Advocate, SONIA BYRNES, p.12 – 22 June 2012

THE community will have the opportunity to come together and share in the Coast’s rich Aboriginal culture and history when NAIDOC week celebrations are held in Devonport on Sunday.
NAIDOC celebrations are held around country in July each year and celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
The week will be marked with a flag- raising ceremony at Tiagarra Aboriginal Culture Centre and Museum on Sunday morning and will be followed by a book launch and community barbecue.
Tiagarra centre coordinator Dave Gough said the day was about bringing together the community and sharing what the Aboriginal culture was all about.
”NAIDOC is a week of showing our culture and the bond between country and culture. Everyone can come together and attend, the more the merrier,” he said.
Mr Gough said with students learning about Aboriginal culture in schools, relations between indigenous and non- indigenous Australians were good.
”There’s a lot of history there, it didn’t finish 200 years ago. We do practise culture with people teaching shell necklacing, basket making and traditional ways,” he said.
Sunday will see the launch of Grease and Ochre: The Blending of Two Cultures at the Colonial Sea Frontier, a book by Aboriginal author and lecturer Patsy Cameron.
Mr Gough said the respected and well-known Aboriginal elder would travel from Launceston for the launch giving people the opportunity to meet with her and ask questions about the book and Aboriginal culture.
There will be a flag-raising ceremony at 10am and a book launch for Grease and Ochre at 11am at Tiagarra, at the Devonport Bluff on Sunday. Members of the community are invited to attend.