, they will greet Mr Lillyst with ‘ngata’ (hello).

“There’s the initial confusion of trying to figure out if it’s one of my nieces or nephews before I realise it’s one of the kids from school,” he said.

“But that’s really cool too, it’s normalising the language again, for everyone.

“When we're teaching and doing stuff in classes in schools, it's because we love it, I think the kids catch on to that as being something awesome, and so that they want to join in.”