‘Today is a sad day’: Wulumbarra Still Here dawn service held in Mooroopna

By Nicola Ceccato

Jan 26, 2024

January 26 is a day of celebration for many and a day of mourning for others.

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For First Nations people, it’s the latter.

In recognition of this, on the morning of Friday, January 26, the annual Wulumbarra Still Here dawn service was held.

The service was first held in 2021 by Wulumbarra founders Neil Morris and Michael Bourke to recognise and mourn the day Australia was invaded, and the intergenerational trauma that was inflicted on Indigenous Australia after that.

Since 2021, the service has grown in size and popularity, and this year’s instalment saw close to 200 people attending.

Encouragement: Neil Morris conducted the service, sharing words of strength to the crowd throughout the morning. Photo by Nicola Ceccato

Mr Morris led the service, providing words of thanks to past Elders for their strength, sharing hope for a better future.

“We had that strength within us; we had that vision for the future,” Mr Morris said as he talked about his Elders.

“And I thank our ancestors so much for that, that they saw that vision.

“They saw what could come if they stood on what they knew to be true, as opposed to what the colonial constructs believed to be true, which is that we should be trapped, stripped of our culture, stripped of our humanity.”

Following a smoking ceremony and welcoming speech, various performances were held throughout the morning.

Words become music: Yorta Yorta artist Shanikwa AJ, 17, performed a song she wrote for the day. Photo by Nicola Ceccato

Each performance expressed the connection to Country and the stories that have followed, and continue to follow, First Nations people throughout history, while proudly emphasising their identity as proud Yorta Yorta artists.

These performances came from Galnya Winyarr, Kailthaban and Galnya Yenbena dancers, alongside singers Shanikwa AJ and Lillie Walker and Yorta Yorta hip hip artist BricKy B, who shared some spoken words.

Yorta Yorta Aunty Merle Miller spoke, followed by a proud K’gari woman who told of her story growing up and the trauma that was inflicted on her as an Indigenous woman in Queensland.

Silence from the crowd accompanied the words of each artist and speaker as their words sunk in.

Brave: A K'gari woman stood up to share her story growing up in Queensland. Photo by Nicola Ceccato

Member for Metro Region for First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria and proud Wurundjeri, Boon Wurrung, and Yorta Yorta man, Uncle Shane Charles, shared the insight of someone who is working towards Treaty in Victoria.

“Today is a sad day,” Uncle Shane said.

“Today, all of those wounds of the past from our Elders, our ancestors, hit you right here every year, time and time again.

“Has much changed?

“We cannot forget this culture that we have.

“We cannot leave that, it’s a part of us. It’s in us.

“They wanted us to be white; they wanted us to forget about this ancient culture and to live like the colony and that unleashing of that force and that continual blame that we have on that journey, it has to change.”