Celebrate Indigenous excellence
Every year Australia celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures with NAIDOC week. April Long from The National Centre of Indigenous Excellence says it’s a great way to foster mutual respect and understanding.
The NAIDOC Inner City Family and Sports Day is a labour of love for the team here at The National Centre of Indigenous Excellence (NCIE). We work day and night to deliver a truly stellar event for the entire community to come down and celebrate Indigenous excellence in a fun and family friendly environment. This year the team have really out done themselves and we can’t wait to see the look on people’s faces as they come through the gates at NCIE on 11th July.
This is now my second year running the great NAIDOC event at the NCIE and every step in the process is a truly rewarding one. I have been able to work with the Redfern community to create the best event possible, with rides for the kids, sporting workshops, community services and information on Indigenous cultures and excellence all on offer.
I have been so lucky to work at the NCIE for the past year and a half and see daily examples of Indigenous excellence coming through the gates, and NAIDOC Week gives us a great time to talk about these achievements to the entire Australian population. We are so lucky to feel like every week is NAIDOC Week here at the NCIE!
The Redfern community have hosted this event for over 20 years and it really does keep getting bigger and better, with this year’s performers including Indigenous stars Evie J Willie, Jess Beck, Bonnie Riley, Green Hand Band and MC, Sean Choollburra. Celebrating Indigenous culture is also about celebrating and empowering our youth. This year our young people can enter into our talent competition and share the stage with Indigenous talent powerhouses and go in to the running for some awesome prizes.
This year’s NAIDOC theme, Serving Country: Centenary & Beyond, recognises our great warriors who have served the Eora Nation for our people for generations. Recognising the great contributions these men and women have made to Australian history and culture is extremely important in creating our national identity in broader Australian history. That is what we are celebrating and working on this NAIDOC week across the country.
The NAIDOC events, both here at the NCIE and all across Australia, are great examples of people from all cultures and communities coming together to celebrate and understand our unique and distinct cultures as Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
In order to move forward as a nation we need to do more in Australia to bridge the divide between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians. NAIDOC is a great way of doing that and starting these conversations at a grassroots level. It enables people to get to know each other and get to know culture. Our identity as a national can be formed through mutual respect and understanding.
We look forward to welcoming everyone to the NCIE on the 11th July to celebrate with us what it means to be Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander in Australia.
April Long is an Aboriginal woman from the central coast and mid north coast of New South Wales. April graduated from her Law and Arts degree at the University of New South Wales in 2012 where she was awarded the inaugural Attorney Generals Law Student of the Year. April has presented to the United Nations Committee on the Rights of the Child and previously edited the Indigenous Law Bulletin. April is passionate about protecting the human rights of Indigenous peoples with a particular focus on Indigenous youth and gender and sexually diverse youth. She was previously the National Manager of the National Indigenous Youth Leadership Academy. In 2013, April was named one of Australia’s top 100 women of influence for her commitment to social change and Indigenous youth leadership. In 2015 April was a finalist for the Telstra Women’s Business Awards. April’s most rewarding work is on the ground in communities with Australia’s young Indigenous people.
April is currently the General Manager of Programs and Partnership at the National Centre of Indigenous Excellence in Redfern Sydney.
