As musician Shane Howard famously stated in Goanna's 1982 hit 'Solid Rock,' the people of this country are "standing on sacred ground," and NAIDOC Week is celebrated each year to recognise the achievements of Australia's Indigenous population.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
But while the notion of having an entire week to celebrate Indigenous Australian history and culture may seem satisfying enough to some, for others, the importance of NAIDOC goes beyond the confines of seven days.
For the Gunhigal Mayiny Wiradyuri Dyilang [Plains People of the Wiradyuri] Enterprise, the process of recognition is about working with the Bathurst community to advocate a shared understanding of culture and traditions.
The enterprise consists of Bathurst Wiradyuri elders Mallyan [Uncle Brian Grant], Dinawan Dyirribang [Uncle Bill Allen], Wirribee [Aunty Leanna Carr-Smith] and Yanhadarrambal [Uncle Jade Flynn].
Mallyan said the theme for this year's NAIDOC celebrations ['Voice, Treaty, Truth'] represents the ongoing challenges Indigenous Australians face to ensure their culture and values are respected.
"Australia is the only Commonwealth country who hasn't signed a treaty with its Indigenous population and I'm yet to find any organisation who has truly stuck to their Reconciliation Action Plan [RAP]," he said.
"If an Aboriginal person is a traditional owner with cultural authority, then there's no way he or she will speak anything other than truth."
The RAP program was launched in 2006 by Reconciliation Australia to provide a framework for organisations to support the national reconciliation movement.
While he said NAIDOC has made significant progress in acknowledging the beliefs and values of Indigenous Australians, Mallyan feels there's still room for improvement.
"To truly move reconciliation forward, we need to teach the young people [Indigenous and non-Indigenous] about the virtues of working together so we can eventually reach a shared sense of unity," he said.
"NAIDOC's core values aren't just relevant to the week, but to our entire lives."
The concept of truth-telling is considered essential to the Wiradyuri concept of 'yindyamarra,' which comprises five elements: respect, be polite, do slowly, be gentle and show honour.
Dinawan said the intergenerational trauma of Indigenous Australia's post-colonial history is an uncomfortable truth that must be acknowledged and rectified together, regardless of backgrounds.
"We can't blame today's society for what happened, but what we can do is encourage people to start conversations and work towards a common understanding," he said.
"Our people carry the scars from the colonial era because we were the ones who were massacred, and white people carry the guilt of their descendants' actions, that's the key truth."
Wirribee said the key to moving forward is creating networks of shared dialogue in order to help people better understand the significance of Wiradyuri culture.
"I believe it will happen in future generations, but we can't move forward unless both sides are willing to walk together," she said.
"We carry the baggage of our ancestors, but so does the wider community."
The Wiradyuri elders agree that reconciliation is the wrong word to describe moving forward, as they feel there's more to the process than words of recognition.
"Acknowledgement of our culture is not a box-ticking process, it has to have meaning and it must be respectful," Mallyan said.
