As NAIDOC Week begins, there are plenty of places for Logan City residents to turn to celebrate local indigenous culture.
Spirits of the Red Sand will host an Indigenous cultural day at the Beenleigh Historical Village on Sunday, November 15.
The Wild Foods and Cultural Festival will feature bush tucker, dancing, weaving demonstrations, face and boomerang painting, and arts and craft stalls.
The entertainment will include singers Adam James and Chris Tamwoy.
Organiser Leanne Ruska said her community were looking forward to the event.
“We wanted to come together to put something on,” she said.
“I know since COVID hit it’s really been a big struggle for our indigenous businesses.
“So we thought it would be great for them to have an opportunity to come and get their businesses back on track.”
Celebrating NAIDOC week will also give the Logan City indigenous community another chance to reconnect, after being forced to distance themselves throughout covid.
Ms Ruska said they’re a really tight community, so covid has been especially hard for them.
“It’s been really hard…we rely on family….so it’s been really crazy and upsetting at times,” she said.
Ms Ruska said everyone and anyone was welcome to attend their Naidoc week celebrations.
“That’s what we’re all about,” she said.
“Education the wider community. We want other people to know more about our culture, one of the oldest living cultures in the world.”
She said the event was a gold coin donation for entry, and would feature:
Indigenous culture celebrations
Market stalls
Kids activities
Food such as turtle stew, crocodile, kangaroo, emu, and other native food
Logan City Council will also be helping locals to celebrate NAIDOC Week, by providing Indigenous-themed art projects.
Family activity art packs will be available from all nine Logan City library branches throughout NAIDOC Week (November 9-14).
The packs feature materials and instructions on how to make rainbow serpents from pipe cleaners and wooden Australian animal decorations.
Council said it also encourages local residents to use the week to explore the short online stories by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who live, work, or perform in Logan City.
The Our words our stories series can be accessed here (hyperlink – loganlibraries.org/firstnations ).
Council has also given an events grant to Goodstart Early Learning at Shailer Park for a special live-streamed NAIDOC celebration titled Our Nangara.
Each day during the week at 10am and 3:30pm, a pre-recorded act or performance from an Indigenous performer will be live streamed through Microsoft Teams.
The program will feature performing arts, dream time stories, cooking, and local history segments.
