The kids steal the show: NAIDOC’s 50th year celebrations
Last Thursday Koobara Kindergarten, on Brisbane’s Northside, hosted their annual NAIDOC Community Fun Day event. The event brings together the local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community members and many of the organisations they run and services they utilise for a day of family-focussed fun.
ARTD’s Associate Uncle Syl Johns has been attending the event since it began and supporting the kindy for decades. This year, he and Senior Manager, Paula Shaw attended the event together and helped keep the sausages sizzling at the kindy’s fundraising stall. Uncle Syl was kept very busy throughout the day greeting and catching up with family and community members from his more than 30 years of working to support his community.
It was a glorious sunny Brisbane winter’s day – warm, to match the welcoming and celebratory atmosphere of the event. The stalls had information about local services, and upcoming events, meetings and other opportunities to get involved. There were lots of sensory, craft and sports activities for kids. There were giveaways and prizes as well as live music and entertainment, kicked off by the Wakka Wakka dancers who welcomed everyone to the event. The dancers got all the kids to join in the kangaroo and emu dances, and predictably, the kids stole the show!
This was a fantastic way to mark the 50th year of NAIDOC and this year’s theme of The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy. Through this event, and many like it, NAIDOC provides a means to elevate the voices of Indigenous Australians, and to celebrate the strength and resilience of the oldest living culture in the world.
Uncle Syl Johns and Paula Shaw with Lisa-Anne Caruana, who will be starting as an ARTD Associate this month.
