House debates

Monday, 16 October 2023

Statements by Members

Solomon Electorate: Community Events

4:01 pm

Photo of Luke GoslingLuke Gosling (Solomon, Australian Labor Party) Share this | | Hansard source

I would like to acknowledge three extraordinary Larrakia leaders that I've had a bit to do with over the last few days. First of those is Nicole Brown. On Saturday morning I went down to catch up with her because she had coordinated the Barca Academy camps. Honourable members might've heard of the Barcelona football club. With the help of some local businesspeople, the Halikos and Briceno-Rossi families, Nicole Brown, as a Larrakia community leader, bought those Spanish soccer players over to Darwin, and they did a great morning with the kids. Young First Nations kids were running around playing a bit of soccer. Obviously, they are a massive professional sporting club, and it's great to see them getting out and doing some training with some of those kids.

Also, just today I met with Jerome Cubillo. He is a great young leader of the future. He was here with the Northern Australia Indigenous Reference Group.

I want to give a shout-out to Richie Fejo, the former chair of the Larrakia Nation Aboriginal Corporation. After the weekend and the result yesterday, he put a call out for a saltwater ceremony down at Lake Alexander in Darwin. It was attended by people who just wanted to reach out and have that connection with the community. Well done to all of those Larrakia leaders.