NAIDOC week activities are off to a start in Kempsey following the annual NAIDOC march and flag raising ceremony.
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With 'For Our Elders' this year's theme, community elders were front and centre for the march starting from Elbow Street down to Forth Street.
The march came to an end at Services Club Park with a flag raising ceremony and community barbecue hosted by Kinchela Boys Home Aborginal Corporation (KBHAC) and Durri Aborgianl Corporation Medical Service (ACMS).
Durri ACMS CEO Stephen Blunden said it has been a great partnership between the two organisations.
"It's a good day," he said.
"Today is basically about celebrating our Elders and our survival.
"It's 2023, we're still here and we're probably not going to go away."
KBHAC Kempsey office programs manager Jayde Kelly said it was good to see different faces coming together.
"It's good to see a good turn out from the community, particularly for our Elders and to pay respect and homage to the people that laid that platform for us," she said.
"It's a good occasion for our community to start the week of celebrations...so this is a good way for us to start off the week to let people know we are still here."
Like other organisations in the Macleay Valley, both KBHAC and Durris ACMS are involved in a number of activities though out this week organised by the Kempsey NAIDOC Committee.
But this year's theme provide an opportunity to celebrate Elders who have played and continue to play an important role in their communities.
Aunty Sandra Donovan is planning to write a book about her family history as well as her own stories.
Her mother, a Biripai woman escaped the Aboriginal Protection Board with her older siblings by swimming across the Hastings River.
"That's got to be told," Aunty Sandra said.
"The day she stopped running was the day Dad took her in under his wing and reared those... children."
Aunty Sandra has a number of stories to share from growing up on Dunghutti land, visiting Cootamundra Aboriginal Girls' Home where he older sister was taken to, her journey travelling around Australia as well as her connection to relatives 1968 Olympian Joseph Donovan and Dave Sands.
"I'm very honoured to be here," she said.
"It was my Dad's country... and I'm very honoured to be here to represent him even though he's passed on.
"We were part of this land with our Dad and it'll never leave our hearts."
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