NAIDOC Week Family Day
- What
- SPECIAL EVENT
- When
- Tickets
Celebrate the start of NAIDOC Week at Melbourne Museum with a Welcome to Country on the Museum Plaza, events, performances by Uncle Kutcha Edwards and Uncle Amos Roach with the Murrundeya Yepenga Dance Troup, market stalls and family activities.
Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud and Proud.
The NAIDOC theme this year invites all to stand in solidarity, amplifying the voices that have long been silenced.
"Blak, Loud and Proud" encapsulates the unapologetic celebration of First Peoples identity. This theme calls for a reclamation of narratives, an amplification of voices, and an unwavering commitment to justice and equality.
It invites all Australians to listen, learn, and engage in meaningful dialogue, fostering a society where the wisdom and contributions of First Peoples are fully valued and respected.
Program
10am | Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony | Museum Plaza
10am to 3pm | First Nations Market Stalls | Main Foyer, Ground Level
11am to 3pm | Kooyang Eels | Birrarung Gallery, Ground Level | Maker Activity
11am to 3pm | Dancing Dragonflies | Science and Life Gallery, Ground Level | Maker Activity
12pm to 1pm | Performances: Uncle Kutcha Edwards, Uncle Amos Roach & the Murrundeya Yepenga Dance Troup | Main Foyer, Ground Level
1pm | Introduction Tour | Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre, Ground Level | Tour
2pm | Introduction Tour | Bunjilaka Aboriginal Cultural Centre, Ground Level | Tour
Dancing Dragonflies
11AM to 3PM | Science and Life Gallery, Ground Level | Maker Activity
Discover the incredible Dancing Dragonflies that once shared Earth with the dinosaurs found throughout the Gandel Gondwana Garden. For First Peoples, dragonflies are an excellent bio-indicator of water health - their lifespan is intricately tied to water, meaning they need high water quality to survive to adulthood, they also indicate that Country is healthy and healing.
Kooyang Eels
11AM to 3PM | Birrarung Gallery, Ground Level | Maker Activity
Create your own Kooyang | Eel (Gunditjmara) mobile. Kooyangs migrate from our freshwater rivers, creeks and lakes to the saltwater Country. They spawn in the coral sea near Vanauatu where they start their journey as young “glass eels” . You can find Short-finned Eels in the museum’s Milarri Pond.
Exhibitions
Biik Milboo Dhumba | Country Is Always Talking
9AM to 5PM | Forest Gallery, Ground Level | New Exhibition
For the First Peoples of Australia, Country is more than place. It describes a deep connection to land, water and sky, to animals and plants, to ancestors and to the wisdom of the land itself. Throughout the forest gallery, this new experience invites you to listen as Kulin Nations artists and Elders share stories about their personal connection to Country.
Piinpi – Contemporary Indigenous Fashion
9AM to 5PM | Birrarung Gallery, Ground Level | New Exhibition
Piinpi showcases the rapidly-blooming field of First Nations fashion and wearable art from Bendigo Art Gallery. Piinpi is a word from curator Shonae Hobson's grandmother's language, a Kuuku Ya'u notion of seasonal changes across the landscape, a way of understanding Country, and fulfilling custodianship, care of the land and Community.
This program is part of the Playbound festival.
