NAIDOC Week celebrates and recognises the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. This year’s theme is "Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up!”. This week we celebrated NAIDOC Week in all Ladder programs.

Our young people were delighted to hear from a proud Indigenous AFLW player, who shared the importance of NAIDOC Week and reflected on what it means to her.

“Get Up! Stand Up! Show up! The slogan for NAIDOC Week reiterates that actions speak louder than words and every little thing that you do in your daily basis, not only from this Sunday to next Sunday but everything that you’re continuing to do, that’s closing the gap” - AFLW player

Step Up Latrobe Valley program participants took part in a tour of a local Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Trail: Waterhole Creek. The trail includes artwork by Indigenous artist and Gunaikurnai man, Uncle Ronald Edwards. Each young person was tasked with learning six new facts from the trail and sharing back with the group. The young people learned a lot from the experience and have more of an understanding of the traditional Gunaikurnai land on which they live.