Koorie Heritage Trust, Whats on in November

WELCOME | WOMINJEKA

To Our Dear Friends and Supporters

Welcome to a special edition of our monthly What’s On.

This month, the country celebrates NAIDOC Week 2020. Normally held in July, the national NAIDOC committee made the decision to postpone the annual celebrations to 8-15 November. The postponement was aimed at protecting the vulnerable members of our First Nations communities from the dangers of the COVID19 virus.

In the very first essay that we commissioned for our KHT Voices project, which aims to capture the voices of our First Nations people during the time of COVID, Claire G. Coleman in COVID and Colonialism writes “Indigenous Australia is no stranger to apocalyptic diseases. Smallpox arrived with the Colonisers on the First Fleet in 1788. … So, again, like many times in history, a killer virus is endangering Indigenous Australians … . It all feels painfully familiar to anybody who knows anything about Indigenous history. History repeats if we don’t prevent it.”

Despite the impact of the COVID19 pandemic across all sectors of our community, our First Peoples have remained strong and resilient. As restrictions ease in Melbourne and across Victoria, it is timely to reflect on this year’s NAIDOC Week theme, Always Was Always Will Be, which recognises that the First Peoples of Australia have occupied and cared for this continent for over 65,000 years despite great injustices in recent history including the introduction of foreign diseases.

With the easing of restrictions, we are confident that we will be able to welcome you back physically to the Trust before the end of the month. We will of course let you know as soon as we can of our reopening date. In the meantime, we invite you to join us online to celebrate NAIDOC Week through our many online activities, acknowledging that as a community, we always was and always will be.

We thank you for your ongoing support, and we look forward to welcoming you back to the KHT very soon.

Gnokan danna murra kor-ki | Give me your hand my friend

We gratefully acknowledge the generous support of our public programming partners: Viva Energy Australia, Krystyna Campbell-Pretty and Family, and the Jon Faine Farewell Broadcast Fundraising Appeal. We also acknowledge the support of our program partners: Creative Victoria, the Indigenous Visual Arts Industry Support Program (Federal Officer for the Arts) and the City of Melbourne.