Because of her, we can

A beautiful and strong theme for NAIDOC 2018, and at Woolloomooloo, we decided to celebrate women and their amazing strengths in different ways.

On Wednesday 11 July, we held a fantastic outdoor Movie Night. It was freezing cold, but those who braved the weather were treated to pizzas and popcorn as we watched Big City — a beautiful short film by Woolloomooloo local Elizabeth Wymarra. The film tells the story of Elizabeth’s mother, Joyce Wymarra, moving to Woolloomooloo, and highlights her strength and dedication to family. Big City is available on SBS On Demand if you wish to watch it again! After that, we snuggled up and watched Bran Nue Dae, singing along and trying not to freeze!

We held our big, annual NAIDOC Festival on Sunday 15 July, celebrating celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women and Woolloomooloo. The day started with a smoking ceremony performed by Uncle Max, followed by an Acknowledgement of Country by local Aunty Selena. Alex Greenwich talked about the importance of local women, and dedicated some of his talk to Aunty Selena, highlighting the amazing dedication she has shown to the community over the years.

We were treated to a fantastic dance by the students of Plunkett St Primary School who at the end had to bring an inspiring woman up onto stage — so all of the mums got up on stage and had a dance!

We had amazing performances by Nana Miss Koori which had the crowd singing along. Uncle Col from Taronga Zoo sung us all dream time stories while we got to pat snakes, lizards and frogs — or look at from afar! Our day ended with a bang, courtesy of a fantastic performance by the Green Hand Band.

We would like to thank our NAIDOC committee and our community, for supporting us with these amazing events. Your expert knowledge, creativity and commitment helped shaped these events and will continue to shape them over the coming years.

We would also like to thank City of Sydney and Aboriginal Affairs for supporting these events, PCYC for manning the BBQ and MCing the festival, Alex Greenwich for spending the morning with us and sharing some beautiful words, and our wonderful group of volunteers.

We look forward to NAIDOC 2019!!