Community News - providing readers with the very latest in local news, sport, entertainment and more.
Camera IconCommunity News - providing readers with the very latest in local news, sport, entertainment and more. Credit: Community News

Retracing elder’s footsteps

Vanessa SchmittWeekend Kwinana Courier

MANDURAH man Cedric Jacobs and his granddaughter Kezia Jacobs-Smith are heading to Geneva, Switzerland in June as delegates to a United Nations Indigenous people symposium.

It will be the second symposium for Indigenous Peoples at the UN: from the Experience of the First Delegates to the Empowerment of the Young Generations.

"Im totally honoured to have even been given the opportunity," Ms Jacobs-Smith said.

PerthNow Digital Edition.
Your local paper, whenever you want it.

Get in front of tomorrow's news for FREE

Journalism for the curious Australian across politics, business, culture and opinion.

READ NOW

"My grandfather Cedric has always been so proud of his representation of Aboriginal people as a delegate to the United Nations Geneva Convention back in 1977.

"It will be such a privilege to retrace his footsteps with him."

The symposium will bring together the elders, both male and female, who participated in the historic conference of 1977/1981, and will make use of the methodology of oral history.

Indigenous youth will participate to establish bridges of intergenerational communication for a series of histories.

Ms Jacobs-Smith said the symposium was important because Aboriginal people had been in this country for tens of thousands of years.

"Our culture is known to be the oldest surviving culture in the world," she said.

"However, sadly our own government fails to see the value in our traditions and way of life.

"I will learn as much as I can, record it and bring it back so our people can use it to help us move forward."