Celebrate NAIDOC Week and embrace Indigenous life

Indigenous Australiabns Minister Ken Wyatt. Picture: Gary Ramage

For the second year in a row, NAIDOC Week is looking a little different from normal but it still presents us an opportunity to lift up and celebrate the very best of Indigenous Australia.

I always look forward to NAIDOC Week because it really is a celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and excellence.

It focuses on the strength and depth of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and culture. It is an invitation for all ­Australians to learn more about our ongoing contribution to this nation.

Each year, the NAIDOC Week theme draws our attention to an important issue for everyone to consider. This year’s theme, Heal Country!, is a call to action to protect and preserve land, water, culture and more – for the benefit of all Australians.

The natural disasters our nation has experienced over the past couple of years come immediately to mind, but this year’s theme goes much deeper than that. Beyond the physical place, Country sustains us and is as deeply ingrained in our identity as our family, our mobs, our languages and traditions.

For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, Country is a living, breathing, giver of life. Country speaks to us as much as we speak to it. Country restores us and sustains our spirit and culture. We all have a role in looking after Country as much as it looks after us.

The Morrison government is looking at ways we can bring more Indigenous knowledge into land management and restoration activities. We’re establishing better mechanisms for Indigenous people to have more of a say in the protection of their culture and heritage.

This is in recognition of the wisdom that traditional owners hold and our investments in local programs reflect our desire to support greater self-determination and bring this knowledge to bear.

In the past year alone, the Morrison government has committed long-term funding for Indigenous ranger programs across Australia and we are working towards increasing the number of Indigenous Protected Areas.

We are progressing changes to the Environment Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act to strengthen the protections for the environment, culture and heritage, and, as we did in Jabiru, we’re working with community to hand back land to traditional owners to manage according to their priorities. As I sat with the elders in Jabiru last weekend, I reflected on how meaningful and significant Country is to community and identity.

This NAIDOC Week, while we think about the practical steps we can take to restore and protect our environment, we should also be thinking about how we heal our nation’s social fabric by reflecting on the injustices of the past and furthering reconciliation by working to bring us closer together.

Many of us are experiencing lockdown measures due to Covid-19 clusters emerging around the nation. The emergence of the Delta strain in Australia presents a challenging time for all of us and is a reminder that Covid-19 is not going away. Overcoming vaccine complacency and hesitancy and reaching the necessary rates of immunisation is the only way we will be able to return to doing the things we love – getting together with family and friends and enjoying Country, wherever you may be in Australia.

I appreciate people’s plans are changing rapidly, but I encourage you to join in this NAIDOC Week however you can – in a Covid-safe manner – and enjoy all that is on offer. Let us all commit now to take the actions we need to Heal Country!

Events, including online activities, and information available online at www.naidoc.org.au

Ken Wyatt is Indigenous Australians Minister.