NAIDOC Week celebrations keep the fire burning

The Jabiru Community celebrated NAIDOC Week ahead of the annual dates in 2024 to allow school-aged children to be more involved with the events during the school term.

This year’s theme is ‘Keep the fire burning! Blak, Loud and Proud’.

To commence the festivities on Wednesday, 19 June, West Arnhem Regional Council collaborated with Jabiru Area School to hold a Community march from the school to the Jabiru Library. 

The march was led by a huge NAIDOC Week banner made with TarniArts. It was great to see so many students, teachers, community members and Council Elected Members involved in the march.

This was followed by an opening ceremony with Deputy Mayor Liz Williams officiating and a Welcome to Country thanks to Gundjeihmi Aboriginal Corporation and Mirarr Traditional Owners.

Throughout the morning, there was a very special Elders morning tea, and stalls and activities for the whole Community including a weaving workshop, a digeridoo lesson and traditional dancing. 

13YARN also came out to share valuable information about crisis support and they handed out heaps of giveaways.
A huge thank you to Greg and the team from Sodexo and ERA for putting on the Community barbecue. 
The day was very successful with over 250 people attending these events.

On Thursday, 20 June, stakeholders came together to continue the expo with stalls and activities at the Library. 
ALPA Jabiru brought a very special traditional canoe to the expo for people to learn about. 
The ALPA team has been building the canoe for many months as a project.
The ALPA team also hosted the community barbecue for everyone to enjoy.

In what was an extra special addition to the day, TEABBA radio brought the ‘Ms JEDDA’ truck to Jabiru and they broadcasted live from Jabiru across the Top End!

TEABBA also donated a $350 food hamper as a raffle prize which was won by Denzel Websdale!
West Arnhem Regional Council wishes to thank everyone involved in making these events happen: Amy Tambling and Jabiru Area School, ALPA, NLC, GAC, NT Police and Jabiru Fire Station for supporting the march, Sodexo and ERA. 
Thanks also to WARC staff particularly Porridge and the works crew.

The events were supported by the National Indigenous Australians Agency.