I honour my ancestors and my elders and I pay homage to the sacred grounds we are all on.
I wish to acknowledge any elders, elders of different nations,
any the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, any First Nations peoples from across the
waters. And I acknowledge you all, and I pay my respects to your ancestors, elders and families.
Firstly, I want to say happy NAIDOC Week. You know, it's the time where we can get together
and celebrate. I always look at NAIDOC Week being like the end of the year, but the start of the
year, because we celebrate what we've done through the year and everybody gets together
because normally, unfortunately, as Aboriginal people and Torres Strait Islander peoples,
we only get together at funerals. But this is a time of celebration.
And the theme is, Get Up, Stand Up and Show Up. To me, it means have a voice on our behalf.
To me, it means walk beside us. And it means come and be with us.
Because wominjeka means come state your purpose. It's very important that
part of that welcome is that and we're inviting you to come to Country, we're inviting you to have
ceremony. And we're inviting you to actually be a part of our journey and be a part of our life.
Aboriginal people have been welcoming to many people since the beginning of time. You know,
the beginning of time, this ceremony a smoking ceremony is actually 60,000 years old.
It's about walking on to, Wurundjeri Country, I can only talk on my business.
It's about walking together on country it's about coming to the edge of the boundaries, asking the
elders permission to come on country. When you do that, you come through smoking ceremony,
to cleanse yourself, and to come and sit clean of spirit with no angst and with no negative motives.
So we all sit together equally, and do our business. This leaf is about all of you,
acknowledging you and your Country and your elders and families and belonging to my fire. This leaf
is on behalf of the Wurundjeri people and my family. It means that whenever you see ceremony,
you can sit with us and journey with us. Enjoy. It's about enjoying our lives.
It's about looking after each other. It's about us learning about each other's culture.
I firmly believe if we can understand each other that we can live in harmony.
And you know for us to journey together all it takes is an open heart and an open hand.
It's very important. My bunjil, my creator surround you and give you strength and resilience.
Wominjeka Wurundjeri balluk yearmann koondee biik, that means welcome to Wurundjeri
Country. For those of you that aren't on Wurundjeri Country, I can't welcome you.
But I can acknowledge you and the Country you are on and their ancestors and hope that their
ancestors give you strength and resilience. And I say ngoon godgin that means thank you.
Thank you for allowing me to be a part of our journey during NAIDOC Week. Ngoon godgin.