Wurundjeri Elder Vicki Nicholson-Brown and Casey mayor Kevin Bradford with some of the Koori art on display at the Civic Centre.ABORIGINAL artefacts and artwork celebrating Koori culture will be on display at the City of Casey Civic Centre in Narre Warren for the next month.
The display items are on loan from the Koori Heritage Trust and form part of the range of cultural activities planned for Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC Week.
Casey mayor Kevin Bradford said the Aboriginal items on display would enable residents to appreciate the types of tools that would have been used by the traditional owners of Casey, the Bunurong and Wurundjeri people.
It will also display more recent artworks by Aboriginal artists.
“Reconciliation Week is a time to remind all Australians of the importance of recognising and acknowledging our national history and the traditional owners of the land,” Cr Bradford said.
Reconciliation Week is timed to coincide with two significant dates in Australian history – the anniversary of the 1967 Referendum on 27 May in which more than 90 per cent of Australians voted to remove clauses from the Australian Constitution which discriminated against Indigenous Australians, and 3 June, the anniversary of the High Court of Australia’s judgment in the Mabo case.
NAIDOC week runs from 3 to 10 July and is a way of celebrating and promoting a greater understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and culture.
Other cultural events in Casey include an afternoon tea for Reconciliation Week with elders and service providers of the indigenous community.
A traditional welcome ceremony is also being planned for the Council meeting on 4 July.
During the Edwin Flack Games, there will be a demonstration match of the Aboriginal game of football, Marn Grook.
Information on regional events for Reconciliation Week and NAIDOC Week is on the Inter-Council Aboriginal Consultative Committee (ICACC) website, www.icacc.org.au
