The Indigenous community of Greater Shepparton gathered at the break of dawn in Kaieltheban Park, Mooroopna to recognise and mourn the day they were invaded more than 200 years ago.
The Reconciliation Council and Wulumbarra worked together to organise the Survival Day Dawn Ceremony with dances from Wulumbarra, a smoking ceremony and various speeches from community Elders and leaders.
Organisers Neil Morris and Michael Bourke from Wulumbarra conducted the ceremony, speaking of the irreversible changes colonisation brought to their people and the land around them.
“Today is a mourning day for us. This marks the day our country was invaded and classed as terra nullius which means nobody here, but the thing is you can see our mob here, right now, we are still here, we belong to this country, we speak this country’s language,’’ Mr Bourke said.
‘’Each animal you see in this landscape is speaking a language. Most people don’t understand what the language is. Our mob we can understand that language telling us when to put fire out to the country, when to burn the country to produce food and fibre that we use in our ceremonies or everyday living … our mob has been here for millennia,’’ Mr Bourke said.
“The whole life of the next 200-plus years upon this land was changed undeniably. That change has rippled across every single First Nations people across this land and it certainly has rippled all the way down to this particular part of country where we stand today,” Mr Morris said.
“The focus is to bring people back and this is why we chose today as a day of mourning. It’s about bringing people to the table within a space that is a reflective space and gives people an opportunity to sit within that reflectiveness with us and hear and understand why it’s a day of mourning for us,” Mr Morris said.
Many Indigenous Elders and leaders spoke about change and working together as a nation in unity as a way forward, such as Elder Merle Miller.
“Personally I don’t see anything wrong with celebrating Australia Day but this is the wrong time to do it. We’ve asked continuously for the date to change, that’s all we want. This is the reminder of past atrocities but we need to move forward and change the date and we can all celebrate as one,” she said.
The day holds hurt for a lot of Indigenous people, as Elder Bobby Nicholls said.
“It puts us and our predecessors through so much misery,” he said.
Ms Miller said it was extremely important that people worked to spread this message and come together as a nation.
“Get the word out. You need to know our past to heal our country, to be one united model in this beautiful country of ours,” she said.