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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-07-05 Daily Xml
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NAIDOC Week

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (15:35): The National Aborigines and Islander Day Observance Committee has come a long way over the course of the 20th century and now well into the 21st century, so much so that the acronym is now the name of what is a very important week of celebrations in our state and across the nation. NAIDOC Week runs from 3 July to 10 July and it has very much moved from what started out as a movement of protest and of bringing to bear a need to understand and to reconcile into very much a celebration and a week-long celebration it is again here in our state.

'Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!' is the theme for 2022 and didn't we see that on display yesterday at the NAIDOC awards lunch, and I was proud as one in a room of several hundred to show up. Can I say that there was particular joy for me to look across the room and see present there my federal colleague Senator Kerrynne Liddle. Elected just now at the federal election, she is the first Aboriginal woman to represent our state in the federal parliament. It is a signature occasion that ought to be celebrated by all South Australians, and I cannot think of a better time and a better occasion than to do so in this NAIDOC Week.

Of course, as Kerrynne would be quick to say, she is a great South Australian—now she will not say that herself because she is a modest and down-to-earth person. She is an Aboriginal woman and proudly so. She is an achiever in just about every field you can imagine in our state and across the country. Hailing originally from Alice Springs, she has made contributions in education, in media, in tourism.

She has been on the board of the University of Adelaide and the University of South Australia. She has contributed to the energy sector as well as to the arts and social housing and, as well as that, to a deep understanding of Indigenous affairs in this state and our nation. I am proud to call her a friend and now a colleague.

As a former business owner and a senior leader in the private and public sectors, she will be a key member of the Liberal team and a major contributor, I am sure, to the federal parliament. She makes South Australia proud, and so I particularly wish to recognise her as one who showed up for our state and she showed up as recently as yesterday on that special occasion of the NAIDOC lunch. I want to take this opportunity to recognise those two recipients in the Premier's Awards yesterday at the NAIDOC lunch.

Firstly, Jeffrey Newchurch, well known to so many here, a proud Narungga and Kaurna man, was really moved in a deep sense by the recognition he received yesterday as a recipient of a Premier's Award. I honour his service to our community and the leadership he has shown for Indigenous affairs in our state.

The co-recipient of the Premier's Award yesterday, Kunyi June Anne McInerney, a Yankunytjatjara woman and well known to members in this place as a celebrated artist, was awarded for her contribution through the arts to healing, to understanding and to reconciliation. Both of them are ornaments to our state and were proudly on the stage yesterday to receive the Premier's Award.

NAIDOC Week continues from Tandanya all the way through our state in the course of the week, and I encourage members here to participate in and celebrate this occasion and in every way to contribute to further conciliation and reconciliation in our state and nation.

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