Page 1196 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 10 April 2018

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our culture and our history. It is great to see the theme for the festival again go beyond the built form and precious old buildings to include the people, cultures and traditions that have built our proudly diverse community.

The Canberra and Region Heritage Festival is a great opportunity to learn about our region’s Aboriginal heritage and the ongoing connection to country. Festival-goers can get out in the fresh air and take part in a Ngunnawal dreaming tour around the Jerrabomberra wetlands, where you will learn about local history and dreamtime stories that have been passed down through the generations.

I expect the bush tucker tour that others have mentioned to be popular with chefs, home cooks and foodies, particularly with the new-found appreciation of and interest in native ingredients in restaurants and cafes across Australia. Other festival events celebrating our region’s Aboriginal heritage include a Lanyon canoe tree walk and a Pinnacle heritage walk.

I was pleased to learn that the family history workshops at last year’s festival were incredibly popular and will this year be held again at the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, AIATSIS. AIATSIS is truly a gem in our city, and I am pleased that more and more people will be visiting AIATSIS and using its resources.

As members would be aware, the ACT Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander agreement 2015-18 acknowledges that connection to country holds spiritual, social, historical, cultural and economic importance for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The ACT government supports community members to celebrate their Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander heritage and to maintain their cultural identity through cultural grants.

Late last month I announced the recipients of the most recent round of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural grants. The recipients included a program to create bush tucker cultural education gardens in schools, which will develop, deliver and create garden spaces using local plants and Ngunnawal traditional knowledge not only to educate but also for hospitality program purposes.

The cultural grants encourage and support any Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander individuals or community groups to apply for financial support to assist in a program or event that will promote wider understanding of the culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples living in the ACT. I encourage the Canberra Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community to apply for future cultural grants, and I look forward to announcing future grants and meeting recipients into the future.

Like other people in this place, I often speak at multicultural community events, and I always take time not only to acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land but also to make a point about their contribution to the diversity of our society as we celebrate the newest arrivals in our community, including our fast-growing communities in Canberra that are so diverse and contribute so much to our community.


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