NAIDOC Week: 50 Years Deadly 5-12 July 2026

NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islander Day of Observation Committee) has become known across Australia as a festival celebrating Aboriginal culture, history and achievements. In spite of current turmoils near and far, NAIDOC Week is a proud week for us all. To me, NAIDOC is an opportunity to learn about where we have come from and where we are heading. The NAIDOC theme for this year is ‘50 Years of Deadly’, and while fifty years marks an anniversary, it also notes a future.

In keeping with 50 Years of Deadly, NAIDOC Week at the Yea Wetlands promises to be deadly. We will take you on a journey back, and a journey forward. We thank Murrindindi Shire Council for providing us with a grant to make our NAIDOC celebrations possible.

Sunday July 5, 10am
Aunty Angela ten Buuren, a proud Taungurung Elder and great friend of the Yea Wetlands, will open events with a traditional ‘Welcome and Smoking’. A representative from Murrindindi Shire Council will also welcome residents and visitors to the Yea Wetlands and our local NAIDOC events.

Aunty Angela will then lead us through the immersive sculpture walk; immersive because the sculptures are like gateways to the Taungurung way of being and living: past, present and future. The immersive walk is a recent feature in the wetlands, where you can use your phone to listen to Aunty Angela telling the Taungurung stories associated with the wetlands. It is a beautiful walk to take alone, and equally rich, I imagine, to take as a group led by the the storyteller herself. Excited and grateful visitors have told me how much they love the walk with its stories and soundscape.

Afterwards we will all have earned the exquisite lunch waiting for us back at the Discovery Centre, prepared by Deb Redding, from Deb’s Delights based in Yea.

Friday July 10
How lucky we are to have multi-disciplinary Indigenous artist Cassie Fisher Patterson from Wild Blak Arts/Yanggurdi run two art based workshops for us. One is for school aged children who will learn weaving skills to make a bush toy. I’m making sure at least one grandchild registers for that one. Our second workshop at 1pm will lead adults in plant ink based painting. If you are like me and can not draw or paint, don’t worry, you do not need to be artistic to participate.

Cost
The ‘Welcome and Smoking’ event is free of charge but we ask you to register for numbers and catering.

The workshops have a small charge.

Please register and pay by the RSVP dates:
• Online at Trybooking
OR
• In person at the Yea Wetlands Visitor Centre, 2 Hood St Yea, Weekly, 10-4pm.

RSVP for Welcome and Smoking – Wednesday July 1
RSVP for workshops – Monday July 6

Jacinta
Friends of Yea Wetlands