Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships Minister Desley Boyle holds great hopes for the future of youngsters like the Yulu Burrii Ba dancers she yarned with after their NAIDOC Week performance in Brisbane.
This year’s NAIDOC celebrations were a sight to behold with people getting involved in Brisbane, Bundaberg, Bamaga and everywhere in-between.
I was privileged to be a part of the Brisbane flag-raising celebration outside the Executive Building on George St. It was great to see the Aboriginal, Torres Strait Island and Australian flags raised side-by-side. It highlighted a future of which Queenslanders can be proud. The celebration featured some wonderful dancing from Wagga Dance Company, Yuggera Aboriginal Dance Troupe and the children of Yulu Burrii Ba as well as some fantastic bush tucker.
It was also a chance to reflect on the reconciliation journey. Torres Strait Islander Elder Uncle Steve Mam, for example, remembered demonstrating on the very same spot: throwing down his bow and arrows in protest at the government of the day while 15 police cars stood by ready for trouble. Now he was returning to the same spot, acknowledged as an Elder and a representative of the First Australians.
NAIDOC Week has grown from a day of observance into a week-long celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. This is a reflection of Australia’s growing pride in the rich and varied history of our great country. Across Queensland there were breakfasts and dinners, family fun days and educational events, workshops and art installations. Increasingly it is an event celebrated by all Queenslanders regardless of origin. I hope you enjoy the pictorial wrap-up of NAIDOC Week in this issue.
Another area where we are seeing reconciliation in action is in the area of Indigenous business. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 1900 businesses in Queensland are owned by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders. From architecture to web design, tourism to farming, car hire to fishing, the owners of these small-to-medium sized businesses are putting themselves in the driver’s seat.
This includes businesses like Carbon Media (featured on page 12) which recently won the Emerging Business category at the Reconciliation Awards for Business. Carbon Media is a wholly Aboriginal-owned new media production agency that is helping to change the face of the media through producing television commercials, corporate DVDs and even a children’s television game show.
At the request of the Brisbane Council of Elders, I have written to Australia’s major media outlets and encouraged them to increase the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people working both in front of, and behind, the camera. I am pleased to say I have had a number of positive responses from people like the Seven Network’s executive chairman Kerry Stokes and Foxtel’s chief executive Kim Williams. It seems that reconciliation is not just everyone’s business; reconciliation is business.
Hon. Desley Boyle
Minister for Local Government and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships
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