National NAIDOC Week celebrations are being held across Australia this week to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Ungooroo CEO Taasha Layer said NAIDOC Week is an opportunity for all Australians to learn about First Nations cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth.
"The theme for NAIDOC Week this year is Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! and calls for all Australians to come together to keep working toward change," Ms Layer said.
"Getting Up, Standing Up, and Showing Up can take many forms.
"It might be pushing for systemic change to help Close the Gap between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians, it might be calling out racism or working to improve access to health and social services, individuals and organisations all have a part to play," explained Ms Layer.
The recent Ungooroo Health & Wellbeing Community Expo at Singleton Centre attracted hundreds of visitors and showcased a range of Ungooroo services and local organisations who work with Indigenous communities to improve health, social, education and employment outcomes.
"Our Community Expo is the perfect example of how we can work together to improve the lives of Indigenous communities and help people learn more about Aboriginal culture and tradition."
This year NAIDOC Week is also a chance to celebrate those who have demonstrated that getting up, standing up and showing up can have far reaching effects.
"Ungooroo Aboriginal Corporation began back in 1994 when a small group of community elders saw the issues facing their communities and decided to step up and build an organisation to help close the gap and improve the wellbeing of their communities," Ms Layer said.
"Now 28 years later and these foundations continue to shape the work we do.
"We want our people to live long and healthy lives, we want our children to be born healthy and strong and have access to quality early childhood education.
We want our people to live long and healthy lives, we want our children to be born healthy and strong and have access to quality early childhood education. We want our students to reach their full learning potential and we want our young people to be engaged in employment and education.
- Taasha Layer, CEO
"We want our students to reach their full learning potential and we want our young people to be engaged in employment and education. We want to ensure our young people have secure housing and that we are supporting the economic and business development of our community.
"We want our people to have strong emotional wellbeing and we want to maintain our community's unique cultural connection to country," said Ms Layer.
Find out more about Ungooroo this NAIDOC Week at www.ungooroo.com.au
