Harvey’s emerging elders Ninnette Comito and Cody Jones welcome everyone to celebrate National NAIDOC Week

Excitement was building in Harvey at the weekend as the town’s elders and community members prepared for National NAIDOC Week.

To celebrate the week, the Harvey Aboriginal Corporation alongside the Shire of Harvey will be hosting a range of activities from a bush food and medicine workshop to tool and artefact crafting.

The group is also running its always popular language classes and hosting an art competition.

All the activities will be held at Harvey’s Town Hall throughout the week.

Helping prepare the hall over the weekend was Harvey artist Ninnette Comito who said she planned to show off this year’s theme – Keep the Fire Burning – “loud and proud.”

“Everyone is welcome, we’re all about inclusion and we want everyone to contribute,” she said.

Mrs Comito said she was excited because NAIDOC Week for her was about having everyone experiencing her culture and coming together.

“I am always excited, because it’s about passing this culture,” she said.

Also helping prepare the town hall was Cody Jones, who said NAIDOC Week gave an opportunity for not only non-Indigenous people but the younger generations to acknowledge their culture.

He is also looking forward to sharing his culture with the community throughout the week.

“In our language, we don’t really have a word for ‘my’ or ‘I’,” he said.

“It’s mainly we or our, (ngalang).”

Both Mrs Comito and Mr Jones highlighted it was hugely important to have young people involved in the activities and celebrations.

“How else is out culture going to be passed on,” Mrs Comito said.

“We’ll have the little ones here and they will learn by watching. You may think they’re not listening, but they are, amongst all the screaming and running around, they do take it all in.”