Connecting to Country and Culture launches

Wednesday 27 May, 10.30am - 12.30pm 
Monash Civic Centre, Glen Waverley 
FREE ticketed event.  

You're invited to our Reconciliation Week Celebratory Event, embracing the 2026 theme, ‘All In’.  
 
Take part in a traditional Smoking Ceremony and Welcome to Country, and hear stories shared by First Nations Elders. 

There will be a host of cultural activities, including a weaving workshop with Aunty Merilyn Duff and other Monash stalls. 

This event will also officially launch Celebrating Country and Culture, Council's eight‑week immersive program of events that will continue through NAIDOC Week to celebrate First Nations culture, stories and connection to Country. 

Lightbox Gallery
Foyer, Oakleigh Library, Drummond Street, Oakleigh 
FREE exhibition, No bookings required. 

Coree Thorpe (aka Lucid Juncture) is a Yorta Yorta, Gunditjmara, Gunai and Wurundjeri artist based in Melbourne.

Their practice is grounded in identity, Country, family and community, and is an ongoing process of learning, reflection and cultural restoration.

Coree’s work responds to their personal journey of understanding who they are and what their art represents, with culture and connection at its core. 

Through illustration and creative practice, Coree explores ways of reconnecting with culture and restoring cultural processes.

Their work is deeply influenced by lived experience and community relationships, using art as a means of storytelling, healing and strengthening cultural identity. 

Monday 1 June, 6.30pm  
Meeting Room, Wheelers Hill Library, 860 Ferntree Gully Road, Wheelers Hill 
FREE ticketed event.  

Join us for an immersive bush tucker tasting experience that celebrates the incredible flavours of the Australian landscape! 

You will have the chance to sample a diverse selection of bush tucker foods during the event, with information sheets available to enrich the tasting experience by offering insights into the featured ingredients and their traditional uses. 

Saturday 6 June – 30 August 2026 
Museum of Australian Photography (MAPh), 860 Ferntree Gully Road, Wheelers Hill
Free event. No bookings required. 

ROLLERCOASTER: Winhangadurinya in motion is a major 2026 exhibition at the MAPh by acclaimed artist Brook Andrew.

Bringing together a new commission with a significant body of existing works, the exhibition reveals how histories are produced, disrupted and re‑assembled, inviting new ways of seeing the relationship between past and present. 

Grounded in Andrew’s Wiradjuri and Ngunnawal perspectives, the exhibition unfolds across all museum spaces as a site of movement and reflection.

Through collage and visual intervention, it explores cultural memory, colonial legacies and contemporary uncertainty, guided by the concept of winhangadurinya—deep reflective thinking that embraces stillness within motion. 

About the artist 

Brook Andrew is a Wiradjuri and Ngunnawal artist whose work spans visual art, research and long‑term collaboration.

Highly respected in Australia and internationally, Andrew’s practice is shaped by sustained engagement with archives, museums and systems of knowledge, examining how cultural materials are collected, framed and interpreted. 

Working across collage, installation and photographic media, Andrew challenges dominant narratives and the structures that shape them.

His work draws together cultural knowledge, critical inquiry and contemporary art practice to explore representation, memory and responsibility, positioning art as a space for listening, questioning and re‑imagining shared histories  

Friday 12 June, 6.30pm - 7.30pm 
Meeting Room, Wheelers Hill Library, 860 Ferntree Gully Road, Wheelers Hill 
FREE ticketed event. 

On-the-rise young Indigenous boxer Chris Wundurra lives in the long-cast shadow of his old man.

Though Chris has alternate influences in his big-hearted grandmother and café owning friend Marcus, Sammy’s hold over Chris is vice-tight.

Sammy pushes Chris to swing for a national boxing championship, something he never had a shot at.

But when Chris meets Jamie and is taken under the wing of a gay theatre owner, he eventually realises that he’s on a very different journey altogether.   

Wednesday 24 June, 1pm  
Clayton Library, Clayton Community Centre, Cooke Street, Clayton 
Free ticketed event.  

Join us for a meaningful and creative art workshop to explore the depth and beauty of Australian Indigenous culture with Uncle Eric Brown.

Connecting with culture helps us strengthen relationships, broadens understanding, and builds a community grounded in respect.

Through shared stories, traditions and creativity, we gain fresh perspectives and celebrate the richness of the world’s oldest living cultures. This workshop offers a chance to experience that connection in a hands-on and heartfelt way. 

Uncle Eric will guide you in this hands-on art workshop while yarning on the richness of First Nations' culture.

At the end of the session, you will have a unique artwork that you have created to take home as a reminder of your experience. 

Thursday 2 July  
Monash Youth Services, 1/2 Euneva Avene, Glen Waverley
Free ticketed sessions below.

9.30am session (8-13 yrs)

11.30am session (14 – 18 yrs)  

Participants create their own unique painting on canvas using knowledge shared about Aboriginal symbols and culture as well as share their stories via a gallery walk and mini group discussions. 

Monday 6 July, 10.30am  
In Person/ Zoom  
Wheelers Hill Library, 860 Ferntree Gully, Wheelers Hill 
FREE ticketed event.  

A Very Secret Trade by Professor Cassandra Pybus explores the sensitive and troubling history of the removal and trade of Tasmanian Aboriginal remains.  

In the 19th century, collectors and museum curators in Europe were fascinated by the antipodean colony of Tasmania. They cultivated contacts in the colony who could supply them with exotic specimens, but they were not just interested in animals and plants.  

The belief that the original people of the colony were an utterly unique race and facing possible extinction, triggered the deeply disturbing and highly unethical pursuit and theft of the human remains of Tasmanian Aboriginal people.  

Many eminent colonial figures were involved in this clandestine trade, among them colonial governors and key politicians. 

Join Cassandra for this unmissable presentation as she uncovers one of the darkest and most carefully hidden secrets in Australia's colonial history.

6 – 9 July 
FREE event. No booking required. 

NAIDOC Week Storytimes will run at all six library branches as part of the regular storytime program.  

Find NAIDOC Week Storytime sessions online.

Saturday 11 July, 10.30am  
Wheelers Hill Library, 860 Ferntree Gully Road, Wheelers Hill. 
FREE ticketed event.

Join us for an immersive bush tucker tasting experience that celebrates the incredible flavours of the Australian landscape! 

Children will have the chance to sample a diverse selection of bush tucker foods during the event, with information sheets available to enrich the tasting experience by offering insights into the featured ingredients and their traditional uses.

A variety of tasting options, both savoury and sweet, will be provided and will vary according to the seasonal availability of native plants. Children will learn some fun facts linking native bush tucker to birds, animals and habitat and country. 

Thursday 30 July  
Clayton Theatre, 9/15 Cooke St, Clayton 
Ticketed event. $10pp.    

Step into the world of Blak Circus with Na Djinang, one of Australia’s most imaginative contemporary circus companies.

Guided by world class artists, this workshop opens a door to movement, culture and connection.

You will tumble, balance and create a team in a space that celebrates curiosity, courage, and the joy of trying something new.

No experience is needed – just a willingness to play, to test your limits and to discover what extraordinary might feel like for your body. Join us for a generous and energising introduction to Blak circus with sessions for all ages! 

Session 1: 4pm – 5.10pm - Na Djinang Circus Workshop Series (Ages 7 - 11)   

Session 2: 5.20pm - 6.30pm - Na Djinang Circus Workshop Series (Ages 11 - 14)  

Session 3: 6.40pm - 7.50pm - Na Djinang Circus Workshop Series (Ages 15- 18) 

Friday 31 July  
Clayton Theatre, 9/15 Cooke St, Clayton 
Ticketed event. $10pp.    

Step into the world of Blak Circus with Na Djinang, one of Australia’s most imaginative contemporary circus companies.

Guided by world class artists, this workshop opens a door to movement, culture and connection.

You will tumble, balance and create a team in a space that celebrates curiosity, courage, and the joy of trying something new.

No experience is needed – just a willingness to play, to test your limits and to discover what extraordinary might feel like for your body.

Join us for a generous and energising introduction to Blak circus with sessions for all ages! 

Saturday 1 August, 11am – 3pm  
Clayton Theatre, Clayton Community Centre, Cooke Street, Clayton. 
Ticketed event. $10pp.   

Na Djinang performers are offering a special opportunity to develop key skills in movement, culture and connection.

This workshop invites performers and makers to explore how circus emerges from the body, how movement carries story, and how culture shapes audience experience.

Led by Na Djinang artists, it offers training with Blak theatre professionals working at the intersection of movement, culture and connection.

You’ll develop movement‑based skills in a responsive, grounded space that centres story, place and lived experience.

The workshop focuses on process over polish and is welcoming of all experience levels—no circus background required, just a willingness to move, listen and engage.

Workshops are welcoming and adaptable and provide the best and safest experience. 

 We encourage participants to discuss any access needs with us in advance so we can understand what support is required within our capacity.