NAIDOC Week 2019
The Dunghutti Elders Council Baby Welcoming Ceremony 2019 was the very first event of its’ kind in Kempsey. I felt privileged to be invited to photograph the special event.
It has been a while since I photographed so many babies, and I have never photographed so many tiny people all in one session. As one of the elders said, “so much little energy all at once”. And I loved it.
Get ready for a cuteness overload!
As I spend more and more time in the beautiful Macleay Valley I see the great importance of working with indigenous groups and individuals on Cultural Photo Shoots. This style of shoot visually represents the deep, ancient culture of the local First Nations People, one of the oldest living cultures on earth. To me it’s very important to celebrate this and share the message that after all these people have been through following colonisation, Aboriginal culture is still alive and strengthening.
For this inaugural event Dunghutti Elders Council asked me to do a Cultural Photo Shoot of the Dunghutti babies. These photographs were framed and presented to the families at a very special ceremony in Kempsey during NAIDOC Week 2019. These are the images shown here, which the families absolutely loved.
The ceremony was opened by Ngaire Matthews, General Manager of Dunghutti Elders Council. Special words were said and history told by Uncle Bob and a welcome to the tribe was given to each baby in language by Aunty Cheryl Blair. Benelong Carroll lead the group of dancers and played didgeridoo (or “hollow log” as he jokingly told us to call it if would couldn’t pronounce the local name for it).
As well as the framed photograph, each baby received a gift bag with beautiful hand made items created by Dunghutti Stitching. The guests enjoyed a celebratory NAIDOC lunch afterwards.
Thank you very much to the Dunghutti Elders Council and Nancy Pattison for inviting me to be part of this very special event. I’m looking forward to seeing it grow and evolve over the coming years.
To see another Cultural shoot which I did recently on Dunghutti country, visit here
