The competition saw six of our students from Dhupuma Barker in North East Arnhem Land, compete as the first ever Australian Indigenous team, the first from NT and the first from Remote Australia as they participated in the World VEX IQ Championships.

The Dhupuma Barker Djirikitj Firebirds surpassed all expectations. They were ranked 40th in their Division of 80 teams, one of ten Divisions in the World Competition. A casual glance at the scores and the averages revealed that they were ranked very much in the top half of the Competition, which is an astonishing achievement for students who only discovered robotics in August 2020 and operate the only robot in North East Arnhem Land.

They were so brave throughout their eleven matches, and they remained strongly in contention for a top thirty finish.

“It made a powerful impact on me to move around the competition, watching the various teams from different enterprises and academies (but curiously not so many school teams),” Phillip Heath shared.

“Here were children of Primary School age, supported by their passionately enthusiastic parents who cheered every moment as if for a soccer match. Scarcely more than ten years of age, the students were “driving” their robots to meet a range of complex tasks to score points within the allotted one minute of game time. With over 800 teams, there were around 6000 competitors and their families who assembled in Dallas to pit their skills against one another.”

In every way, we are supporting our students to lift their sights onto bigger stages than our local region of Sydney. Barker students, including our Indigenous children, can stand with the world and have gracious confidence in their abilities.