NAIDOC WEEK
It's NAIDOC week! An annual celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, their culture, history and achievements. Today it's celebrated by Aussies right around the country, but it actually started out as a protest. In 1938 on the 26th of January protesters marched through Sydney. Organisers called it the Day of Mourning. You see, for a lot of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people January 26th or Australia day marks when the land they'd been living on for thousands of years was claimed by someone else and started hundreds of years of mistreatment and discrimination. Over the years the protest shifted to become more of a celebration of the milestones that Indigenous people have achieved. It was moved to the first Sunday of July and eventually extended to a week to allow for more events and activities. Including the NAIDOC awards, which have been postponed this year because of COVID. But there's still lots of incredible things going on.
FLAG BEARER
Australia's Tokyo Olympics flag-bearers have been named! First up it's basketball champion Patty Mills. He will be joined by swimming star Cate Campbell! They're both very excited! Campbell has already won five Olympic medals include two gold and could win more at her 4th Olympics in Tokyo. She will be the first female swimmer to carry the flag into an Olympic opening ceremony and that's not the only first! Patty Mills will be the first Indigenous Australian to carry the flag. Mills is one of our top basketball exports he was drafted to the NBA in 2009 and plays for the San Antonio Spurs. The Tokyo Olympics will also be his fourth playing for our national team the Boomers. The sharp-shooting guard's also really well known for supporting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth and is an advocate for social justice.
CULTURAL BURNING
This year's theme for NAIDOC week is Heal Country! A really important part of that is welcoming the cultural knowledge of first nations peoples. One way is through cultural burning. For thousands of years, Indigenous people have used fire as a way to control the amount of dry grass, leaves and branches on forest floors. The idea is that when a bushfire comes along, there's less stuff to go up in flames because it's already been burnt. It's a practice known today as "Cultural Burning". When European people started settling in Australia a couple hundred years ago, cultural burning really confused them.. And many of them were scared So they put an end to it. But in recent years, that thinking's started to change. Like here at this coastal reserve just south of Melbourne where Traditional owners and ecologists are working together to burn off thick ferns that have been choking out smaller plants.
AUS POST PLACENAMES
Australia Post parcels now have a new space on them so you can include traditional place names. They're being phased in from this week and it's all thanks to a campaign from Gomeroi woman, Rachel McPhail
NAIDOC BABY SHOW
And this is easily the cutest thing ever, Rockhampton's 2021 NAIDOC Baby Show. 110 kids dressed to impress a panel judges. But families say it's mostly a chance to get together and celebrate their culture. Look everyone's a winner here, even if they're a little grumpy about it.
__________________________________________
Make sure to like & subscribe our videos if you want to stay in the know!
👉 Subscribe [ Ссылка ]
We have 1000s of stories on all sorts of topics - if you're looking for help to understand something, you'll probably find it on BTN [ Ссылка ]
Follow us on Social Media:
[ Ссылка ]
Facebook: [ Ссылка ]
Instagram: [ Ссылка ]
For the past 50 years, Behind the News has been helping to break down current issues and events for young people all around the world. The program is a high-energy, fun way for people to learn about the stories we see in the news, while providing background information that isn’t usually given by other news bulletins.
