CareSouth celebrates NAIDOC Week, helping kids get creative
CareSouth staff participated in NAIDOC events across our footprint this week, showing our support and getting to know our local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. NAIDOC Week, held every July, celebrates and recognises the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Staff from Shoalhaven and Deniliquin held stalls for kids to create t-shirt art at NAIDOC family fun days in their region. The Illawarra NAIDOC event was postponed due to rain and has been rescheduled to Tuesday, 26th September. Griffith was also postponed, and a new date will be determined shortly.
NAIDOC Week is an opportunity for all Australians to learn about First Nations cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth. The theme for this year’s NAIDOC celebrations – For Our Elders – recognises the important role these community leaders play as “cultural knowledge holders, trailblazers, nurturers, advocates, teachers, survivors, leaders, hard workers and our loved ones”, according to the NAIDOC Week website.
Each year NAIDOC holds a National NAIDOC Week Poster Competition. This year’s winning artist was Bobbi Lockyer, a proud Ngarluma, Kariyarra, Nyulnyul and Yawuru woman, born and based on Kariyarra Country in Port Hedland.
“Where there is knowledge there are our Elders,” says Bobbi, explaining her entry. “Our Elders paved the pathways for us, taught us our knowledge, our history, they passed down their art, stories and wisdom. Our Elders are the foundation of our communities and role models for our children. With this poster I wanted to showcase how important our Elders are in passing down traditions and culture to our children and future.”
NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day of Observance Committee and dates back to Aboriginal groups in the 1920’s who lobbied to increase community awareness of the status and treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians. If you would like more information about the history of NAIDOC, visit https://www.naidoc.org.au/about/history.
