CHILDREN at Mount Isa’s Yallambee reserve will have a chance to make more friends with a fun day organised by the Brilla Brilla Community Centre.
The reserve based centre’s coordinator Violet Dargan said the Back to Yallambee Day on Tuesday was going to include a smoking ceremony, a jumping castle, sports and dance competitions and an elders’ yarning circle.
“It’s about the Mount Isa community coming together to have fun and parents engaging with their children to give them a fun day and to give the children down here a chance to play with other children,” Mrs Dargan said.
“For some of them, this year will be the first time they go to school.”
She hoped one of the elders would share the story of the Black Cockatoo Dreaming. The story is of huge significance to the Yallambee site.
There would be video footage taken on the day which will be kept for the Brilla Brilla Community Centre’s historical records, and elders will be invited to share their stories to the camera.
The footage would be edited and then later released for show at a community event at a date still to be determined.
She was grateful for the time, prizes and support that community groups had offered.
Young People Ahead already organised a wheelie bin and yard competition for Yallambee addresses to help make the reserve neat and tidy for the event.
Mrs Dargan has been working on the fun day since she began her role last February to help broaden connections in the community.
“In the past Aboriginal reserves right around Australia always receive negative attention, and this was a chance to add a positive light to Yallambee,” Mrs Dargan said,
“There are older people, younger people here, that are hard workers not just at Yallambee but across every Aboriginal community.”
Rapper Lucky Luke will perform a show on the day, and Aboriginal cultural activities will be headed by Shaun and Roslyn Major.
Back to Yallambee begins at the reserve’s park at 9am, Tuesday, January 19.
