This semester has shown to be a fulfilling one for Goorie Berrimpa, as with people finally able to see one another in person we set about building up our community once again. This began in January, when we combined forces with the Environment Collective, Queer Collective and the Women’s Collective to join the Invasion Day rally in Brisbane, protesting the celebration of a day that represents so much ongoing suffering for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
We have had numerous ongoing social and cultural events, such as movie nights and cultural weaving workshops to develop our community and have built an extremely strong sports team that represented Goorie Berrimpa and UQ Sport at the 2021 Indigenous Nationals, hosted by the Wollotuka Institute down in Newcastle. We trained for 6 months in advance and ended up doing incredibly, placing 3rd in Netball, 2nd in Touch, 3rd in Volleyball and 3rd Overall, out of the 20 teams that competed.
Goorie Berrimpa also competed in Social Sport, encouraging healthy lifestyles amongst our community and developing our connections, ultimately coming 2nd in the first grade netball competition after a fantastically competitive season. This is just a taste of what we’ve been up to, to stay up to date check out our new Instagram page @goorieberrimpa, which we have been excited to see grow with fresh content this year.
Semester 2 is going to be a great one for Goorie Berrimpa, with events planned surrounding the anniversary of the Royal Commission into Deaths in Custody, the NAIDOC Ball and of course NAIDOC Week coming up which we will be heavily involved in.
Otis Carmichael
Goorie Berrimpa Officer
Instagram: @goorieberrimpa
