NAIDOC Week

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (14:43): My question is to the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation. Can the minister update the chamber on some of the activities during NAIDOC Week?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:43): I thank the honourable member for his question, a very well thought out and structured question. It has been a pleasure to see the honourable member's smiling face at many NAIDOC events during course of this week.

For decades NAIDOC Week has been celebrated in Australia. It provides an opportunity to recognise the special contribution Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders make to society. What we now know as NAIDOC Week was originally held from the 1930s onwards as a day of sorrow and remembrance. During the 1950s it became what we now know as NAIDOC, where it was contemplation and celebration as well as time to reflect. Since the 1990s it has been a week of both celebration and reflection on what it means to be part of a country that boasts the oldest living culture on this planet.

NAIDOC Week is now an integral week on the calendar of schools and workplaces all around the country, which is so important in keeping the discussion going about the richness of Aboriginal culture and educating the wider community. Through education comes understanding, and the journey of reconciliation continues.

The NAIDOC Week theme for 2017 is 'Our Languages Matter', which emphasises and celebrates the unique and essential role that Aboriginal languages have played in Australia for tens of thousands of years. This year's important theme will also pay tribute to the revival of Aboriginal languages that has taken place over more recent years.

In the recent state budget, there was an allocation of $2.3 million to fund the continuation and expansion of the existing Aboriginal interpreting service, expanding presences from Alice Springs to Adelaide and Port Augusta. Given English is often the second, third or fourth language for many Anangu living on the APY lands, interpreters are incredibly important when Anangu are engaging with government agencies.

There have been many events over the course of NAIDOC Week. I know I have received many more invitations to attend and partake in NAIDOC Week activities than I could possibly have attended, even if NAIDOC was held over a month. The South Australian NAIDOC committee do an outstanding job organising, promoting and running so many of the main events that so many of us have the privilege of attending. For the committee, it no doubt feels like NAIDOC Week is a six-month marathon, and I pay tribute to all members of the South Australian committee, a number of whom are in the gallery here today.

I particularly want to acknowledge the new chairperson, Charlene Lamont. I understand that the former chairperson, Aunty Joyleen Thomas, had a very difficult time finding not only a willing contender for such a difficult and huge task, but also someone she felt would continue the very high standard she had set in the role of chairing NAIDOC.

I would also like to pay tribute to people like Crystal Sumner, who is also in the gallery today, who has worked tirelessly and is part of the new generation of leaders. The NAIDOC committee members all lead very full and busy lives, and I particularly want to recognise the extra time and sacrifice that they put in to make sure the rest of us have such enjoyable and informative NAIDOC weeks across South Australia.

I have already, this week, attended a number of fantastic events organised by the committee, starting off on Sunday night with NAIDOC South Australia's Ecumenical church service led by Dr Lowitja O'Donoghue and then, on the next day, the South Australian NAIDOC Awards, which were presented at the Lord Mayor's morning tea ceremony on Monday morning. Inspiring individuals were recognised on Monday for their contribution to the state: folks like Anthony Wilson, Aunty Heather Agius, Uncle Stevie Goldsmith, Aunty Doris Kartinyeri and, of course, this year's NAIDOC Person of the Year, Pauly Vandenbergh.

I know a lot of members of this chamber will have come across Pauly Vandenbergh, an Aboriginal man from the West Coast who has great resilience. I know this because he has made no secret that, in two previous years, I have presented him with NAIDOC runner-up awards. Now, he is no longer a bridesmaid this year, and has won the major gong as NAIDOC Person of the Year. I am exceptionally proud to know Pauly Vandenbergh as a friend, brother and outstanding mentor for young Aboriginal South Australians, and I wholeheartedly congratulate him on his well-deserved award.

Later in the week, the Premier's NAIDOC Awards took place on Tuesday night, and I acknowledge a number of members of this chamber who were in attendance at the awards. The Hon. Terry Stephens and the Hon. Tammy Franks were there on Tuesday night, as were other members of the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee. I know the Hon. Tung Ngo would have been there but, with so many others of us paired out, the whip did his whipping duties and stayed behind in the chamber. I thank him for his ability to do that.

The Hon. J.S.L. Dawkins: What about this whip?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Of course, the Hon. John Dawkins, who is a bastion of staying behind. At the NAIDOC Awards on Tuesday night, the Premier and I were joined by His Excellency the Hon. Hieu Van Le, the Governor of South Australia; as I said, members of the Aboriginal Lands Parliamentary Standing Committee; many Aboriginal South Australians; and, of course, the true VIPs of the night—all of the nominees.

This year there were five outstanding nominees for the Premier's NAIDOC Awards, and I will run through them quickly:

Chelsea Lieberwirth, an active member of the Whyalla Aboriginal community, through her work volunteering and supporting young Aboriginal people through mentoring. She is also about to start training next week, I understand, as a community constable, which is a fantastic achievement;

Judith Lovegrove, who for nearly four years has been delivering the nationally accredited Diploma of Narrative Approaches for Aboriginal People. As part of this, she is helping health and other community workers provide counselling to Aboriginal families and their communities;

Irene McKenzie, a respected Port Augusta icon and leader. Irene speaks and teaches her traditional language and has dedicated much of her career to helping others in Aboriginal health;

Karen Glover, who I have known for many years for a time at Pangula Mannamurna in Mount Gambier, nominated for her significant ongoing contribution to Aboriginal health, wellbeing and education. Knowing Karen for the time I have, I know the exceptional work she has done, and now as founder and co-chair of the Aboriginal Families Health Research Partnership and the work she is doing at SAHMRI; and, lastly but certainly not least,

Frank Wanganeen, a passionate cultural educator, with so much time dedicated to various committees relating to reconciliation, Aboriginal heritage, native title, social justice and, importantly, given the theme of this year's NAIDOC Week, the revival of the Kaurna language. Over the years, Frank has volunteered his time and energy to many issues, but particularly the contribution to Kaurna culture and language revival, and as such he was a fitting winner from the five nominees of this year's Premier's NAIDOC Award.

It was also fitting at the ceremony that the Premier recognised the legacy of Dr Alice Rigney, PSM, who passed away in May, with a posthumous Premier's NAIDOC Award. Dr Rigney, who I have talked about in this place, made a significant contribution to the education of young Aboriginal people and the preservation of the Kaurna language and Kaurna culture.

To mark her enduring legacy, the Premier announced the first annual Dr Alice Rigney Prize, an accolade that recognises a young Aboriginal person dedicated to their education. The recipient receives a laptop computer, a signed letter of commendation and a grant of $1,500 towards the recipient's school to be used for the benefit of all students.

Tayla Karpany was the inaugural winner of the Dr Alice Rigney Prize; she is a talented artist, a respectful and capable student with excellent school attendance rates and, fittingly, she attends the Kaurna Plains School, the school that Alice Rigney helped establish when she became Australia's first female Aboriginal school principal.

Among the many NAIDOC winners from right around South Australia, in closing I wish to particularly mention Aunty Penny Bonny from Mount Gambier, who received a lifetime achievement award for her years of service to the community. She has worked in the community for more than 30 years with various people and organisations and again, fittingly, given the theme of this year's NAIDOC Week, Our Languages Matter, Aunty Penny Bonny has been instrumental in the revival of the Booandik language and is credited as the first person to perform Welcome to Country in the Booandik language, which is now done regularly in the South-East.

Aunty Penny Bonny is a long-time family friend, and it is very fitting that she takes over this year after last year's winner of the NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award in the South-East of Aunty Viv Maher. There is also the fiercely contested NAIDOC Week event, even though it is not badged with the title, the annual Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara versus Maralinga Tjarutju lands football game on Friday night as a curtain raiser at Adelaide Oval to the Crows' game. I could not possibly support one team over another, but I hope and it is a cracker game and that football is a winner on the night.

NAIDOC Week still has a few more days to go, and I will attend the march from Victoria Square to Parliament House tomorrow and the family fun day, and I encourage anyone who is around at the time to get involved in the final days of NAIDOC Week. Again, I thank Charlene and her team for another fantastic NAIDOC Week.