All By Myself

I got to the office on Friday morning and put a bottle of red on the desk for the raffle for Oxfam. I then opened up my email and began to catch up on the week. There was an email from Erin, apologising for not telling me about the annual Leave she had booked in for Friday – meaning today!! This meant I would be all by myself in the office with no one to turn to for support!!!Luckily, she had left me work to do for The National Aboriginal Islander Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC Week.)

To teach the staff about NAIDOC week, I wrote up 5 different emails that the staff will receive during NAIDOC Week containing different information on NAIDOC.

Day 1 – Introduction to NAIDOC. This year’s theme is Change: the next step is ours

Day 2 – History of NAIDOC

Day 3 – The 1967 referendum. This resulted in a change in the constitution and the forming of the Department of Aboriginal Affairs in 1972.  

 Day 4 – The National NAIDOC Poster Campaign gives upcoming Aboriginal Artist the chance to be featured on the poster. They win $5000 plus their work is given exposure, not only in the poster, but in different Art Exhibitions held across Australia.

Day 5 – The NAIDOC Awards held at the NAIDOC Ball on the Friday of NAIDOC Week.

This took a while, because I was actually learning about NAIDOC Week at the same time. 

“NAIDOC is a celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and an opportunity to recognise the contributions of Indigenous Australians in various fields.”

I researched a lot about how other towns/schools/organisations help to celebrate NAIDOC Week and jotted down some points about how the office could help celebrate the week. I think getting everyone to paint different sections of the banner in Aboriginal dot-painting style would be a great way to get the office involved and something that can be showcased in the office.

On top of the activity, there will also be movie screenings through the week. I booked out the Level 1 Boardroom for the week between 12pm and 2pm every day. To do this Ninah (EA) showed me the shared calendar the office books the room through. Very good idea and very easy to see when it’s free.  

I tried to contact the City of Belmont to see what they were doing and what we could maybe piggy-back on!! However when I rang the whole department was at a conference for the day, so will have to try them this Friday if Erin hasn’t already. 

I actually managed fine by myself, everyone in the office is great and very approachable if I had any questions, which I only had 2. Ninah even asked me for help in writing out an email to invite some management to the corporate box at the football in Brisbane (where our other office is.) I finished off the day, by working on an Unearthed article, before Pat’s weekly update while - you guessed it – I had a glass of bubbly with the girls in the office!