NAIDOC Celebrations

This week is NAIDOC week - National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee - and is celebrated every year from the 3rd-10th of July. It's a wonderful opportunity for Indigenous people to come together and acknowledge important dates in their history and the contributions they have made in building our great nation.

Last night Rob and I had the privilege to attend the 2011 NAIDOC celebrations at the PKA hall. IBIS had a table as they are one of the major sponsors along with the shire council and various other businesses. It was a formal occasion where members of the community were acknowledged and presented with awards for their achievements in sports, the arts, education and community works.



Traditional decorations made with palm leaves



From left to right: Niko, me, Rob, Lamar at the IBIS table. As you can see "black tie" covers all dress on T.I.

The evening began with welcome speeches by the mayor and guest speakers, then followed a power point presentation of the history of NAIDOC. I found this quite emotional - while looking at the images of the young aboriginal men, so full of hope and potential, for some reason I started to think of my brother Phil and I found it hard to not cry. He's with me all the time.

We were then treated to a performance of traditional dancing before being served a traditional dinner - seafood, rice, pork, corned beef, potatoes and vegetables followed by simple sweets of baked egg custard and sago pudding. The food was plentiful, tasty and enjoyable.

Traditional dancing - a regular feature at most occasions :-)

Tasty kai kai - and lots of it 

After dinner the awards were presented as well as awards for Youth, Elder and Person of the year. This final award was won by Matilda Loban, one of the teachers at Tagai high school. Matty and I worked together in the staff room in G Block when I was teacher aide there last year - a beautiful and deserving young woman :-)

Matilda Loban receiving her award for Person of the Year

The evening ended with what islanders do best - dancing - led by the newly crowned King and Queen of NAIDOC. It was wonderful to see everyone - elders included - get up and enjoy the music which, by the way, was not traditional - very 60s and 70s - very danceable :-)
 
I feel so lucky to be living here and to experience events that normally I would not even know about or be aware of - and that is such a shame. Aboriginal and Torres Strait islander history is so rich and I feel privileged when I'm invited to share and celebrate with them the many occasions that make up the Thursday Island calender .
 
Life is good.