A wonderful life - and then some!

This post is written right in the middle of NAIDOC Week. For anyone not reading this in Australia, here's an explanation:

NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians from all walks of life. The week is a great opportunity to participate in a range of activities and to support your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community.

NAIDOC originally stood for ‘National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee’. This committee was once responsible for organising national activities during NAIDOC Week and its acronym has since become the name of the week itself.

There are a couple of reasons why this week of events is a bit special for me. Firstly, the Aboriginal Tent Embassy was established on the lawn outside what is now Australia's old Parliament House on my birthday in 1972 - January 27.  It started off a year of political awakening for me, as a 13 y o student, that culminated in the election of the Whitlam labor Government in November - and we all know how that ended a few years later!

The second and by now the most important reason that I like all that is associated with NAIDOC Week is the depth of local activities across local communities.  The list just from NSW alone has just over 70 events and activities across the state, most of them outside of the Sydney CBD and in suburban or regional communities and local government areas.

http://www.naidoc.org.au/naidoc-events/event/?mylist=New+South+Wales&check=Check

Some of the events are held outside of the week itself for a variety of reasons. Homebush Bay High School held their event early because NAIDOC Week itself falls during the school holidays, while at Blacktown; they have the Western Sydney NAIDOC Dinner dance on July 13.

There’s also a series of awards presented during the week and I was particularly taken by the story of the 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, Ned Cheedy. Ned Cheedy died in April this year, aged 105.

(I’m aware at this point that there may be some cultural sensitivity associated with writing or talking about aboriginal people who have passed on. I mean no offence and hope that I can be forgiven if I am breaking any cultural taboos here.)

I remember a conversation once with my ‘adopted’ grandpa, Pop Bresnahan. He was born early in the 20^th century and told me that, in his lifetime, man had conquered the power of flight and, by the time he was retiring from work, was sending men into outer space and had landed on the moon. Even in my own lifetime, we’ve seen the invention and introduction of cassette tapes to CD’s to MP3 players, mobile telephones that first looked like brick blocks and are now miniature and can have video and a myriad of other applications, Kodak instamatic cameras to multi megapixel digital cameras on mobile phones, etc. etc. etc.

But, imagine what Ned Cheedy saw in his 105 year lifetime! He spent pretty much all of his life in Western Australia, mainly in the Pilbara region. As an adult, he worked tirelessly to rehabilitate people addicted to alcohol, having seen first-hand the devastating effect it had on people’s lives and on families and communities.

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/political-news/aborigines-lose-a-guiding-light-with-revered-elders-death-20120402-1w8ve.html

He traveled extensively in his region, educating students/children, archaeologists, anthropologists, environmentalists and biologists and helping them to gain a better understanding of the land that he called home. Importantly he was a vital link across generations. Family members who were elders when Ned was a child would have witnessed first-hand the early settlement of Australia and their parents would remember times before white people came to the country. His experiences and his ability to share them with others are a strong testimony to the value of older people in our communities.

I’m a little over half of Ned’s final age and I can’t imagine what the next 50 years will be like, if I could ever live so long. What’s GOOD about this story is that Ned was listened to, respected and recognised for his life, his experiences, his work and his contributions to society, even though I’m sure each one of those lives he helped would have seemed like a relatively small achievement to him.

Next time I’m asked: “Who, from history, would you invite to a dinner party at your place?” Ned will be on the list, along with my g. g. grandfather (the first of my ancestors to migrate to Australia from England) a few others.

Feel like commenting on this post? Tell me who you’d invite to your place.