![Sharna Dempsey (left) with her daughter Alice Cram, 4, and Gungahlin Child and Family Centre Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service co-ordinator Megan Daley. Picture: Matt Loxton Sharna Dempsey (left) with her daughter Alice Cram, 4, and Gungahlin Child and Family Centre Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander service co-ordinator Megan Daley. Picture: Matt Loxton](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/fdcx/doc7d6gab6v9b418nh1zaxd.jpg/r0_120_3000_1813_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
When Sharna Dempsey's partner was growing up, he did not know a lot about his Aboriginal culture.
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The same can't be said for the couple's daughter, Alice Cram, who at only four years old is learning Ngunnawal language at her Koori preschool.
"[My partner] Arron [Cram is] kind of a little bit in the dark in some sections," Ms Dempsey said.
"I don't really want that to be Alice - I think it's good for her to know as much as she can about her culture and pass that on."
Sunday marks the last day of NAIDOC Week for 2020, and the family, like all, have been forced to celebrate a little differently because of COVID-19.
Gungahlin Child and Family Centre normally partners with Belco Arts and the ACT government among others to put on "NAIDOC in the North" events, which have attracted more than 1000 people.
In 2020, the centre hosted a fewer-than-40-person barbecue to mark the event.
Centre manager Gerard Nolan said: "It was basically just about acknowledging the fact that we were in the middle of NAIDOC Week - we got together and I suppose, broke a bit of bread and had a low-key event.
"We really felt it was important to do that."
Apart from the barbecue, much of the NAIDOC in the North events went online this year.
The same approach was reflected in NAIDOC Week's official program of registered events. In 2019, there were 18 events listed on the NAIDOC website for the ACT, one of which was online only and another that had a broadcast component.
The National NAIDOC Secretariat said: "In 2020, there [were] 14 events listed for the ACT, half of which [included] an online or video component."
Ms Dempsey said while it would have been nice to attend the usual larger NAIDOC Week events this year, her family has still felt connected to celebrations.
She and Alice watched the Australian National University's NAIDOC Week Kambri concert as it was streamed onto YouTube on Thursday night, and also visited the National Carillon to watch the NAIDOC display.
"[Alice] was sitting there [watching the concert] and she was like, 'There's an Aboriginal lady and I'm Aboriginal'. She's really proud of herself and proud that she can say she's Aboriginal," Ms Dempsey said.
"Alice and I stayed in the car [at the National Carillon] while Arron took a few closer pictures, but that's even a beautiful thing because you can't have all these events."
![Former co-chair of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, Rod Little. Picture: Elesa Kurtz Former co-chair of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, Rod Little. Picture: Elesa Kurtz](/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/fdcx/doc77jwe91gv83vgl2i28e.jpg/r0_90_4035_2359_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg)
Former co-chair of the National Congress of Australia's First Peoples, Rod Little, said while it was sad that big NAIDOC Week events couldn't go ahead in 2020, it provided a good opportunity for people to inform themselves ahead of next year.
"My encouragement is always [to] celebrate First Peoples' cultures and existence, achievements - all of those things - every day of the year," Mr Little said.
Mr Little said this year's NAIDOC Week theme, "Always was, always will be", went to First Peoples' identity, special connection with the land and the point that, "We can't go home, this is home".
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For Ms Dempsey, it meant being proud of your culture.
"The way I see it from an outsider view is that you are always Aboriginal and it's good to embrace yourself and say to everyone that you are," she said.
"Be proud of it, because that's what you're always going to be."