Is it really NAIDOC when aunties can’t hug?
A big part of NAIDOC is seeing family and community that you don’t always see because of work. I love going to NAIDOC Friday and seeing all the Elders and getting hugs from them, its a special feeling when those old girls reaffirm your place in the community and remind you or tell you that you are doing a good job.
It’s important to reinforce those kinship bonds and find out how they are doing and what else is going on. It’s a Lubly feeling when you’re being hugged and the hugging auntie calls over another Elder and tells them who you are and whose daughter you are and where you grew up and share information. Big bonus when the other Elder knows your mum, as is usually the case with me.
The important sharing of community information from the old girls is another plus. Call it gossip if you want, but getting information from an Elder isn’t petty gossip they tell you as a warning or a nudge for you to do something to help.
COVID has changed everything including how we as a community respond to each other. I am concerned it might be another link in the chain that is pulling apart urban communities. Our urban communities are fluid and always changing, sometimes not for the best, but I won’t go into that now.
NAIDOC our week of pride of letting the wider community know we are here we are proud and deadly will never be the same again. But like everything that has been thrown at us, we will survive and adapt.
