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For Our Elders

The theme this year for NAIDOC Week is “For Our Elders.” It is a reminder that our Elders carry our story. They carry our family history. They carry our wisdom, and they will be respected.

In our communities, our Elders are held in high regard. An Elder would be someone who has been through initiation and holds the knowledge of the people.

However, with many historical events and changes, full initiation only occurs in some places.

An Elder nowadays is usually someone aged over 50 who has grey hair!

A sign of respect is to call them Aunty or Uncle. You will find that Aboriginal kids will call any older person Aunty or Uncle, as a sign of respect.

Many of our people belong to Elders groups such as Nikinpa Elders, which I am a part of.

As Elders we visit schools and organisations to talk to the young people and share knowledge of our own culture.

We hope to instil in the younger ones, a pride in being Aboriginal.

We are often invited to events that are displays of young people sharing the dance, music, and art they are doing, so they can show us what they have learnt. Our young people honour this as a privilege.

Many of us hold the knowledge of our history and family links.

This history can be generations, and we share this as a way of affirming our identities. It is important that we all know who we are and that we are part of a huge family.

Elders are very important in our community. We are treated with the utmost respect.

Many of our celebrations have special areas, known as “Elders tents”, for us to sit in.

We are invited to community breakfasts with young people in schools and preschools. It is a presence as Elders that we share.

Most of us lived through the Referendum in 1967 that counted us as citizens in this country.

Before that we were under the Flora and Fauna Act.

I have lived through Land Rights Acts, a history of removals of children, Government interventions and many more of the constraints that we have endured, even though we are the First Nations of this country.

We are not recognised in the Australian Constitution as the First Peoples. Hopefully, a Yes vote for the Voice would help us.

I have to say that the debate for the Voice has certainly polarised the community.

I don’t think that that is a bad thing. At least people are thinking about our history and future and its effects.

The downside is that racism is certainly alive and well and much more overt.

It is important as Elders that we teach our children that they are precious, they are worthy, and they should be proud of who they are.

They should stand up against racism. Many of our older generations were too ashamed to stand up and be seen as Aboriginal. We don’t want that to continue.

For Our Elders is all about being proud of who we are, respecting the fight for our rights and deciding in ourselves that we have more than 60,000 years of history that is everyone’s history if only we, as Australians, embrace it.

- Aunty Di Langham, Newcastle Anglican Director of Reconciliation

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