By JESSE GRAHAM
“WE ALL stand on sacred ground.”
The theme for this year’s NAIDOC Week was a significant one for Healesville Indigenous Community Services Association (HICSA) chairperson, Doseena Fergie.
Ms Fergie, speaking to the Mail at HICSA’s NAIDOC Week event on Wednesday, said that “place” was a concept central to Indigenous culture, and this year’s theme reflected that.
“It’s especially significant for all Aboriginal people, because it brings the focus back down to this land that people of the first nations would be acknowledged as being part of,” she said.
“And it’s not just ‘Earth’, it had important significance, culturally, physically, emotionally and spiritually.”
The event featured events for children, including basket-weaving and face-painting, and culminated in the official unveiling of HICSA’s new Aunty Dot Peters Multi-Purpose Room.
Ms Fergie said the room was named after Aunty Dot for her “long-standing commitment” to her community and to HICSA.
The unveiling started with a Welcome to Country from Uncle Allan Wandin, who paid tribute to elders past and present, and reflected on the NAIDOC theme.
“I’ve got to acknowledge the old fellas – they had it pretty hard back in the old days,” Uncle Allan said.
“But we are part of that and my culture, blackfellas culture, is still growing.
“The theme, ‘We all stand on sacred ground’, means to me that, over the years – and even today – there has been a lot of blood and tears that have fallen on sacred ground.”
Uncle Allan and Ms Fergie both said that the community and the Belonging Place near HICSA’s building were both healing areas, and places where people could meet and “yarn.”
Building the multi-purpose room drew many different community members together, according to Ms Fergie, who said that a then-pregnant, then-mayor Fiona McAllister even got involved in the construction.
Following the speeches, the ribbons – yellow, black and red – were cut on the door to the multi-purpose room, and visitors were treated to an exhibition of work from local artists, Indigenous artists and pre-school and primary school children reflecting the NAIDOC themes.
Community members and representatives from groups such as EACH, Eastern Health, Department of Justice and others all walked through the exhibition space, admiring the work.
HICSA executive officer of health promotion, Anne Jenkins, said the room, formerly a metalwork workshop, would be used for youth activities, including dancing or painting, and could be used as a meeting space.
Ms Fergie said that NAIDOC Week, held on the first full week of July, is a time to celebrate Indigenous culture and history.
Two highlights of the week, according to Ms Fergie, were the annual NAIDOC march in Melbourne and the NAIDOC Ball at the Dorset Gardens in Croydon, where more than 300 people were expected to attend.
