Celebrate Tweed Elders for NAIDOC Week

By Jonathon Howard

NAIDOC WEEK is in full swing across the Tweed Shire this week and there’s still plenty of events taking place to get involved with including the special Tweed NAIDOC March and Corroboree in the Park on Friday, July 7, from 10am.

Residents are asked to gather at the Tweed Civic Centre prior to 10am and join this annual event led by Indigenous Elders and community members alongside Tweed Police and emergency services.

This year’s theme, For Our Elders, celebrates the vital role Indigenous Elders have played and continue to play in communities and families – and how through their strength, knowledge and experience they have set the many courses we follow today.

The week’s activities will close in style, with a Tweed NAIDOC Dinner Dance at Coolangatta Tweed Golf Club from 6pm on Friday, July 7. Tickets are essential.

Aunty Dale Williams, Elder and Goodjinburra descendant, who is also a member of Council’s Aboriginal Advisory Committee, encouraged all Tweed residents to join in the week’s activities.

“NAIDOC Week is about the community coming together to celebrate the rich cultural heritage of the Tweed Bundjalung country,” Aunty Dale said.

“Our Elders have kept our culture alive, passing it down from generation to generation — this week is all about our culture’s survival.”

Find out more about national NAIDOC Week activities at www.naidoc.org.au

What does NAIDOC Week mean to you?

Uncle Frank Krasna said:

"It means celebrating Goori culture. But also for me, it's celebrating all the knowledge passed onto us by our Elders. And acknowledging all the ones that are contributing to Aboriginal culture to the wider audience. And trying to get them to understand our connection to country."

We usually get together at funerals, but this is a chance to get together without sorry business."

Aunty Dale Williams said: "NAIDOC Week means getting together with families and our nations people, to encourage each other that they are loved together. To have that idea that we would like to be of the human race and not flora and fauna."

Tina Peacock said: "It's an opportunity to showcase the value of our culture and to wider community. And encourage them to share and learn our culture. Because this year is for our Elders it's an opportunity to learn about why our Elders are so important to us. Because they're the ones that share our knowledge."