Community & Business
2 October, 2025
NAIDOC Day Awards celebrate our local Indigenous legends
The first week of the school holidays saw local NAIDOC Day celebrations in Oakey with an Awards Ceremony and Family Fun Day hosted by the Oakey Community Yarn Up Group, the highlights of the week.
The NAIDOC Community Awards were presented following a celebratory march on Sunday 21st September, with the winners being as follows:
Cultural-Community Champion: William Haupt
Encourage Award: Sherilee Laine
Sportsperson Award: Ciarah Burns
Education Awards: Pipah Collins
Ally/Partnership Award: Amy Sanson
Elder Award: Uncle Owen ‘Poey’ Martin.
More than 500 people attended the Family Fun Day the next day at The Den on Kent Street, with over $2000 being raised for Oakey’s Indigenous community, through the Community Yarn Up Group.
On Tuesday, focus turned to local elders, who were celebrated with a lunch supported by Goondir Health and New Acland Coal at the Oakey RSL.
Although NAIDOC Week is recognised nationally in the first week of July, Oakey’s events are held later in the year to allow for more attention, out of the shadow of Toowoomba’s NAIDOC events.
“On behalf of the Oakey Community Yarn Up Group we would like give a huge shout out to everyone who came along and supported our event,” a Community Yarn Up spokesperson said.
“According to the amount of positive feedback we received on Monday it is safe to say we had another successful NAIDOC Celebrations.
“The smiles and happiness we (have) seen on all the little people’s faces is what drives us to (hold) these events for our community.
“Whether it was a gold coin donation, buying food or having a stall, the contributions we received from the community (were) overwhelming.
“Every donation comes back into the Oakey Community Yarn Up Group to help support us for more events in the future.”
