NAIDOC Week started on Sunday in Melbourne’s north with the formal naming of the new Craigieburn art space as the Gee Lee-Wik Doleen Gallery.
Gee Lee-Wik Doleen is a Woiwurrung term meaning The Ancestors’ Pride.
Visitors to the gallery this week are being invited to draw or write directly on its walls, following threads and outlines created by a number of local artists and based on the Gee Lee-Wik Doleen name.
“The phrase Gee Lee-Wik Doleen pays respect to the many people who have contributed to the rich cultural heritage of the area and the legacy on which the gallery and its program have been built,” Hume mayor Casey Nunn said.
The progressive exhibition will run until the end of August.
In Whittlesea tomorrow, the council, the Ngarara Willim Centre and RMIT University will host a free tour of the Keelbundoora Scarred Trees and Heritage Trail at RMIT University’s Bundoora West campus.
There are six scarred trees along the trail, as well as a creative interpretation of the resource harvesting techniques practised by generations of Aborigines.
Wurundjeri elders will guide the tour and indicate local bush tucker and Aboriginal cultural land management. The tour starts 10am at the Bundoora West campus, Plenty Road (Melway 10 A8); phone 9217 2174.
The 2014 Melbourne NAIDOC Week march will start at the Victorian Aboriginal Health Services, 186 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy, at 10am on Friday and finish in the CBD.
NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee.
