AROUND 500 school students and community members flowed through Pangula Mannamurna yesterday to celebrate NAIDOC Culture Day.
Attendees reflected on the history and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and gained cultural insight through children’s activities, limestone carving, arts, crafts and storytelling.
A Bunganditj language program highlighted this year’s NAIDOC week theme, ‘Our Languages Matter,’ which aims to emphasise the essential role Indigenous languages play in cultural identity.
Event coordinator Jade Maiden said she was “overwhelmed” by the community response.
“This is the biggest student turnout to any NAIDOC event we have had in years,” Ms Maiden told The Border Watch.
“We had around 150 children here for the morning session, another 100 students for the second afternoon session and hundreds of community members on top of that.
“This year NAIDOC week has fallen during the school term, whereas generally it’s during the school holidays – we’re lucky it will be during the school term for the next three or four years.”
Ms Maiden said for the first time ever, food for the barbeque had been entirely depleted before noon.
“We ran out of food at the barbecue – we were completely out of sausages, bread and napkins during the first half of the day so we had to race to the shops to buy more,” she said.
“That’s never happened before, but we were happy to deal with that challenge because it means we had more people here than we expected.”
She added it was “wonderful” to see students of all ages respectful and engaged.
“Kindergarten students and high school students have been equally engaged in activities,” Ms Maiden said.
“The storytelling with Aunty Michelle and Brooke Joy has been amazing and the children have been mesmerised.
“We have had really good feedback from everyone about the arts, crafts and activities.”
Ms Maiden said the success of the event was due in large part to generosity from local businesses and organisations.
“Bakers Delight, Woolworths, City Council, Bunnings and Centacare are among a number of businesses that have been so generous,” she said.
“It has been beautiful to see the community display unity and strength – that’s what NAIDOC is about.
“This is not an event exclusively for the aboriginal community, today is about the Mount Gambier community and coming together to celebrate as one.”
