To reach 1000
From the very beginning, a key aim of the Community of Excellence has been to connect as many Indigenous men, women and jarjums with each other as possible. The month of April has seen us reach 1000 members from across Australia join up and start the conversations we’ve been missing.
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, the strongest link you can have is between kin and with the land. Throughout Australia’s history, we have held onto our culture as much as we could, and have begun restoring what was lost in the torturous years of settlement, wars, pillages and dehumanising of our race and of our culture. We have survived. But not without a heavy price.
Australia’s shared history with Indigenous people was a hard one. We lost language, we lost kin and our young ones through stolen generations and massacres, and for many, there was a huge loss with the land and our sense of Belonging.
In this day and age, I have seen much and heard of much more. I don’t know my traditional Bundjalung language, I cannot tell all of the Bundjalung stories, as they weren’t told to me. Raised by my non-Indigenous mother, all I can tell you, is that the blood that runs through my veins is drawn to the rivers and the ocean. It is drawn to the land and the mountains that covet the Bundjalung Nation. My heart sings when my feet touch the sand and the water ripples through my fingers.
Moving from Tweed Heads to Sydney for school and then uni was both the hardest, but best choice I have made for me. In Sydney, I have had the privilege to meet and work with numerous Indigenous Aunties and Uncles, cousins, nephews and nieces. Leaders in their own rights and strong culture bearers and wearers. These people are who led me to my current role as Community Catalyst at the NCIE. Prior to this, I was inspired on a daily basis working with the young Indigenous kids in schools along the east coast in the Australian Indigenous Mentoring experience (AIME) Program. I was able to see Mickey Kovari work to create the platform for the Community of Excellence (CoE) in its earliest stages. Originally being open to a small close-knit group of people in its beta stage, to expanding the team behind the scenes in 2013, where opportunities, events and blogs were posted and conversations really started to stick. And the present year, April 2014, has seen the membership grow to 1000 and it’s only going to reach bigger numbers.
This is something we can be proud of.
You might be reading this thinking, “What the heck does the start of this blog have to do with celebrating 1000 members?”
Well, let me tell you…
With such a history as we’ve had, both negative and positive, Indigenous people across Australia have regained a lot of equality, reconnections, and have demonstrated inspirational movements and leadership through adversity. From our young men and women fighting in civil and international wars, movements such as the Freedom Rides with Charlie Perkins, Mabo fighting for his people’s land, the Tent Embassy, silent protests that spoke volumes across the world. These historical moments and people built platforms for future generations to take their own lives in their hands and do what they will with it.
The CoE is aiming to connect our peoples in an online forum so that connections can be made and kept without the bull. An Indigenous only space, we aim to facilitate the conversations around tough issues, to link Indigenous professionals with others wanting to get into the field. Where generations mix and mingle and where we can promote the Indigenous events around the country so all of our members are aware and can connect in the physical realm.
We’re not the life changing movement, we’re providing an avenue for the life changers. Us reaching that 1000th member hopefully means that were doing something right for our users.