CPSU celebrates the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Members throughout Victoria,  during this year’s NAIDOC Week. We encourage all members, Indig enous and Non-Indigenous, to participate in the celebrations, and the process of reconciliation.

CPSU celebrates the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Members throughout Victoria,  during this year’s NAIDOC Week. We encourage all members, Indig enous and Non-Indigenous, to participate in the celebrations, and the process of reconciliation.

About NAIDOC Week

NAIDOC Week begins this Sunday 5th, and runs through to Sunday 12th July. NAIDOC is named for the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observvance Committee, creating an important national focus, emerging from a history of pre 1920s protests of Aboriginal people over injustice, subsequent development of Aboriginal organisations, and campaigns, to the NAIDOC of today.

NAIDOC has remained a call for respect and ustice, but has grown over time to include recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's rich culture and history; and the contribution and achievements of the First Australians. Find out more at NAIDOC website.

You can show your support for Indigenous Australians and find out what you can do to help challenges of reconciliation. There's a way we can all Learn, Respect and Celebrate, during NAIDOC Week, & throughout the year.

What's On

Checkout the full calendar of NAIDOC Week Events to get involved in your local area, and particularly note and support our CPSU members' involvement in the following events:

Royal Botanic Gardens (RBG)
11am - 12pm, Thu 9th & 10th July - NAIDOC Explorer

Take a ride on the Garden Explorer at the RBG and experience the Gardens through the eyes of an Indigenous Guide, a special tour to celebrate NADIOC bookings 9252 2429

NADIOC Explorer

 

10:30am - 12pm, Tue 7th July - NAIDOC Family Celebration Trail

Celebrate NAIDOC with a traditional smoking ceremony, followed by a dance performance to the sound of the didgeridoo. Follow the Black Tracker Trail to Long Island and leave your hand-print in ochre. Hear traditional stories and find out which indigenous plants will attract birds, insects and reptiles to your garden. Bookings 9252 2429

Royal Botanic Gardens, Cranbourne
10am - 2pm, Wed 8th July - Koolin-ik ba kirrip-buluk (family and friends)

Bring family and friends to celebrate NAIDOC. Welcome to Country 10am, followed by Storytelling with Ron Murray, activities throughout the Gardens including ochere rock and bark painting, weaving, clay nests, weelum making and clap stick decorating. Free sausage sizzle lunch. Closing Ceremony with music and dance at 2pm. A free event.

Melbourne Museum Bujilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre

Come and celebrate NAIDOC week at Bunjilaka to experience a vibrant living Koorie culture and celebrate our shared history through family activities stunning exhibitions and more!

Take part in dance workshops with the Indigeneous Hip Hop Projects Crew or enjoy a guided tour around the Milarri Gardens and learn about the traditional foods and technologies of Victoria's First Peoples.

First People's Exhibition - daily 10am - 5pm

Milarri Garden Tour  - Learn about traiditonal foods and technologies of Victoria's First People.

My special seasons - 11am - 3pm, Activity Rooms Get to know the Boonwurrung seasonal calendar - Which of the six Boonwurrung seasons were you born in? Are eels Migrating? Is the lilli-pili fruit ready to eat? Find out what makes your birthay season special.

The Connies -  Tram Conductors performance piece - 11am - 3pm NAIDOC Week at Bunjilaka

Indigenous Hip Hop Projects Crew, Dance Workshop
11:30am - 12:15pm Mon 5th - Fri 9th, Sun 11th July

Punuku Tjukuma  - 10am - 5pm daily - A stunning collection of sculptures and paintings from one of Australia's fienest art movemnts.

Nitet Yapeneyepuk - Gather Together Exhibition - An exhibition highlighting award wining artist from Gallery Kaiela Shepparton, exploring through art and photography the strength of a Koorie community that Nitet Yapeneyepuk, Gather Together.

Department of Environment Land Water and Planning

Koorie Market  - 11am - 3pm Wed 8th & Thu 9th July, Foyer of 8 Nicholson St, Melbourne - Everyone welcome

Launch of DELWP NAIDOC Celebration - 11am Thu 9th July, Foyer of 8 Nicholson St, Melbourne

National Gallery of Victoria

NGV Indigenous Art: Moving Backwards into the Future  - 10am - 5pm daily except Mondays, NGV Australia, Federation Square

An interdisciplinary exhibition that features more than 100 of the finest Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander works from the NGV collection. The exhibits reflect different elements of Indigenous art history and culture from the early nineteenth century to now and explore the evolutions and status of Indigenous art whith in the context of contemporary world art. Central to the exhibition is the idea that Indigenous visual culture - the world's longest continuing art tradition - is not a fossilised expression of a unchanging society but like the concept of the Dreaming is meta-temporal, that is, it incorporates that past, present and future into a complete and present reality. Moreover, Indigenous art is an aesthetic experience, a courier of visual cutlture, a seductive and eloquent articulation of identity, time and place.

CPSU Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Branch Section

Artwork courtesy Veronica Barrnett, CPSU Branch Section Member and Torres Strait Island Woman.

CPSU has worked hard to establish condition in our Agreements to facilitate members' participation in a range of cultural and ceremonial events and to promote indigenous participation in all aspects of the union, public sector and the community.

CPSU members experiencing approval problems to attend NAIDOC activities should contact CPSU Industrial Officer and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Branch Section Liaison Mandy Coulson 0439 573 410 mcoulson@cpsuvic.org or CPSU's Information Officer Geraldine Hughes for assistance on 9639 1822 or toll free on 1800 810 153.

CPSU encourages all our members to celebrate NAIDOC Week and the contribution of Indigenous people.

 

STEPHEN WALSH CPSU Indigenous Convenor

CATHERINE DAVIES CPSU Acting State Secretary

Friday 3rd July 2015