Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! Reflections on our commitment to First Nations and NAIDOC week.

We at Imagine Create Belong | Social Development Program have an ongoing commitment to acknowledging and privileging First Nations Peoples and their knowledges. This week beginning 3rd of July 2022 is NAIDOC Week which is an annual event celebrating the rich cultures, achievements and histories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (NAIDOC, 2022). It is an opportunity for all Australians to learn and celebrate.

Given the importance of this week we at Imagine Create Belong | Social Development Program have been reflecting upon how we show our commitment to honouring First Nations Peoples and how we can continue to have meaningful engagement with First Nations Peoples. We aim to show this through foregrounding First Nations knowledges in relation to young people’s development alongside imported knowledges from Euro-Western countries. We also show our commitment through including First Nations processes into both the Imagine Create Belong program and the way we teach facilitators who are the future program leaders. Examples of such processes include drawing on features of the natural environment in our location to share knowledge, such as the Tree of Life. The Tree of Life is a tool to build a story of self and collective identity from an Aboriginal perspective (Goldingay et al., 2020, p. 9) and was shared with us for use in the Imagine Create Belong program by Wadawurrung woman Corrina Eccles. At all times we consult with local Traditional Custodians when drawing on local knowledges and ensure their work is respected and fully acknowledged.

While Euro-Western knowledge is only recently catching up with the importance of story for human connection, First Nations peoples have known and enacted this for generations. As we say in our Acknowledgement of Country:

Education and the transmission of history and culture has a long and rich heritage on this continent, which we aim to honour. We are committed to applying the tradition of shared storytelling to the way we teach and learn. - Imagine Create Belong | Social Development Program Acknowledgement of Country

For more information and to find NAIDOC events in your area please check out the NAIDOC website - https://www.naidoc.org.au/

References

Goldingay, S., Stagnitti, K., Dean, B., Robertson, N., Francis, E., & Davidson, D. (2020). Storying Beyond Social Difficulties with Neuro-Diverse Adolescents: The "Imagine, Create, Belong" Social Development Program. Routledge

NAIDOC. (2022). About NAIDOC Week. NAIDOC.org. https://www.naidoc.org.au/about/naidoc-week