NAIDOC Week is not just a celebration

The colour pink carries many distinct memories for Apryl Day.

It was the hue her mother Tanya was obsessed with – that and a long fur coat and pair of heels. Always heels. 

“She was annoyingly obsessed with the colour pink and anything shimmery,” Day, the founder and Executive Officer of the Dhadjowa Foundation, told FW’s NAIDOC Week breakfast, sponsored by Witchery. 

“She once showed up to my daughter’s second birthday and climbed on top of a jumping castle with her heels. I was like ‘time and place, time and place’.”

Day described her mother as a “happy go lucky person”, a grandmother of eight and proud Aboriginal woman who was loved and valued by her community. 

Three days before Christmas in December 2017, Tanya and her family said a final farewell. Tanya had taken her final breath in police custody.

Apryl Day shared stories about her mother, Tanya Day, with a sold out breakfast event in Naarm/Melbourne.

As Day recounted how her mother was racially profiled by officers on a Victorian train before being placed in a police cell, the room fell quiet.

The silence remained when Day spoke about her mother suffering a traumatic brain bleed after falling and hitting her head in the same cell.  

“She always embodied the importance of culture, community and showing up for one another,” the proud Yorta Yorta, Wemba Wmbara and Barapa Barapa woman said.  

“Her legacy of love, resilience and community spirit continues to inspire and drive us all today.”

The colour pink remains entrenched in Day’s life. 

It’s the colour her family uses to honour her mother’s memory, an idea thought up by Day’s niece, Allira. 

“We keep the fire burning because it’s the very essence of who we are. It’s the essence of us.”

“At just eight years old she came up with the idea of the pink for Tanya campaign, a way to honour our mother and her memory. 

“(She) had seen her dad and her aunties fiercely advocate for her nan.”

She said it is now her family’s legacy to strive to empower others to advocate for change, to ensure future generations inherit a world where their loved ones are not subjected to state violence.

“It is about remembering our loved ones for who they are, ensuring they are never just another statistic,” Day said. 

“Our family has quite literally, in every sense, kept the fire burning. And we do that by fighting for justice and accountability for our mother.”

Day took a moment to acknowledge that grief and joy are not mutually exclusive.

“They are fundamentally intertwined, born out of the same struggles for justice and equality, like the formation of NAIDOC – a week-long celebration of culture, history and achievements born out of protest,” she said.

“By honouring deaths in custody, family grief and joy, in moments like NAIDOC, we affirm the resilience and strength of our community.”

The theme of the 2024 NAIDOC week is ‘Keep the fire burning! Blak, loud and proud’.

Fellow panellist, Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts, spoke to the analogy of fire from a point of strength.

“I witness the greatest strengths in our children and young people. I see their power, their fire. And let me tell you this, it does not stop burning,” the Commissioner of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children and Young People said. 

“But I also see the attempts to try and put it out. And my role and your role in our role is to do all we can to ensure we protect that fire from ever burning out.”

Dr Shawana Andrews discussed the enduring nature of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander knowledges and peoples.

Dr Shawana Andrews, believed the fire was “the centrepiece” of the community, but also carried a duality.

“It’s the warmth in our communities. It’s the kitchen table in our homes around which we feed our children and teach them our values. It’s the love we have for our ancestors and descendants, for our culture and for Mother Earth,” Andrews, a director with Indigenous Health at the University of Melbourne, said.

“It’s the generations and generations and generations of knowledge and inquiry that we’ve held and shared for millennia.”

She said the fire was also “the rage we feel when our hearts are broken by an uncaring world”. 

“The fire continues to burn, and we keep the fire burning because it’s the very essence of who we are. It’s the essence of us,” she added.

It is Day’s belief that acknowledging historical roots of activism and community solidarity, “we can better focus on creating spaces for Black joy and happiness” to flourish amongst the fight for justice.

“They have ensured that the fire for our culture, identity and knowledge continues to burn deep within our being today,” she said. 

“For me, this year’s (NAIDOC) theme, ‘Keep the fire burning’ is deeply personal. It reminds me of my childhood, my present and my future. It is not just a celebration.”

EVENT ARTWORK: Alysha Menzel
PANEL’S CLOTHING: WITCHERY
FLOWERS: Alchemy Orange
HAIR AND MAKEUP: Kahealea Coleman-Wilson
PHOTOGRAPHY: Tiffany Garvie
LOCATION: Sofitel Melbourne on Collins

THANKS TO OUR PRESENTING PARTNER

For more from NAIDOC Week 2024 read ‘Trauma ran into our family until it ran into me’