NAIDOC WEEK
NAIDOC Week (July 7 – 14) will be acknowledged and celebrated by many Uniting AgeWell workplaces during this time. This message from Director of Mission Rev Clare Brockett is a mix of encouraging us all to learn the history and importance of NAIDOC week, and to provide an update on UA’s reconciliation work.
What is NAIDOC Week?
NAIDOC Week marks the first Day of Mourning and is a celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, history, and peoples. On 26 January 1938, a group of over 1,000 Aboriginal people gathered in Sydney to call for full citizenship and improved laws to protect the rights of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It was one of the first major civil rights gatherings in the world and became known as the Day of Mourning.
Since then, NAIDOC Week has emerged as a commemoration as well as a celebration of the history, culture and excellence of First Nations People.
This year’s theme is “Keep the Fire Burning, Blak, Loud and Proud and the artwork promoting the week shows ancestors hands placing an ember into a burning fire. This ember, and the fire, represent the sharing of cultural knowledge from one generation to the next.
I encourage you to find out more about the NAIDOC Week theme and the artist who created the poster artwork at www.naidoc.org.au/
UA’s Reconciliation Working Group
As we celebrate NAIDOC Week, it is timely to offer an update on the work we are commencing at UA.
The UA Reconciliation Action Plan Working Group has met with the group leading the way for slowly building relationships with first peoples and first and second peoples. It will take time to listen deeply to each other and develop trust and is part of what is needed as a reconciliation focus becomes part of everyday life at UA.
You and your teams will be an essential part of the listening, storytelling, and learning. Let us open our hearts and minds as we seek to grow our understanding of what it means to walk together as first and second peoples in UA and beyond.
For now
First nations staff, may you delight in being together as family and friends celebrating your mob and other mobs this NAIDOC Week.
Second nations staff, start conversations with each other about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, history, spirituality; join celebrations of First Nations people in local gatherings – listen deeply.
© 2021