CAN’s commitment to advocating for self-determination for the First Peoples of this land underpins all our work. Our annual Cultural Awareness Day is a part of that advocacy. Led by CAN’s Aboriginal Advisory Group (AAG), the Cultural Awareness Day brings together the CAN staff, board and AAG to learn about Noongar culture, language and history.

In keeping with the name of CAN’s First Nations First Plan, Ngaluk Kaartadjin Wongi (Our Knowledge Talk/Speak), Cultural Awareness Days are about the sharing of knowledge and language to create understanding, both across the rich cultural diversity of the CAN team, and with our many community partners. This opportunity to connect with this Country and its ancient culture offers us the chance to step away from the pressures of our daily lives.

Taking place at the Canning River Eco Education Centre, CAN’s 2024 Cultural Awareness Day was held on Friday 8 March, International Women’s Day 2024, and the importance of matriarchy in Noongar culture was an underlying theme for the day.

As is Noongar custom, the 2024 Cultural Awareness Day was grounded in getting to know one another at a deeper level, by sharing our stories. Noongar vocabulary was woven through the program, from the opening of the day, in which AAG member Kobi Morrison invited us to introduce ourselves in Noongar and use a vocabulary list to describe how we were feeling, through to a workshop led by AAG member Cyndy Moody, which taught us how to pronounce Noongar vowel sounds and compound consonants.

Creative activities gently immersed us in Noongar culture. Guided by AAG member Sharon Wood-Kenney we made smudge sticks from bundles of native twigs, leaves and flowers infused with eucalyptus oils; later Cyndy Moody invited us to paint canvases representing the dry heat and burnt colours of the Boonaroo season.

We are so grateful to our AAG and for their continued generosity in sharing the ancient traditions of this land with us.