NEWS 03 Important Message Athe Threads embrace culture for Torres News TORRES NEWS THURSDAY 6 APRIL 2023
BY SHANELLA MAJID Josh Fauid, 26, has big plans for his small business Athe Threads, one of which is his aim to empower young people to embrace who they are and can be. He said his inspiration was, “never forget who you are and where you come from”. “You can take the boy from the island, but you can’t take the island from the boy,” he said. He said his small business has been up and running for the past 18 months. “Our name has a double meaning, with ‘Athe’ representing the old school/ vintage vibe we were going for with our clothing collection,” he said. “The second meaning was through telling our stories and our culture through our products, just like our elders do for us. “This is how we learn about who we are.” He said his biggest support and inspiration was his family and culture, and finding the right balance between business and home life was also important. His strategy to date was to
RETRO RESPECT: Christine Anu, Josh Fauid & Zipporah Anu modelling Athe Threads t-shirts. Pic supplied. try to overlap the two as much as possible. Having family involved in the business made everything his business stood for more meaningful, he said. He said their goal was to educate people about their beautiful culture and give everyone an opportunity to embrace it. “Being based in Brisbane, it’s been amazing to be able to connect with family back home to work on our beautiful products also having mum and dad here has been a huge help,” he said. “Networking has always
been a huge factor in our business. “Creating and keeping and meaningful relationships is important.” Since Athe Threads started he said they had taken the opportunity to attend NAIDOC events, Mabo Day Events and Common Threads Summit. “On a personal front, I have a background in youth work as a mentor for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students,” he said. “Empowering young people to embrace who they are and who they can be and providing
a career pathway. “On a business front, being a young small business, we are looking for more opportunities for us to give back to our Torres Strait communities.” During NAIDOC last year Athe Threads collaborated with a number of Brisbane-based businesses to provide school supplies and sporting equipment to students on Poruma and Mabuiag. They have also collaborated with Christine Anu. He said they particularly wanted to acknowledge her for the work she had done to share culture on a larger platform. “Hearing her perspectives and experiences was extremely powerful and meaningful to us as a business and what we are trying to achieve,” he said. He said as a result they had created a vintage Christine Anu t-shirt in the hope people would take the opportunity to represent and uplift one of their own. “Why wear a t-shirt with American-style branding or an American celebrity on the front when we can wear representations of our own culture and lift up our own people who do incredible things,” he said.
10 local bodies deregistered Booster #5 approved As many as 10 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations in the Torres Strait have been deregistered after failing to lodge reports for the past two years to the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations. Registrar Tricia Stroud said deregistration of 324 corporations nationally were finalised last month, including 27 in Cairns and eight in Townsville. When a corporation is deregistered, it ceases to exist as a legal entity and is no longer able to trade. “If you’re someone who deals with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander corporations I encourage you to keep abreast of their registration status and reporting compliance by checking the public register,” Ms Stroud said. “There is no fee to access the public register.” In October last year, the Registrar gave notice to 371
corporations for failing to lodge reports for the past two years. Since then a number of corporations lodged overdue reports. “We are continuing to identify corporations who we believe are no longer operating and commencing action to deregister them,” she said. “They too will be deregistered if they don’t get in touch with my office.”
How to check deregistration status You can find out if a corporation is deregistered by searching for it in the public register on oric.gov.au. The public register contains all corporations who were ever registered or deregistered. Search for the corporation by its name, Indigenous corporation number or location. You will be able to see the in the search results its registration status including the date it was registered or deregistered.
After peaking a little in December and early January this year, COVID-19 numbers have settled as the Australian Technical Advisory Group on Immunisation (ATAGI) recommends a fifth booster, particulary for those in ‘at risk’ categories. Over the past week (as of 28 March), 26,301 cases of COVID-19 were reported across Australia, an average of 3757 cases per day. ATAGI said all adults could get a booster to help top up protection against severe illness from COVID-19, if it was been six months or longer since their last COVID-19 booster or confirmed infection (whichever is most recent) and regardless of the number of prior doses received. They particularly recommended for people at higher risk of severe illness, including:
• everyone 65 years and over • everyone 18 years and over with medical comorbidities, disability or complex health needs. Children and adolescents aged 5 to 17 who were immunocompromised putting them at risk of severe illness can also get a booster dose if it was six months or longer since their last dose or COVID-19 infection. Booster doses were not recommended at this time for children and adolescents aged 18 years or under who did not have any risk factors for severe COVID-19. For more information about visit the department’s website at https://www. health.gov.au/news/atagi2023-booster-advice
More health updates on Pages 7, 8 & 9 N
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