Reynell Electorate

Ms HILDYARD (Reynell) (15:29): I rise to speak about a number of groups and events in our southern community, events and groups that I have been proud to be involved in alongside our extraordinarily, kind and connected community. Our Mid Coast has held a special place in my heart throughout the course of my life. It is a place that as a child, a surf lifesaving nipper and a fledgling board rider engendered in me my great love of the ocean and our South Australian beaches.

Last year, after tireless work by surfing legends of the Mid Coast—Dick Olesinski, Sue Bennett and number of others—our Mid Coast was named a National Surfing Reserve, the only one in South Australia and one of only a few across our nation. That group continues to drive initiatives to mark significant surfing spots, to treasure their history and to ensure they are preserved for future generations of young people to enjoy and to find their ways to love our ocean and our beaches.

A Mid Coast surfing reserve member, Chris Lemar, has set up a very special subgroup, the Mid Coast Butt Collectors Group, a group I have happily joined and of which I have become an active member. Together with my fellow Mid Coast butt collectors, I recently cleaned up part of our Mid Coast where the Christies Creek runs into the sea. It was a pleasure to work alongside a group who care about our natural environment, our Mid Coast and are prepared to work together to keep it clean.

As a Mid Coast butt collector, I have also taken responsibility for ridding part of our Mid Coast of littered cigarette butts, and the week before last I went down to the beautiful Christies Beach Y steps to collect butts and to empty the specially marked Mid Coast Surfing Reserve cigarette butt bin that I am responsible for. It was excellent to see so many butts in the bin and to see that this simple step of placing specially marked bins across our Mid Coast is working splendidly. Keeping our beautiful southern beaches clean is important as our southern community continues to grow and as visitors continue to flock to our area.

Madam Deputy Speaker, as you know, this week is NAIDOC Week (or National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee Week). The 2017 theme, Our Languages Matter, focuses on considering the essential and special role that Indigenous languages play in identity, in linking people to their land and to their history and spirituality. As National NAIDOC Committee Co-chair Anne Martin says:

Aboriginal and Torres Strait languages are not just a means of communication, they express knowledge about everything: law, geography, history, family and human relationships, philosophy, religion, anatomy, child care, health, Caring for Country, astronomy, biology and food.

Across our nation, Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities are gathering to commemorate NAIDOC. On Monday, I was privileged to attend a remarkable gathering in the City of Onkaparinga council chambers to do so. This was an excellent opportunity to think deeply about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and the outstanding contributions that our Aboriginal brothers and sisters have made to our local southern community and beyond, as well as the struggles they have overcome.

I thank the mayor for hosting this event and I deeply thank and recognise Aboriginal elder Auntie Georgina Williams for her Welcome to Country and her wise words, her son Karl Telfer and his children and nephews who are Yellaka for dancing so well and for educating us through their art and their words. These moments were very special, as were the performances by Auntie Margie's Porlis Pulgi kindergarten children and the children of Christie Downs Primary School. We were very well fed by the Cultural Connections group and were also able to view an exhibition of NAIDOC posters put together by local group, Neporendi.

One of the other initiatives that I was privileged to be part of last week was a brilliant and ongoing one that happens at Christies Beach High School. Since starting at the school last year, the school's wonderful principal, Graham Clark, the deputy principal and a number of other staff, together with the very generous and kind local man, Uncle Chris Coomer, barbecue a breakfast for the lovely kids of the school.

It was a pleasure being able to help serve students, to chat with them and staff. It is wonderful that senior school staff and local community leaders take time to do this every single week. It was not just about feeding ever hungry teenagers. It was a great way to connect, to talk and to find out in a casual environment how kids were going, what is important to them, what was happening for them inside and outside of school. I look forward to barbecuing and chatting with them again.

It has been truly lovely this week to be joined in my electorate office in our southern community and here in parliament by two fine young people, Connor Stewart and Harrison Hobart Hards, two lovely Cardijn College students who have joined me for work experience and who give me very great hope for the future of our community. Thank you to both of them for their help and for their commitment to our community being the best, the fairest and the most inclusive place it can be for all its members.