Mossman is firing up for NAIDOC Week to be held 8-15 November, 2020 with a calendar of events celebrating the rich and diverse cultures of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Always Was, Always Will Be, is NAIDOC Week’s theme for 2020, recognising that First Nations people have occupied and cared for this continent for over 65,000 years.
Mossman’s NAIDOC Committee is a group of local volunteers including representatives from schools, Council, community agencies, government organisations and local businesses.To accommodate the impacts of COVID-19, and the postponement since July, the new Committee have cleverly thought “outside the box” with a new calendar of events.
NAIDOC week will kick off on Monday, November 9, 2020, with the traditional flag raising ceremony at Douglas Shire Council. This event includes a Welcome to Country, and flag raising by Aboriginal, Torres Strait and Non-Indigenous locals.
Tuesday features the NAIDOC Baby Show, a parade of frocked up babies, toddlers and their proud families, gathering for the popular and beloved occasion.
Twilight markets will be held under the lights of the rain trees on Wednesday evening. Indigenous market stalls, food, music and dancing are on the cards, with the whole community warmly welcomed to come along. A display of Yalanji arts and crafts will be available for purchase. Food and drinks will be for sale, and an open mike format for the stage will provide an opportunity for our local talent to shine, and for the community to get their stomp on, in a covidsafe manner.
Thursday is reserved for the traditional Elders Lunch in the Mossman Shire Hall. NAIDOC week closes with a bang, with the loudest of celebrations, being a car rally down Front St. Suds up your four wheels, get decorating and join the parade!
Mossman’s NAIDOC Week celebrations and community events are a great opportunity for the Douglas Shire to come together and acknowledge and engage with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders’ spiritual and cultural connection to this country. NAIDOC Week 2020 would not be possible without the support and efforts of Bamanga Bubu Ngadimunku Inc, Jabalbina, Goobidi, Douglas Shire Council, QPS, QPA and our local Fire Services.
Full list of events
Monday 9 November, 2020 / 10am NAIDOC Flag Raising Ceremony, Douglas Shire Council Administration Offices, Front St, Mossman
Tuesday 10 November, 2020 / 10am NAIDOC Baby Show, Goobidi CACS, Johnston Rd, Mossman
Wednesday 11 November, 2020 / 4-8pm NAIDOC Night Markets, Indigenous market stalls, food, music and dancing under the rain trees, Bubu Kinkara Park, Mossman
Thursday 12 November, 2020 / 12pm NAIDOC Elders Lunch, Mossman Shire Hall, Mill St, Mossman
Friday 13 November, 2020 / 11 am NAIDOC Car Rally, Decorate your car and make some noise! Front St, Mossman
Contact
Kirsty at community@yalanji.com.au to get involved.
A little more about NAIDOC 2020 theme
Always Was, Always Will Be.
“This country was criss-crossed by generations of brilliant Nations.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people were Australia’s first explorers, first navigators, first engineers, first farmers, first botanists, first scientists, first diplomats, first astronomers and first artists.
Australia has the world’s oldest oral stories. The First Peoples engraved the world’s first maps, made the earliest paintings of ceremony and invented unique technologies. We built and engineered structures – structures on Earth – predating well-known sites such as the Egyptian Pyramids and Stonehenge.
Our adaptation and intimate knowledge of Country enabled us to endure climate change, catastrophic droughts and rising sea levels.
Always Was, Always Will Be. acknowledges that hundreds of Nations and our cultures covered this continent. All were managing the land – the biggest estate on earth – to sustainably provide for their future.
Through ingenious land management systems like fire stick farming we transformed the harshest habitable continent into a land of bounty….The very first footprints on this continent were those belonging to First Nations peoples.
Our coastal Nations watched and interacted with at least 36 contacts made by Europeans prior to 1770. Many of them resulting in the charting of the northern, western and southern coastlines – of our lands and our waters.
For us, this nation’s story began at the dawn of time.
NAIDOC 2020 invites all Australians to embrace the true history of this country – a history which dates back thousands of generations.
It’s about seeing, hearing and learning the First Nations’ 65,000+ year history of this country – which is Australian history. We want all Australians to celebrate that we have the oldest continuing cultures on the planet and to recognise that our sovereignty was never ceded.”
via NAIDOC
