This NAIDOC Week, our First Nations Services team held a deeply moving cultural camp in Dubbo for the First Nations children and young people we support – a space where tradition, learning and pride came together in the most powerful way.
For Youth Off The Streets’ Head of First Nations Services, Nicole Laupepa, the two days offered a unique opportunity to build the children and young people’s connection to culture and Country.
“For me,” says Nicole, “it’s about knowing the spirit of our people that has been on these lands for thousands of years.”
“When you know that, you know that it doesn’t matter what storm will come, you’ll withstand it because that is who our people are.”
Young people stepped into the stories of their ancestors, learning traditional dances that have survived generations, cooking Johnny Cakes over open fires and speaking the local Wiradjuri language with pride and curiosity. A local tour on Country brought the young people to sites of significance, with Elder and Youth Off The Streets First Nations Engagement Officer, Uncle Max, sharing the very site that held the mission where he was born and lived until the age of two.
Cooking Johnny Cakes with Aunty Pat; ochre painted on faces before the corroboree; being taught traditional dance.
“We’re only here once in life and we’ve got to make the best of it,” Uncle Max says. He has passed his spirit of community service to his children, with his eldest son also a First Nations Services caseworker at Youth Off The Street. “And that’s what we’re trying to do here, guide them in the right direction.”
The camp culminated in a mini corroboree – a gathering that brought everyone together in song, dance and spirit. It was a reminder of the strength of culture and the importance of passing it on, something that Brooke North, a First Nations caseworker, holds dearly.
“Keeping our young people connected to Country and culture is one of the biggest things. It means a lot for me to see them get a lot out of it,” he says. His own children attended the camp, his daughter Scarlett celebrating her birthday on the first day.
First Nations Services caseworker Chloe with Head of First Nations Services Nicole; First Nations Services caseworker Brooke with his daughter Scarlett; Elder and First Nations Services engagement officer Uncle Max and some of the young people.
Brooke shares that upon intake to Youth Off The Streets’ services, First Nations children and young people take a culturally-appropriate wellness assessment survey – which he then conducts every six week to mark their progress. “We find that when they’re engaged in their culture and go back to their roots, [the young people’s] mental health improves so much.”
Sam’s story: “It’s my way of giving back and paying it forward.”
That rang true at the cultural camp, with many of the children and young people saying that learning traditional dances was what they’d most been looking forward to. Another spoke of the opportunity he had to connect with other First Nations young people from different mobs.
“This nation speaks on our brokenness, but we are more than that,” says Nicole. “We are rich in wisdom, we are rich in culture, we are rich in love. And we are rich in unity and I hope from the bottom of my heart, that’s what [others] experience.”
