Meet the 2011 National NAIDOC Awards winners
Lifetime Achievement Award – Ned Cheedy
Yindjibarndi elder Ned Cheedy with his great grandson Will Woodley, in Roebourne, WA. Photo: Lee Griffith. © The West Australian.
At 104, Ned still contributes tirelessly to caring for Yindjibarndi law, country, culture, language and the future of his people.
After working as a skilled stockman and windmill man on Hooley Station, where he was born, Ned Cheedy moved to Roebourne Reserve so his children could receive an education. Concerned by the number of families losing young and older people to alcohol, he joined the Pilbara Aboriginal Church and travelled across Western Australia as a lay preacher, helping many to give up the grog.
Ned has been a cultural teacher and elder in his community for 20 years. When he travels into country with groups of up to 70 children, elders, families, anthropologists, archaeologists, biologists and environmentalists, he points out all the features of his land and tells the stories behind their creation.
Ned is generous and patient when sharing his knowledge. He participates in cultural mapping trips and teaches through books, films and recordings, sometimes working a six-hour day during the editing process to ensure accuracy.
Ned speaks out to keep his people strong and united.
National NAIDOC congratulates Ned Cheedy for his long and continuing contribution to the people and culture of Yindjibarndi and Australia’s cultural heritage.
Person of the Year – Terri Janke
Person of the Year – Terri Janke. Photo: Wayne Quilliam.
Terri Janke was born in Cairns in Queensland, of Torres Strait Islander and Cape York Peninsula Aboriginal heritage.
A proud Meriam and Wuthathi woman, Terri is a vocal advocate of stronger intellectual property protection for Indigenous artists.
Admitted to practice in the Supreme Court of New South Wales and the High Court of Australia, she is widely regarded as one of the country’s top lawyers in Indigenous cultural and intellectual property rights.
Terri has served on the boards of many prominent Indigenous and non-Indigenous organisations and is the only Indigenous director on the Board of Tourism Australia.
In April 2008, Terri was invited by the Prime Minister to be a delegate at the Australia 2020 Summit.
As well as writing and speaking internationally about Indigenous cultural and intellectual property, Terri is an accomplished writer of fiction. Her first novel, Butterfly Song, was published in 2005 and she is currently working on a follow-up.
Female Elder of the Year – Carolyn Briggs
Female Elder of the Year – Carolyn Briggs. Photo: Wayne Quilliam.
Aunty Carolyn Briggs is a Boonwurrung elder from Victoria who is recognised as a keeper of the history and genealogies of her people.
She says, “It’s about the strength of families, our heritage and the sense of belonging to place.”
Aunty Carolyn is currently studying language and linguistics in the hope of recording her Boonwurrung language in oral and written form.
She has been active in community development, Native Title, cultural preservation and cultural promotion. For many years she ran the Tjanabi restaurant in Melbourne, which specialised in contemporary Aboriginal cooking, promoted the Boonwurrung culture and became “the place to meet” for Indigenous people.
Aunty Carolyn established Australia’s first Aboriginal child care centre and is CEO of the Boonwurrung Foundation, which she set up to help connect Aboriginal youth to their heritage.
She is also a member of the National Congress of Australia’s First Peoples.
Male Elder of the Year – Eldridge Mosby
Male Elder of the Year – Eldridge Mosby. Photo: Wayne Quilliam.
Eldridge Mosby is an elder on the Torres Strait island of Poruma, where he is greatly respected for his commitment to education and the revival of language and culture.
Eldridge started teaching at just 15, when community teachers were in short supply on his island. He has been working with students ever since.
Eldridge is passionate about helping young people develop high expectations and a love of learning. His reassurance and encouragement give them the confidence to “have a go”. As a school coordinator for language and culture, he makes singing, dancing, games, story telling and music a big part of everyday island life.
A member of the Buthu Lagau Saral Torres Strait Islander Corporation, Eldridge works to maintain the traditions and language of Poruma Island. He is a tireless champion of his community and always stands ready to help where he can in matters that affect his people.
Scholar of the Year – Lester-Irabinna Rigney
Scholar of the Year – Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney. Photo: Wayne Quilliam.
Professor Lester-Irabinna Rigney is a Nurungga man who grew up on Point Pearce Mission on the Yorke Peninsula in South Australia. Today he is one of the most influential Indigenous educationalists in Australia.
Even as a young apprentice diesel mechanic, Lester-Irabinna demonstrated outstanding commitment, winning both the state and national NAIDOC Apprentice of the Year awards in 1985.
Later qualifying as a teacher, he began working in secondary schools in 1989. He has a Masters of Education and a PhD, and is currently Dean of Aboriginal Education and Director of the Wilto Yerlo Centre at the University of Adelaide.
Lester-Irabinna’s international reputation spans Indigenous education, languages and knowledge transmission. He sits on several high-profile ministerial expert panels and has been a visiting research fellow at Cambridge University in the UK and the University of British Columbia in Canada. In 2009 he received an honorary United Nations award for his work on Indigenous education.
Artist of the Year – Robyn Djunginy
Artist of the Year – Robyn Djunginy. Photo: Wayne Quilliam.
Respected elder Robyn Djunginy is an acclaimed fibre artist and painter who has participated in significant exhibitions nationally and internationally for two decades.
Robyn maintains an open mind in her search for new forms and symbols to express the ancient wisdom of her Yolngu culture through art.
Her inspiration for her renowned fibre bottle forms and paintings comes from Italian Chianti bottles. She says, “I was inspired by the shape…My bottles represent happy times and celebrations for black and white people the same.”
A board member of the Bula’Bula Arts Aboriginal Corporation, Robyn is currently working to develop a number of projects that will have significant impact on contemporary art in Australia and provide a platform for cultural exchange.
For Robyn, there is no division between her life and her art – they are one.
Sportsperson of the Year – Preston Campbell
Sportsperson of the Year – Preston Campbell. Photo: Wayne Quilliam.
Preston Campbell hails from Tinga in New South Wales and is a loved and respected National Rugby League player for the Gold Coast Titans.
Preston’s career highlights include winning the 2003 grand final and leading the Indigenous Dreamtime Team to victory against the New Zealand Maoris in 2008.
In 2010, Preston was the driving force behind a new Indigenous All Stars game. This annual event builds cultural connections across communities and is an important part of the healing process.
Preston says working together to create a better future is what the game is all about.
As an ambassador for the Titians’ Beyond Tomorrow program, Preston encourages year 12 students to make the transition to further education or employment.
Although his career has taken him a long way from Tinga, Preston has never forgotten his home town. He is currently working to make a difference there by helping to develop a community centre.
Apprentice of the Year – Joshua Toomey
Apprentice of the Year – Joshua Toomey. Photo: Wayne Quilliam.
Joshua Toomey overcame personal and educational challenges to excel as an apprentice in the electricity supply industry.
Despite being assessed as having low foundation skills, Joshua worked hard to show he had the determination and ability to succeed. When finally admitted to the Ausgrid pre-apprenticeship training program, he studied tirelessly to pass a selection test and was offered an apprenticeship almost immediately.
Joshua says, “Give yourself goals, seek out people who can help you get there and then work as hard as you can.”
Joshua was a key speaker at the annual TAFE New South Wales Gili Awards. His speech culminated in a standing ovation and was highly influential in securing the longer term future of the Ausgrid pre-apprenticeship program.
Since then, Joshua has been called on regularly as a public speaker and has been profiled in the New South Wales Department of Education and Training project Inspirational Indigenous Stories.
Youth of the Year – Kiel Williams-Weigel
Youth of the Year – Kiel Williams-Weigel. Photo: Wayne Quilliam.
Twenty-four-year-old Kiel Williams-Weigel was born and raised in Brisbane and is a proud descendant of the Mununjali people of the Beaudesert region.
After immersing himself in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture, Kiel developed a strong desire for a better life for Indigenous people in contemporary Australia.
He was the first in his family to attend university, graduating with a Bachelor of Education from Griffith University. He is now a literacy coordinator at Clontarf Aboriginal College in Western Australia and a lecturer at the University of Notre Dame, where he helps other teachers understand the needs of Indigenous school students.
Kiel is keen to undertake further study and hopes one day to be a principal in an Indigenous school.
Through his dedication, passion and love for his people, Kiel has influenced many young lives. He is a role model for Indigenous students and an inspiration for other young educators.
Caring for Country – Warru Recovery Team
Caring for Country – Warru Recovery Team. Photo: Wayne Quilliam.
The Warru Recovery Team works towards the conservation of the black-footed rock wallaby, or warru – one of South Australia’s most endangered species.
The team has built a 100 hectare enclosure to reintroduce captive warru to the wild and has successfully reintroduced five individuals bred in captivity. Regular monitoring shows that warru numbers have stabilised, while more recent data indicate some colonies are recovering.
The Warru Recovery Project also fosters positive social change in community. The team has at least two senior Anangu members for each relevant community who speak and make decisions for the project. In addition, many of the permanent and causal rangers employed in the project gain TAFE land management certificates and drivers licences.
A unique part of the project has been the development of a contemporary dreaming story told through the song and dance of warru mothers, who are sad their babies have left the APY lands.
Find out more
NAIDOC
stands for the National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee. Its origins can be traced to the emergence in the 1920s of Aboriginal groups that sought to increase awareness in the wider community of the status and treatment of Indigenous Australians.
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