Celebrating NAIDOC 2021

NAIDOC week starts today, and this year’s theme – Heal Country – feels particularly relevant to the work we do at Fulcrum.

As an agency working in the built environment, we spend a lot of time thinking about First Nations’ notions of Country. It is so radically different to the Western idea of the same word. We spotted this quote by the late ethnographer Deborah Bird on The Conversation* this morning and it helped to make sense of the difference:

Country is not a generalised or undifferentiated type of place, such as one might indicate with terms like ‘spending a day in the country’ or ‘going up the country’. Rather, Country is a living entity with a yesterday, today and tomorrow, with a consciousness, and a will toward life.

We join with all of you in celebrating the culture, wisdom and achievements of our First Nations people this NAIDOC week.

* ‘Although we didn’t produce these problems, we suffer them’: 3 ways you can help in NAIDOC’s call to Heal Country’ by Bhiamie Williamson https://bit.ly/3wfOmEs