By Callum Ludwig
A brother and sister duo have been recognised for their work encouraging reconciliation at the Eastern Metropolitan Region NAIDOC Ball on Friday July 15.
Nelson and Nikita Aldridge earache received awards; The Youth Sporting Achievement Award as well as the Community Award for Nelson and the Arts Award for Nikita.
Ms Aldridge said she was very shocked to have received the award.
“I realised about halfway through while they were reading the introduction to the award, ‘I’m pretty sure this is me’ because they said some things that reflected me,” she said.
I looked at my boss, Amanda, and she was giving me this look of ‘It’s you, well done’ and I just started freaking out because there was hundreds of people there and the anticipation of having to get up and walk all the way up there from our table at the very back, but I was very honoured.”
Ms Aldridge is an Outreach Worker in the Social and Emotional Wellbeing team at Oonah Belonging Place but received the award for her work on stage.
Ms Aldridge said she has been very artistic since a young age, having started dancing when she was just four years old.
“In that time, from four to 12, there say I won a couple of awards here and there for my jazz dancing and went on to receive a scholarship when I was 12 years old as the most outstanding student at my dance academy,” she said.
“When I started at high school, I joined the theatre company there and was involved in the musicals, The Wizard of Oz, Aladdin, Hairspray, Alice in Wonderland, Legally Blonde and Little Shop of Horrors with leading roles in Alice in Wonderland and Legally Blonde.”
Ms Aldridge has since returned regularly to help out in the musicals put on at her high school since finishing her studies.
Ms Aldridge said a friend approached her to get involved again after Covid had put a stop to everything.
“My friend Skye let me know she was directing a show this year and wanted me to be involved, we started rehearsals in March this year and performed just a couple of weeks before NAIDOC Week. The show was called Love and Other Stuff, put on by Grover Theatre Company and directed by Skye Beasley and Hannah Byrd,” she said.
“I was very fortunate, I got to portray a young girl who had a difficult family life, but relied on her sister a lot and had a toxic relationship with her best friend at a young age, but then learnt how to break free of the toxicity really, and found happiness within themselves. The directors really wanted to represent love in all different aspects of life, whether it was platonic, family or LGBTQIA relationships, they wanted to represent the whole range of love.”
Ms Aldridge was the only Indigenous person in the cast and did a lot of work to share her culture.
Ms Aldridge said cast members would come in, and they’d have questions for her about Indigenous culture.
“They’d want to learn language, they’d want to learn more about history, because unfortunately, the education system didn’t really teach us much about culture. They’d ask and I’d happily sit down with them and educate them on our beautiful culture,” she said.
“I taught them some words in my Woiwurrung language and once I realised the show was near NAIDOC Week, I really wanted to do the acknowledgment of country, and they thankfully were more than happy for me to have that responsibility as well as translate the name of the show into language and read it out before every performance.”
Ms Ladridge recently joined the committee at Grover Theatre Company and wants to bring more Indigenous people into the theatre world.
Mr Aldridge also received his awards for his work bringing two of his passions together, First Nations culture and football.
Mr Aldridge said it was very amazing to receive the awards alongside his sister, and they were both unaware going in.
“Nikita won the first award that was in attendance and when they started to read out the criteria for the award it started to click that it was Nikita, and it was incredible,” he said.
“With these kinds of things, I never know whether I’m going to win any awards so I feel very humbled and privileged to have won both awards.”
Mr Aldridge is a part of the Indigenous Development Team at Yarra Ranges Council and is vice-captain of the Warburton-Millgrove Senior Football side, with whom he coordinated the Indigenous Round on Saturday 23 July against Powelltown.
Mr Aldridge said the event was a great success.
“I arrived at the ground at 9.30 in the morning, and it was packed, if you weren’t there before 10.30am, you weren’t getting a park. The junior club were there and they were loving it and the committee did an amazing job at setting up decorations and making the place look absolutely fantastic,” he said.
“Courtney Ugle was amazing as a guest speaker and had the audience feeding from the palm of her hand. The room was packed, young kids were sitting along the floor and not a word was said, you could hear a pin drop from what I heard, so absolutely incredible.”
Mr Aldridge became the first person in the history of the ceremony to receive two awards in the same year.
Mr Aldridge said everyone who was involved in the event played their part.
“I had a couple of people come up to me at the end of the day, talking about changing their views and say everyone’s got something to go home and think about today. Everyone around the club was just absolutely wrapped with how the day went,” he said.
“Some were saying it’s the biggest Home and Away season crowd they’ve ever seen, it was incredible how people came together. It’s incredible what sport can do and bring people together. I’m proud of and want to thank everyone who was involved and we’re looking forward to next year already.”
