Queensland Government
Department of Communities, Child Safety and Disability Services
Headshot of Minister Curtis Pitt

NAIDOC Week is upon us. Its name originally stood for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee.

“Change — the next step is ours.”

That’s the 2011 National NAIDOC theme. It’s a good and positive message, with a particular emphasis for me on the word ‘ours’.

The NAIDOC theme encourages all Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders to take charge of their future, individually and collectively — and that’s great!

The nation’s Closing the Gap agenda, and all its subsidiary plans, has no hope of succeeding without the involvement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

But they cannot do it alone either.

Every Australian has a part to play. Closing the gap in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life outcomes is one of the greatest practical steps toward reconciliation.

Change, and the power to drive it, belongs to all of us. The next step is not ‘theirs’ or ‘someone else’s’ — it is ‘ours’, in the broadest sense. Reconciliation is everyone’s business.

NAIDOC Week is a wonderful celebration of all that makes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture so unique.

The spontaneity and the good will of NAIDOC Week always impress me. Events spring up all over Queensland, and Australia, each put together by local people as their contribution toward reconciliation. It’s all done from the heart.

Let’s all enjoy the festivities that commemorate our first Australians.

Amongst the NAIDOC Week Celebrations this year, I’d like to make special mention of the Musgrave Park family fun day in Brisbane and congratulate organisers on their 20th anniversary this year. This event has been bringing people from all backgrounds and walks of life together to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history since 1992. This event has become an institution in Brisbane and
I offer my congratulations to everyone who has been involved in putting this event together for the past two decades. I’m also attending a number of other NAIDOC events across Queensland and I look forward to meeting many of you.

We’ve also launched out deadly stories campaign just in time for NAIDOC week. The campaign is about celebrating and sharing the many achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Queenslanders. Promoting positive community attitudes toward Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people is an important step toward closing the gap in employment, education, and leadership. Some of the first deadly stories appear later in this addition but check out the website at www.deadlystories.qld.gov.au

These are all steps toward great change and toward reconciliation. Let’s enjoy them and take some more.

Curtis Pitt MP
Minister for Disability Services, Mental Health and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Partnerships