Culture and community at the heart of NRL Cowboys House celebration

Around 300 families have travelled from their communities to share in a day of cultural celebration at the NRL Cowboy House in Townsville.

Daniel Shirkie

2 min read

September 1, 2023 - 1:00PM

Townsville Bulletin

Helen Gordon from Cooktown with her grandson Leland Michael, NRL Cowboys House captain, at the NRL Cowboys House NAIDOC Week celebrations. This year's NAIDOC theme is 'For Our Elders'. Picture: Shae Beplate.

Townsville

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Staff and students at the NRL Cowboys House have taken a day just for culture as they embraced the organisation’s annual NAIDOC celebrations.

Didgeridoo playing, damper making, spear throwing and plenty of other artistic, cultural and culinary activities were on offer throughout the day.

NAIDOC week, which is typically observed in July, usually occurs while students are at home for the holidays, given the NRL Cowboys House a chance to

NRL Cowboys House General Manager Rochelle Jones said the day had been an ‘amazing event’.

“We’ve got just under 300 families travelling from 30 communities, coming down to spend time together, catch up with the young people that board at our NRL Cowboys House and also catch up with other family that might not have seen throughout the year,” Ms Jones said.

The event, which is in it’s third straight year, makes use of a student free day to make sure they’re not interrupting student’s regular studies.

“We’re an education facility, so that’s our number one focus,” Ms Jones said.

“In terms of the events for us now, we’ve just been adding and adding, we started off a little smaller, but we’ve just been grown every year. We get families that come and have a great time and then they bring ideas and run stalls to make sure that they’re sharing their culture with each other and our wider community.”

NAIDOC, one of the largest cultural celebrations of the year for Australia’s Aboriginal and Islander communities, has born a special significance this year due to its theme of ‘For our elders’, but Ms Jones said the event always means a lot to all communities.

“It always means something important for all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people living not just here but everywhere in their communities, it’s a great time for them to gather,” Ms Jones said.

“For non-Indigenous Australians it’s a time to reflect and learn about different cultures and what they’re sharing with their young people. With this year’s theme, I think it’s amazing for young people to be reflecting on what they’ve learned from their elders.

“The theme ‘For our elders’, it’s very important for our staff here and our young people. They’ve gone through challenges and a lot of struggle to provide opportunities and give their young people the knowledge and wisdom so that they can continue that culture and hand it on to their young people.”