Article written by Sera Lyn-Terare.
I woke up on the morning of January 22nd and made my way towards the Gold Coast for the first day at my new job. Nerves overrunning my body, I was scared about the new role that I would be undertaking for the next 12 weeks. An internship role within the Reconciliation Action Plan team at the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games. I could speak for hours about the opportunities that I experienced during my internship, instead I will talk about the highlights of my time as an intern at GOLDOC.
The first event that I attended was for National Apology Day on February 13 in the heart of Brisbane city. It was on this day that I realised how sheltered my life has been in regard to Indigenous history. I knew the history and the genocide that came with the invasion of the English. I knew of the Stolen Generation and the reasons why these children were taken. I didn’t know that the pain of what our ancestors went through were still being felt. I stayed to listen to a traditional Welcome to Country by an Elder. I also witnessed traditional song and dance from a group of children who travelled to dance at the event. For the first National Apology Day that I attended, it opened my eyes to Indigenous culture and I knew that I wanted to experience more. Little did I know that over the next two months I was able to experience a lot more of my culture than I thought I could.
I was invited to attend Bangarra at the HOTA on the Gold Coast with other members of my team. It was an amazing story of Bennelong through dance. Within the first few minutes of the first act I was already shedding tears. It opened with the murder of an Aboriginal man who was found dead by a woman who loved him. She was wailing in sadness. My heart broke knowing that this is what my ancestors would have gone through during the invasion. The rest of the story was presented with ancient dancers with a modern twist. They were beautiful and an easy to follow story line. By the end of the show, I felt many emotions. It was a night that I will never forget.
Many of the highlights of my time at GOLDOC included cultural activities but some of them were staff opportunities. For example, the main dining experience at the Athletes Village.
My team and I went to the Athletes Village on March 9 for an experience of food. We went there for lunch and was able to see a small snippet of the Village that the Athletes from 70 countries will be living in during the Commonwealth Games. It was a great experience and I ended up meeting Borobi, the Commonwealth Games mascot. Borobi is the Yugambeh word for Koala, he is the first mascot in the history of the Commonwealth Games that has an Indigenous name. His hands and feet were designed by an Indigenous artist from Mount Isa named Cher’nee Sutton. The designs were of the athletes and spectators who will be on the Gold Coast for the Games. Cher’nee went on to create art for GOLDOC and the Athletes Village and I got the chance to meet her later down the track of my internship.
I’ve had many amazing experiences but none like Harmony Day. I was asked to represent the RAP team at Harmony Day. I was on the bus with women from Papua New Guinea and men from Jamaica. Not only were they the nicest and most humble people I have met, they were also talented dancers and musicians. I learned a lot from that day, I was surrounded by so much culture. I also got to see Borobi in action with his little fans.
Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games not only included Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander culture within their opening ceremony but also festival 2018 events as well. I got to witness many cultural activities during festivals, but the one that had my love for history hanging wide open was Skylore at the Planetarium. Skylore is Indigenous history by the stars. It’s a section on the wall at the Planetarium that shows how the Indigenous people would follow the stars for not just weather, fishing and seasons but as a map to where they want to go. It was a part of my history that I didn’t know existed. Our totems are written in the stars, it’s where our ancestors live and look down on us.
Although I enjoyed Skylore, I couldn’t predict what I would be doing in just a week’s time. That was what it was like during my internship. There were so many different events going on that I was able to be involved in as much or as little as I wanted. When the opportunity came that I could go to the Athletes Village to welcome the athlete teams from six countries competing in the Games, I took it with no hesitation. It was called a Team Welcome Ceremony. It included two dance groups and speeches from both Village Mayors who handed gifts to each team that came to the ceremony. There was a traditional dance and a story involved in the ceremony, giving each of the teams a glimpse into Indigenous culture. The team welcome ceremony quickly became my favourite part of my internship.
That was until I went to Yabru. Yabru is a first nations of the Commonwealth event that was put together by two of my team members. It was held at Dreamworld Corroboree where we set up the woolshed to hold 27 countries and their government officials to attend a ceremony welcoming them to Yugambeh land and Australia. The countries were asked if they wanted to do a performance at the ceremony and many of them accepted that invitation. Watching these diverse cultures come alive before my eyes was beautiful. Everyone interacting with each other and taking in the diverse cultures involved in the night was a picture-perfect moment of inclusion.
I like to imagine that the Indigenous Ancestors were looking down upon us on the night of the Opening Ceremony rehearsal. It was the first live rehearsal and as a staff member at GOLDOC I was given the opportunity to witness it firsthand. I was amazed at the content of Indigenous elements. Bangarra dance company, the four winds didgeridoo orchestra, Luther and his dance troupe, among many other performers were involved in the opening ceremony to conduct a beautiful story of Australia’s shared Indigenous history. It was breathtaking and to include Yugambeh language and the Yugambeh people and their Elders was truly something that I will not be able to forget.
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