Cultural News
FRIDAY CULTURE GROUP
Reconciliation Week ended on Tuesday 3rd June with Mabo Day. It commemorated Mer Island man Eddie Koiki Mabo and his successful efforts to overturn the legal fiction of terra nullius, or ‘land belonging to no-one’.
Today we welcomed Kieryn Neaves to Friday Culture. Kieryn will continue to gather with the didj boys leading up to NAIDOC and join Ky and Uncle Mark practicing.
Kieryn was born in Gimuy (Cairns, Far North Queensland) home of rainforests and reef. His Mob are Gamilaroi (ancestors were taken to Barwon River Catholic Mission) and Mamu – Mamu . They are the people of Innisfail and their totem is the Cassowary. Kieryn has played and made yigi yigi (Gugu-yallandji word for didgeridoo) for nearly two years. He works for the Navy as the Regional Indigenous Development Coordinator for the Shoalhaven region.
The shirt Kieryn is wearing is the Bungaree polo. Bungaree is the Navy’s Indigenous Performance Group that he supports with cultural dancing and didgeridoo.