NAIDOC Week 2021
Wyndham will celebrate NAIDOC Week 2021 with a series of events including an online flag raising ceremony and other activities at the Wunggurrwil Dhurrung Community Centre.
NAIDOC Week is celebrated annually, and this year will be marked across the nation from Sunday 4 July until Sunday 11 July.
The flag raising ceremony hosted by Wyndham City will incorporate guest speakers and NAIDOC messages from peoples in the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.
Mayor Cr Adele Hegedich said: “We strongly encourage the Wyndham Community to join us virtually for the NAIDOC Week flag raising event. We will celebrate the culture, history and great achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples together.”
The theme for NAIDOC Week 2021 is Heal Country and calls for stronger measures to recognise and protect Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and heritage.
“The NAIDOC Week events across Wyndham City are a great opportunity for residents to participate in a range of activities to support and acknowledge the peoples of the Kulin Nation on which Wyndham was founded, as well as Australia’s entire Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community,” Cr Hegedich said.
NAIDOC Week has been increasing awareness of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities since the 1920’s and continues to be celebrated by all Australians.
“We hear the challenge to Heal Country and look forward to celebrating Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities through our events right here in Wyndham,” Cr Hegedich said.
For more details on NAIDOC Week and the 2021 theme of Heal Country, please visit the NAIDOC website.
For more details on NAIDOC Week in Wyndham City Council visit NAIDOC Flag Raising Ceremony.
Event details
Flag Raising Ceremony
When: Tuesday 6 July 2021 10am – 10:20am
Where: Online
Cost: Free
Pop Up Library at Wunggurrwil Dhurrung Centre
When: Wednesday 7 July 2021
- Story Time at 10:30am
- Kids Craft at 11:00am
- Morning Tea at 11:00am until 12:00pm
Where: Pop up Library atWunggurrwil Dhurrung Centre, Cortland Street, Wyndham Vale, VIC 3024
Cost: Free
In Hobsons Bay, the 2021 NAIDOC Week program includes:
Womindjeka – gateway flags: During July, flags printed with Womindjeka will be installed at the gateway flagpole sites in Melbourne Road (Spotswood), Millers Road (Brooklyn), Kororoit Creek Road (Altona) and Queen Street (Altona Meadows) as a COVID-Safe way of promoting First Australians’ culture. Womindjeka is a Kulin Nation word used as a welcome, translating as ‘Come, with purpose’. The flags have been designed by Aretha Brown, a proud Gumbaynggirr woman, artist (her work includes the street art We Are Here at Challis Street) and former Prime Minister of the National Indigenous Youth Parliament.
49 Years of NAIDOC: NAIDOC Week exhibition: From National Aborigines’ Day in 1972 to NAIDOC Week today, explore the continuity and change in almost 50 years of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander activism and celebrations of culture. This exhibition displays posters from NAIDOC Week and its predecessors from the past 49 years. View it at the Williamstown Library, 104 Ferguson Street, during library hours until Sunday, July 11.
Plus a reminder about Book Club: Benevolence: Lenka Vanderboom is running a special Book Club event exploring Benevolence by Julie Janson. Benevolence is set around the Hawkesbury River area, the home of the Darug people, in Parramatta and Sydney, from 1816 – 1835. The intensely visual prose interweaves historical events with detailed characters to shatter stereotypes and give a voice to an Aboriginal experience of early settlement. Author Julie Janson is a Burruberongal woman of Darug Aboriginal Nation. Lenka Vanderboom grew up in the Kimberley on her Yawuru homelands, and is a Director of Indigenous publishing house Magabala Books Indigenous publishing house. The free event is on Thursday July 29 from 6.30pm to 7.30pm at the Williamstown Library and online. Register via https://libraries.hobsonsbay.vic.gov.au/
Lost Lands Found – self-directed reflection: Hobsons Bay locals are encouraged to visit Lost Lands Found during NAIDOC Week 2021. The site in Logan Reserve is a fitting representation of this year’s theme “Heal Country!”. As creator of the site Dean Stewart, a Wemba Wemba Wergaia man, stated, “Reconciliation is not just between black and white, but it is a reconciliation of us all, as a people back with the land, for we are all the newest custodians and caretakers of this ancient land which we now all call – Our Home!”
Mayor of Hobsons Bay Cr Jonathon Marsden said, “NAIDOC Week is a time to celebrate, reflect and learn. Our Womindjeka gateway flags will signify the start of NAIDOC Week, as a visible and accessible way for people to think about language and about culture. The flags will be up at various sites around the city during July and can be used at other times during the year as well.
“I am excited about the exhibition of NAIDOC Week posters at the Williamstown Library this year. As a collection, they represent almost 50 years of NAIDOC advocacy and activism. What an opportunity they provide for us to reflect on the work of people who raised our awareness and helped the community get in step with the true history of this country. Visit the exhibition — I highly recommend it!
“Council recognises NAIDOC Week as part of its Innovate Reconciliation Action Plan.”