Virginia Simpson-Young, Bulletin 4/2022, June 2022

NAIDOC Week this year is from 3 to 10 July. The theme this year is ‘Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!’ At least one event has been planned for Glebe – the launch of Yvonne Weldon’s recent work of fiction, Sixty-Seven Days, at Gleebooks on Thursday 7 July. (Further details below).

The choice of this year’s NAIDOC Week theme, Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up, is explained on the NAIDOC website:

The artwork for NAIDOC Week 2022 is by Ryhia Dank, a Gudanji/Wakaja artist from the Northern Territory. (naidoc.org.au/posters/2022-poster)

We have a proud history of getting up, standing up, and showing up. From the frontier wars and our earliest resistance fighters to our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities fighting for change today – we continue to show up.

Now is our time. We cannot afford to lose momentum for change. We all must continue to Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! for systemic change and keep rallying around our mob, our Elders, our communities. Whether it’s seeking proper environmental, cultural and heritage protections, Constitutional change, a comprehensive process of truth-telling, working towards treaties, or calling out racism – we must do it together. It must be a genuine commitment by all of us to Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! and support and secure institutional, structural, collaborative, and cooperative reforms.

It’s also time to celebrate the many who have driven and led change in our communities over generations – they have been the heroes and champions of change, of equal rights and even basic human rights.

Getting Up, Standing Up, and Showing Up can take many forms. We need to move beyond just acknowledgement, good intentions, empty words and promises, and hollow commitments. Enough is enough.

The relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and non‑Indigenous Australians needs to be based on justice, equity, and the proper recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ rights.

Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! with us to amplify our voices and narrow the gap between aspiration and reality, good intent and outcome.

Gleebooks NAIDOC Week event

Yvonne Weldon’s book, Sixty-Seven Days (image: penguin.com.au)

During NAIDOC Week, Gleebooks is hosting the launch of Yvonne Weldon’s new book, Sixty-Seven Days. Yvonne will be in conversation with Antoinette Latouff. Yvonne Weldon, a Wiradjuri woman who grew up in Sydney, was elected in 2021 to the City of Sydney Council. She is the first Aboriginal person on Council since its establishment in 1842. In addition to this role, she is Deputy Chairperson of the Metropolitan Local Aboriginal Land Council, Deputy Chair of the Australia Day Council of NSW, and board member of Domestic Violence NSW and Redfern Jarjum College. She was named NSW Aboriginal Woman of the Year in 2022.

When: Thursday 7 July, 6.00 pm for 6.30 pm

Where: Gleebooks, 49 Glebe Point Rd

Book: Gleebooks website