Wominjeka fellow travellers, what a busy couple of weeks we’ve had at FNF.
On Thursday 13th August, we here at Allwood house joined the many great volunteers for the annual Nillumbik Community Awards at the Eltham Community and Reception Centre. This event is hosted by Nillumbik Council every year to recognise the myriad volunteering roles played by ordinary people in the Shire and awards those people and organisations that go the extra mile in the work they do in their community.
We are very pleased and proud that First Nations Friday was awarded the prize for contributing to Reconciliation in Nillumbik.
The First Nations Friday blog and social media campaign, is an initiative of Allwood Neighbourhood House that shares Aboriginal history and culture in an attempt to foster understanding and reconciliation in the shire of Nillumbik and beyond.
Thank-you to all of you who have followed our blog over the last 18 months and the kind words of support and recognition we get from our community.
Our primary goal of education and truth-telling on the road to reconciliation continues. With your help we can carry this message beyond the Shire boundaries. Please share and pass on our weekly blog to people in your network. Together we can make the positive change that only an educated, history literate, and most importantly, one that is sympathetic to the aspirations of our first peoples, can make.
Together we can help achieve Reconciliation and Treaty throughout Australia.
Saturday 15th August, we celebrated another Allwood House initiative by celebrating Barak Day. We encourage our fellow Victorians to mark this day, “When the wattles bloom again” to celebrate William Barak, a noble leader of his Wurundjeri people, an ambassador of goodwill and bipartisanship in the early colonial years of our state of Victoria and an Australian worthy of the highest recognition.
I was again proud to celebrate this inaugural Barak Day on Wurundjeri Country at the Gawa Trail where NRG volunteers planted in excess of 200 native seedlings. Such a positive group of people, thank you for making me welcome.
Till next week Triganin – see you soon.
https://www.nrg.org.au/special-places/gawa-reserve/
https://catalogue.nla.gov.au/catalog/1448493 “when the wattles bloom again.
Photos:
Nillumbik Community Awards Night of recipients of Contribution to Reconciliation Award: Philomena Holman (volunteer, contributor to the blog, and curator of First Nations Library at Allwood), David Kerrigan (co-founder and chief researcher and writer of First Nations Friday), Keira de Hoog (co-founder, contributor and editor of First Nations Friday), Sharon Turner (historical archivist and curator of First Nations Library at Allwood) and Luke Chambers (Vice President, Nillumbik Reconciliation Group).
Photo from Gawa planting day.
