National Reconciliation Week Celebrations @ WestCare Centre

During National Reconciliation Week (27 May – 3 June), the team at Baptist Care SA’s Inner City site held an event for our clients, volunteers, staff and the wider community to come together and celebrate reconciliation.

Attendees enjoyed music by Les Sumner, a smoothie bike, henna tattoos, face painting, a Fly Bird Fly art workshop, games and a delicious native inspired barbecue lunch.

“This is the fourth year that we’ve hosted an event to mark Reconciliation Week. This year’s theme was ‘Grounded in Truth, Walk Together with Courage’. We really wanted to get together as a community to connect, acknowledge our clients’ stories and build relationships based on truth. And we wanted to give our clients a day to enjoy and feel pampered,” Inner City staff member Kristen.

The WestCare kitchen served close to 150 meals with an assortment of kangaroo patties, ‘bush tomato and mountain pepper leaf’ and ‘Manuka honey with hickory’ sausages served with quandong muntries, and salt bush and sea parsley salad. For dessert attendees enjoyed scones with wattle seed cream and bush honey fig cupcakes…yum!

Inner City Case Manager Judith Love brought her three children along to the event.

“They [Judith’s children] loved the fact that everyone was together – that you couldn’t tell who was staff, volunteers or clients. Everyone was welcome and came together as one.

To me the Reconciliation Week event was about being family, coming together and embracing our Aboriginal brothers and sisters, young and old. In reconciliation we grow.”

We would like to thank everyone who gave their time and efforts to make Reconciliation Week at the WestCare Centre another memorable community event. A special thanks goes to Kristen Forbes for her amazing work organising the event.