NAIDOC Week celebrations in Melbourne put the queer First Nations community to the front on Wednesday with a glittering NAIDOC Pride Night after two years of July lockdowns.
Event organiser Dylan Hoskins with First Nations event management organisation OUSS Entertainment told PEDESTRIAN.TV the night was an important celebration for queer First Nations representation.
“For me it’s about providing platforms and opening doors for mob, for queer mob.
NAIDOC Week is phenomenal — why does it have to be just a week?”
This is the fourth year the event has run and the first after a two-year hiatus. It’s one of hundreds of NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee) events across the country and one of a week-long festival run by Vic NAIDOC. Also in the program were an awards ceremony, a gala ball and a march, among others.
The aim for the pride night was to create a space where the LGBTQIA+ community and the First Nations community could come together and celebrate LGBTQIA+ First Nations performers in the form of a talent show and, well, a massive party.
Performer and winner on the night Kitty Obsidian said queer spaces too often only catered to white, cis people and having an event that was purely for queer and gender diverse First Nations representation felt like “coming home”.
“It’s that feeling of safety and that family that you struggle to find … being able to connect back in is really important,” they told PEDESTRIAN.TV.
“This is where I’m supposed to be and there’s nothing else like it.”
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Comedian Tarsh Jago told PEDESTRIAN.TV she felt lucky to be able to attend and participate in events like these, especially in NAIDOC Week.
“I wanted to be a contestant because a lot of the formal NAIDOC events aren’t super inclusive of queer folk — and that’s not an intentional thing, it’s just the culture and traditions often aligns to gender norms,” she said.
“The fact that we have elders here who have the same experiences as us tells us that this isn’t a new thing and we’re so lucky to have this because we didn’t so many years ago.”
Hoskins said building events like these into formal NAIDOC programs had been a long time coming and is only going to grow.
“The queer and blak community [in Melbourne] is so merged and it’s so strong and powerful. Everyone’s visible and it’s a powerhouse movement,” Hoskins said.
“This should’ve been happening every year and it’s one step forward but we’re going to make leaps and bounds.”
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And it’s making waves already.
All three finalists — Kitty, Jago and Tarneen Onus-Williams — were also crowned the Faces of Aboriginal Pride for Midsumma Festival 2023. Previously only the NAIDOC Pride winner was awarded the title.
“It’s going to get bigger and better and create a better sense of community engagement for us all,” Hoskins said.
