A big Naidoc Week in Mount Isa has come to a climax with the street march followed by a family fun day outside the Civic Centre.
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A day after Mount Isa's Pattie Lees was appointed onto a new Indigenous Voices committee, well over a thousand people gathered at Outback at Isa on Friday morning to enjoy a free barbie breakfast before Police Liaison Officer Uncle George Leon led the parade in his police car.
They march down Rodeo Drive to the Civic Centre lawns where MOB FM was hosting a family fun day.
Mayor Danielle Slade told the crowd Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders had a 65,000 year culture which was the oldest in the world which the city had been celebrating all week.
She said this year's Naidoc Theme Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! was impactful.
"It's about a desire to change the relationships between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians," Cr Slade said.
Uncle Warren King gave the welcome to country and praised the fact that Indigenous people were better counted in last year's census as government funding was based on this factor.
"The Aboriginal and Torres Strait community of Mount Isa certainly did get up, stand up and show up," Mr King said.
"Data from the 2021 census said Mount Isa's Aboriginal and Torres Strait shows grew by 871 people from 3149 in 2016 to 4020 in 2021 now making up 21.5pc of the total population of 18,727 people in Mount Isa.
"Give yourselves a huge round of applause."
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Derek Barry
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
Editor of the North West Star Mount Isa since January 2016. Prior to that, an editor at several regional southern Queensland newspapers. Passionate about telling local stories. Comes with a strange accent to due an Irish accident of birth.
