The Moorditj Mob is Wesley’s program for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students. It was founded in 2006. In Noongar, moorditj means strong, great and excellent. We’re proud to be celebrating 20 years of living those values.
Twenty years is a long time in the life of a school. A lot can change over two decades, but Wesley’s Moorditj Mob is an idea that has endured. What began in 2006 as a small bursary initiative for a handful of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students has become a defining part of the College’s identity.
The first Indigenous Program Coordinator, Mrs Lynn Webber, was originally tasked only with speaking to a small group of Indigenous boarders on Sunday nights.
From those early weekly conversations, something more intentional took shape. Drawing on a model centred on culture, identity, and belonging, Lynn encouraged the boys to form their own group. “I said, do you want to start a group and name yourselves?” she recalls. “One of the boys said, ‘we’re quite a moorditj mob, right?’ And that was it.”
At Wesley, in 2014.
Moorditj was perfect. It’s a Noongar word meaning strong, great and excellent; both a description and an aspiration. As current Indigenous Program Coordinator Mr Dan Barnes explains, “It’s what we want the boys to become – great young men.”
While Indigenous Program Coordinators have changed – albeit only three times in 20 years – the core of the program has stayed constant.
For Lynn, the way the program has progressed over two decades is a source of pride. “My greatest fear was that we would be part of something that assimilated these boys away from their identity,” she says. “But after two years, one of the first boys said to me, ‘I feel a stronger Noongar connection now than I did before.’ That was the moment I knew we were doing the right thing. Those values haven’t changed.”
In New York, 2017.
That clarity of purpose was important in the early years. “Lynn did a lot of work in establishing the scholarships and the cultural space at the College,” recalls the second Indigenous Program Coordinator, Mr Ben Lewis. “We built on that through engagement with the community, through dance and glass work. We also built relationships with local elders, like Uncle Simon and Roni Forrest. I think that opened up the opportunities that led to trips like the one to New York.”
Across two decades, the reputation of the Moorditj Mob has travelled well beyond the College gates. The group has performed on major stages from Optus Stadium, to Telethon, to Hawaii, to Times Square. Yet the deepest impact has always been closer to home.
Former student-turned-AFL player Mr Quinton Narkle (11-15) reflected on this in similar terms, speaking in 2018: “Leaving your family, home and culture to attend a private boarding school is a huge sacrifice,” he said. “Moorditj Mob understood that. It gave us a second home – a brotherhood – and it never asked us to leave our culture at the gate.”
The 20 Year Celebration, 2026.
As the Moorditj Mob program enters its third decade, it will continue to expand and strengthen the range of education and wellbeing opportunities available, creating clearer pathways beyond school.
And that, more than anything, is the measure of the last 20 years.
This is an abridged version of an article that appeared in the Winter 2026 edition of The Wesleyan.
To read the full piece, please click here.
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