NAIDOC 2023 Recap
To celebrate this year’s particularly special NAIDOC theme of ‘For Our Elders’, Harvey Aboriginal Corporation (HAC) delivered a week of activities to engage the entire community.
The week commenced with a guided walk tour along the Noongar Kaartdijin Bidi (Noongar Knowledge Trail) on the banks of the Harvey River. Participants were guided by Elder Lesley Ugle and Emerging Elder Ninnette Comito who shared local history and cultural knowledge including traditional bush food and medicine.
Later in the day HAC hosted a NAIDOC Luncheon for local Elders, family representatives and distinguished guests. The Boundary was brought to life featuring the Noongar Six Seasons and showcasing Aboriginal artefacts and literature. Attendees were treated to a three course meal championing native ingredients whilst entertained with local stories and Noongar bingo.
The following day, Harvey Library kindly hosted an interactive ARTefact workshop facilitated by Emerging Elder Brad Vitale. Attendees of all ages learned about traditional artefacts and tools and how they were constructed before getting creative and using Noongar symbols to develop their own artworks.
Later in the week Senior Elder and 2019 National Male Elder of the Year Greg Little deliver an educational cultural conversations session at Harvey Recreation and Cultural Centre. Greg engaged attendees with stories of his personal experiences growing up in Harvey, working for the local Shire and supporting prisoners in the justice system.
Concluding this year’s NAIDOC festivities was a three part ‘Noongar on the Big Screen’ event where community members were treated to a screening of animated series Little J and Big Cuz in Noongar, documentary The First Inventors, and acclaimed movie filmed in Pinjarra Three Summers. Classic cinema treats were available with the old school milkshakes being a hit!
Thank you to the National Indigenous Australians Alliance and Shire of Harvey for supporting this year’s events.
National NAIDOC Committee provides the following explanation of the 2023 theme ‘For Our Elders’:
Across every generation, our Elders have played, and continue to play, an important role and hold a prominent place in our communities and families.
They are cultural knowledge holders, trailblazers, nurturers, advocates, teachers, survivors, leaders, hard workers and our loved ones.
Our loved ones who pick us up in our low moments and celebrate us in our high ones. Who cook us a feed to comfort us and pull us into line, when we need them too.
They guide our generations and pave the way for us to take the paths we can take today. Guidance, not only through generations of advocacy and activism, but in everyday life and how to place ourselves in the world.
We draw strength from their knowledge and experience, in everything from land management, cultural knowledge to justice and human rights. Across multiple sectors like health, education, the arts, politics and everything in between, they have set the many courses we follow.
The struggles of our Elders help to move us forward today. The equality we continue to fight for is found in their fight. Their tenacity and strength has carried the survival of our people.
It is their influence and through their learnings that we must ensure that when it comes to future decision making for our people, there is nothing about us - without us.
We pay our respects to the Elders we’ve lost and to those who continue fighting for us across all our Nations and we pay homage to them.
https://www.naidoc.org.au