Heal Country!
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Such a strong statement.
Heal Country! The theme for NAIDOC Week 2021.
This is the call from the National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee.
NAIDOC 2021 invites the nation — all of us — to embrace First Nations’ cultural knowledge and understanding of Country as part of Australia's national heritage and to equally respect the culture and values of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders as we do the cultures and values of all Australians.
Heal Country!
But what does “Country” mean?
NAIDOC has shared the story of Country with all Australians and has offered a path forward.
Read it! It goes to the heart of who we are and hope to be as a nation — a just and equitable country.
“Country is inherent to our identity.
It sustains our lives in every aspect -—spiritually, physically, emotionally, socially and culturally.
It is more than a place.
When we talk about Country it is spoken of like a person.
Country is family, kin, law, lore, ceremony, traditions and language. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples it has been this way since the dawn of time.
Through our languages and songs, we speak to Country; through our ceremonies and traditions we sing to — and celebrate — Country, and Country speaks to us.
Increasingly, we worry about Country.
For generations Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people have been calling for stronger measures to recognise, protect and maintain all aspects of our culture and heritage for all Australians.
We have continued to seek greater protections for our lands, our waters, our sacred sites and our cultural heritage from exploitation, desecration and destruction.
We are still waiting for those robust protections.
Healing Country means hearing those pleas to provide greater management, involvement and empowerment by indigenous peoples over Country.
Healing Country means embracing First Nation’s cultural knowledge and understanding of Country as part of Australia's national heritage. It means ensuring the culture and values of Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders are respected in the same way as we respect the cultures and values of all Australians.
The right to protect Country and culture is fundamental.
Destruction and desecration of our sacred lands or ancient sites — some of the oldest human occupation sites on the planet — is an enormous loss for both our nation and the world.
But to truly heal Country we have more to do.
Our lands will continue to burn from bushfires, droughts will continue to destroy our livelihoods, without using traditional practices that have protected this country for centuries.
For generations, our Elders and communities have advocated, marched and fought for substantive institutional, structural and collaborative reform.
The aspirations of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are the culmination of generations of consultation and discussions among our nations on a range of issues and grievances.
Healing Country means finally resolving many of the outstanding injustices which impact on the lives of our people.
It must be a fair and equitable resolution.
Fundamental grievances will not vanish. In the European settlement of Australia, there were no treaties, no formal settlements, no compacts. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people therefore did not cede sovereignty to our land. It was taken from us. That will remain a continuing source of dispute.
To Heal Country, we must properly work towards redressing historical injustice.
While we can’t change history, through telling the truth about our nation’s past we certainly can change the way history is viewed.
After 250 years, our children and our future generations deserve better.
For generations we have repeatedly called for just recognition of our right to participate on an equal basis in economic and social terms.
Yet such participation cannot be successful unless, first, there is formal recognition that indigenous people have been dispossessed and, second, definite, specific steps are taken to redress the grave social and economic disadvantage that followed that dispossession.
Healing Country is more than changing a word in our national anthem — it is about the historical, political and administrative landscapes adapting to successfully empower and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, nations and heritage.
We are all looking for significant and lasting change.
We cannot afford to let pass the very real opportunity that now presents itself for reform based on a fundamental change in the relationship Australia has with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Heal Country, heal our nation.”
Consider what it means for us as a nation and decide what you will do to help to “Heal Country!”
Visit NAIDOC Week’s website for more information and NAIDOC Week resources: www.NAIDOC.org.au
Kaiela Arts’ NAIDOC Week Exhibition Healing Country opens on Thursday, July 8 in its new artspace at SAM in Shepparton. Drop in and check it out.
Read, learn about sovereignty and how this has never been ceded by any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander Nation: www.creativespirits.info/aboriginalculture/selfdetermination/aboriginal-sovereignty-in-australia
Listen to Stories of Aboriginal history and cultures by visiting Aboriginal Victoria’s website: Explore the stories (deadlyandproud.vic.gov.au)
Visit the University of Newcastle and read about the documented massacres across the country: Centre For 21st Century Humanities (newcastle.edu.au)
Read the Uluru Statement from the Heart by visiting Uluru Statement from the Heart