MOREE held its official NAIDOC Week opening ceremony on Monday as hundreds gathered to march down Balo Street in a sea of red, black and yellow.
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Liz Taylor introduced the theme for 2015 celebrations: ‘We all Stand on Sacred Ground: Learn, Respect and Celebrate’.
“I think of Archie Roach’s song when I think of the theme for this week,” Mrs Taylor said. “Be careful when you walk throughout this land because a child was born here and a child was born there, so be careful where you walk, you leave a footprint on this land.”
Mrs Taylor said the week was an opportunity to learn about indigenous heritage, culture, history and land management.
“As the ‘dreaming’ tells us, we came from Mother Earth and our kinship systems not only relate us, to each other, but to our animals and plants,” she said.
“Our ancestors had so much wisdom that they managed country with the vision of looking after our future generations – they invented sustainable practices.”
As well as acknowledging ancestors and those who had passed, Ms Taylor thanked the Aboriginal and non-indigenous people who came out to celebrate NAIDOC Week.
“Let’s work together to create opportunities so that we can protect our cultural heritage for another 100,000 years,” she said.
Mrs Taylor and 2015 elders of the year Norm Sampson and Maureen Newman raised the Aboriginal flag over the crowd on the town hall flagpole to mark the official opening of the week.