Cathy McGowan (Indi, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Nestled in the Ovens Valley in the foothills of the great Australian Alps lies the beautiful town and community of Bright. On Saturday, I had the amazing experience of being part of the annual Marngrook family footy event with local people, the Dhudhuroa, versus the imports from Wadeye in the Northern Territory. This is a traditional game of Australian footy, Aboriginal footy. The aim is to keep the ball in the air the whole time so that all players on both sides need to work together. It makes for a great game for communities to play together. Thank you to the community for inviting me. It is so lovely to be in my own community and be part of Aboriginal people playing footy in our community.

But the highlight of the day was the welcome to country. It is one of the first times that I have been welcomed to country in the local Dhudhuroa language. For this, I acknowledge the work of Bright P-12 College and the students in year nine and 12, over 40 students a year, who are becoming technically proficient in this language. Congratulations to all involved. It was a great day of footy. I learned a great deal. I am particularly so proud that we are resurrecting the languages in our community of our great history.

To Dallas Mugarra, Gary Murray, Lee Paul, Justin Crawley, John Pryor, Nicky Bomba, Jason Reid, Andrew Nicholas, Sue Joyce, Rebecca Crawley, Lee Rosser, Principal Jean Olley, all the Indigenous students, the Kindred Spirits Foundation and our visitors from the Northern Territory, I thank you for making a wonderful day in north-east Victoria.

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