The Making of ‘Bundjil: The Creation Story’ by Larissa Hayes
Posted on Feb 26, 2026
By Koori Curriculum
By Koori Curriculum
At Monash Vale Early Learning Centre, we live, work and play on Boonwurrung Country. We acknowledge the Boonwurrung people as the Traditional Custodians of the land and we honour Bundjil, the Creator Spirit, who reminds us to take care of the biik (land), baany (water) and bubups (children).
We are deeply committed to embedding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives in everything we do. In 2022, we introduced a Cultural Inclusion Coordinator role to provide dedicated leadership and guidance in embedding First Nations culture.
This commitment has led to the making of a children’s book called ‘Bundjil: The Creation Story’, in partnership with Jaeden Williams, a proud Yalukit Willam man of the Boonwurrung and the founder of Biik Bundjil.
The start of our Journey
In 2021, a change in the borders meant that our centre was now located on Boonwurrung land. This led us to begin the journey of learning, listening and building relationships with local community.
One of the keyways we did this was by ‘Connecting with our feet’. This involves building connections with the community through personal visits, community events and acts of hospitality like sharing a cup of tea and biscuits.
Through this, we met Jaeden Williams who helped us on our journey to connect with Country and learn about Boonwurrung Culture.
Our team of educators and teachers joined Jaeden at St Kilda Garden to learn about traditions, the six seasons and the responsibility we have as guests on the land.
We learnt about Bundjil who created the land and two promises he asked all visitors to make:
- To protect the land and the water
- To care for the children
Exploring the Story of Bundjil the Eagle with the Children or Embedding Boonwurrung Perspectives in our Curriculum
As our educator’s knowledge grew, we began to introduce Boonwurrung stories, language and the
seasons.
Jaeden visited the centre and led the children through an interactive retelling of the Bundjil creation story.
This led to an ongoing interest in the Creation story.
Below are some ways we unpacked the story:
- Read the Bundjil book created by Balnarring preschool
- Created a storytelling space where children could retell the story using natural materials
- Set up a Bundjil the eagle puppet show
- Explored constellations and used the Stellarium app to find Altair which is the star Bundjil became after he flew into the night sky.
- Created clay sculptures of Bundjil using sticks, leaves, gum nuts and feathers
- Embedded sustainable practices as part of learning about Bundjil’s law to take care of the land and water. For example, gardening, composting, recycling and saving water.
Bringing the Story to Life Using Stop Motion
To document the children’s learning, we created a stop motion video of the Bundjil Creation story.
The children painted the landscape and used materials such as rocks, leaves, fabrics and sticks to make mountains, trees and rivers.
They worked together to take photos of each step as the story changed. For example, the placed rocks on the landscape to show the mountains Bundjil made. We then recorded the children’s voices retelling the story in their own words.
Our Room Mascots: Bundjil and Waa
With permission from Biik Bundjil, we introduced Bundjil and Waa as our room mascots in our 4-year-old kindergarten room.
Each week a different child took one of them home, offering an opportunity to share their learning with their families and communities.
To support this, we created a simple storybook using the images from our stop motion video to tell the Bundjil Creation story to our families.
This ensured the learning extended beyond the classroom and led to meaningful conversations about Boonwurrung Culture.
Reconciliation Week and the Creation of our Storybook
During reconciliation week in 2024, we explored the theme ‘be a voice for generations’. Throughout
the week, the children created artworks to express how they can use their voice to help Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people’s heart to heal. It was wonderful to see children’s empathy as they expressed their understanding of reconciliation.
After reconciliation week, we shared the simple book we created about Bundjil for our room mascots and the drawing the children created with Jaeden, who was inspired to combine the two into a book.
The result is ‘Bundjil: The Creation Story’, written by Jaeden and illustrated by the children using images and artwork created over the last two years.
This book incorporates Boonwurrung language and simple words making it perfect for children aged birth to five years.
This book is part of an ongoing collaborative project called the Yulendj program which is an online platform that supports educators to implement Boonwurrung perspectives and cultural knowledge in their classroom with inquiry-based lesson plans and printable resources.
The Bundjil creation story is just one part of our wider journey to embed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives. At Monash Vale Early Learning Centre, we remain committed to the ongoing learning journey and process of unlearning and relearning.
Where you are on your journey, we would like to leave you with the reminder ‘I am where it starts!’
What steps can you take to honour Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and support truth-telling, healing and reconciliation in your own space?
With thanks from Larissa Hayes, Shanika Dantanarayana, Nick Moutzouris and our team of educators from Monash Vale Early Learning Centre.
