NAIDOC Family Fun Day: An Interview with UnitingCare's Sherree Bale

NAIDOC is an annual week-long recognition and celebration of First Peoples in Australia, and last weeks’ NAIDOC was a significant milestone in this celebration, its 50^th year. Celebrations of culture and community are held across the country in many different forms, and the largest of these year-on-year is the Musgrave Park Family Fun Day held in South Brisbane, a family friendly festival of live entertainment, activities and market stalls showcasing First Nations People, culture and heritage.

Each year the Uniting Aboriginal and Islander Christian Congress (UAICC) of the Qld Synod, Muth arrak, share a stall with Wesley Mission Qld, UnitingCare Queensland, represented by the Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) Team, 13YARN and other volunteers from across the organisations. If you have visited the stall in the last few years, you might recognise one of these volunteers, Senior Manager Quality, Safety, Compliance and Risk of UnitingCare Health, Sherree Bale. I sat down with Sherree for a yarn about what made her start volunteering at the NAIDOC stall, and what keeps her coming back.

When did you first start coming to the NAIDOC Family Day as a volunteer at the stall?

The first time I came was 2023. I was working at St Andrews (hospital) at the time as the Quality Manager. And one of my responsibilities was to hold the role of chairperson of the St Andrew’s War Memorial Hospital Reconciliations Action Plan (RAP) Committee.

I thought it was important that I came along to something like this to actually understand a little bit more about what I was trying to drive in the hospital, since equality was the main focus for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that access our services.

UCQ operates private hospitals, and it is important that we ensure quality outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander patients. I came along with an expectation of, I suppose, what I'd seen growing up and where I'd come from… certain aspects of what I thought, being Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander means.

And I think it's only in the last couple of years that I've realised that I first came along with quite a bit of unconscious bias around what to expect. I expected different to what I've seen here every year, which is family, connection and respect for Elders. Just a lot of love actually.

I come here with Aunty Bev from 13YARN, she knows everyone, she hugs people, and it just makes me feel really special to be a part of it now. It fills my cup being here. And it makes me feel really embarrassed actually to say that I had those thoughts.

I think the first year I just was like, okay well, I need to change my thinking pretty quickly, and now I’m feeling a part of the experience; rather than just sort of being more of an outsider trying to make lollie bags or something, I’m actually connecting with people in meaningful ways.

Did you convince many people from your office to come along this year?

Well, I did say it would be good if people came, but you know if you haven’t really been exposed to these things, you do feel kind of like, “I don't know what am I supposed to do here?”

I'm more of a shy kind of person, but now that I've done this a few times, I know that you can always offer the elders a cuppa, they love sitting down and just having a chat and I feel like I know people a lot more.

It’s great to come and see the connections that people have with each other and their families, and with culture as well. I always try and get to watch some of the dancing. And, you know, seeing the little kids learn from the elders is really important, I think for the culture. It’s just so calm and nice and friendly and everyone's smiling. It's a great day.

And what has the experience meant for you like outside of NAIDOC week?

Beyond NAIDOC, just knowing Nikki and the RAP team. They've really been supportive to me on my journey and walking with me to help me learn and understand.

I went to Tassie last year and we're sitting in a restaurant and a couple were from Western Australia were there, and we're talking about the football. And I think they’d had the recent disagreement about the Welcome to Country and they were talking about it in a way where I thought, “Oh my God, I'm either gonna have to walk or I'm actually gonna say something” because I can't help myself anymore. So they started talking to us and they were still showing that they couldn't understand what the meaning of the Welcome to Country was and I actually challenged their thinking. We had a stimulating conversation which was calm, and in the end they said; “I'm going to actually go away and learn a little bit more, but thanks for sharing that with me”.

I need to also take other people on that journey that I've been on.

Being involved in this day has made me a lot more comfortable being able to stand up and actually be an ally rather than just knowing I needed to learn more.

I love working for UnitingCare, it’s a great faith-based organisation, where connection to people is really important. And this is why I'm still here because I can get a little bit back as well as give.