In celebration of NAIDOC Week (July 5 – 12), the University of Tasmania is proudly recognising Aboriginal culture and heritage with a host of engaging and thought-provoking activities.
Pro Vice-Chancellor (Aboriginal Research and Leadership) Professor Maggie Walter said the NAIDOC activities were about bringing the University community together to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and heritage. This year’s events reflect this, being a collaborative effort of Aboriginal staff, especially those from Riawunna, Aboriginal community members and non-Aboriginal staff from across the University.
“NAIDOC Week is an opportunity for us to celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and culture, past and present, as a part of who we all are as Australians and Tasmanians,” Professor Walter said.
Cultural events will be conducted by Tasmanian Aboriginal artists across the University. These include children’s workshops, where children will have the opportunity to work with shells and use puppetry to explore interpretations of ‘Coming into Being’ stories, at Riawunna Newnham on Tuesday, 7 July. A music and song writing workshop will be held on the Sandy Bay Campus on Thursday, 8 July, and there will be traditional arts workshops such as working with kelp, shell and natural fibres and bush food at both campuses over the week.
The inaugural annual Japanangka errol West Indigenous Scholar public lecture will also be launched. The lecture honours the life and work of the late Japanangka errol West, a leading Tasmanian Aboriginal academic and internationally-recognised poet and scholar. Scott Manning Stevens, a member of the Akwesasne Mohawk Nation and Director of the Native American Studies Program at New York State’s Syracuse University, will give his lecture Memory and Presence in Native America Today.
The lecture will be held at the Stanley Burbury Theatre on the Sandy Bay campus from 5.30pm on Monday 6 July, and live-streamed to the University’s Cradle Coast Campus in Burnie. It will also be presented at the Newnham Campus’ Sir Raymond Ferrell Centre from 5.30pm on Tuesday, 7 July.
Her Will to Survive, the Tasmanian episode from the First Australians television series, will be screened on Tuesday at Noon at Centenary Theatre at Sandy Bay and at 1pm on Thursday, 9 July, at the Sir Raymond Ferrall Centre. The film will be followed by a panel discussion. The Hobart event will be live-streamed to Burnie.
On Friday the celebrations conclude with members of the University’s senior management team participating in an In Country experience at pulatina (Oyster Cove).
NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee) originates from the 1938 ‘Day of Mourning’ Aboriginal protest led by William Cooper through the streets of Sydney to present a national policy for Aboriginal people to Prime Minister Joseph Lyons.
The day was marked annually from 1940 and in 1955 ‘Aborigines Day’ was moved to the first Sunday in July and realigned as a day of celebration, and became a week-long event in 1974.
For a full calendar of the University’s NAIDOC Week events, visit http://www.events.utas.edu.au/
University of Tasmania, Communications and Media Office
