Early but no less special

Ché Walker teaches Norville State School students Elijah Law, Zenaya Silvester, Taleah Beezley and Nakysha Mimi traditional song and dance.

Max Fleet

NORVILLE State School may have been celebrating NAIDOC Week early but the importance of the event has not been lost on the students.

For the past two days students have been rotating through three activities which teach them about Indigenous culture — making a mural, learning a traditional dance and hearing dreamtime stories.

Traditional dancer Ché Walker taught the students the merrijimpah dance, more commonly known as the sea eagle dance.

“It’s really important to let all different cultures share what they are about with each other so they can all live on,” he said.

Indigenous issues will continue to be at the forefront of the region’s mind tomorrow with an Indigenous Sexual Health Expo at the Bundaberg PCYC from 11am to 2.30pm.

Bundaberg Community Health program manager Patrick Martin said the expo aimed to increase awareness of sexually transmitted infections in Indigenous youths aged between 14 and 18.

“A recurrent theme amongst young people who present for treatment is that their partner looked clean,” he said.

Indigenous art is set to be celebrated on Friday with the first Yoorellgoo Bundaberg Aboriginal Art Festival starting at Wandiny HACC, QRI Hall on Maclean Street.

The festival starts at 5.30pm with traditional dancers to entertain the crowd before winners are announced.

“We have about 50 entries,” festival organiser Nicole Wone said.

“It is much more than I had expected and they’ve come mostly from Bundaberg, Eidsvold, Mundubbera and those little towns around the area as well as Cherbourg.”

Ms Wone is also helping organise the NAIDOC Ball to be held on July 3 at the Brothers Sports Club from 5.30pm.

“We need to have sold 100 tickets by Friday otherwise we may have to cancel it.”

Tickets for the ball can be bought at the Indigenous Wellbeing Centre.

NAIDOC Week will be held from July 4 to 11.