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2019, What a Year!

Posted on December 13 2019

Thank you to everyone who has supported us by attending events, nominating for awards or spreading the word of the Australia Day Council of South Australia! We have had an incredibly action-packed year and are by no means winding down, as we look towards Australia Day 2020! Here's a quick recap of what we have achieved as a team this year

Australia Day Awards at Government House honoured the amazing State Citizen of the Year recipients, as well as those from the Women, Hold Up Half the Sky Award and the Award for Leadership in Languages and Cultures.
Australia Day in the City 2019 was a beautiful and fun celebration of our diversity, as well as everything we share as a nation. The Veronicas headlined the event supported by The Sundance Kids.
We celebrated when Dr Richard Harris SC OAM was named 2019 Australian of the Year!
We partnered with St Peter’s College to present Decision Making in the Dark – a free public lecture with 2019 Australian of the Year Dr Richard Harris.
New Board Members - we fondly bid farewell to Board Members Carol Martin, Barry Featherston, Steve Maras, Anetta Johnston, Kirsten Bickendorf, David O’Loughlin, and Sylvia Rapo and welcomed Kirk Fernandez, Fiona Dorman, Brandon Reynolds and Leigh McClusky to the Board.
We partnered with The Travelling Table to assist migrants and refugees gain paid employment as part of the event celebrating South Australia’s rich migrant stories in days and nights of food, language, and entertainment. 
We held our second Inspiring South Australian Women Impacting the World series, this one focusing on Inspiring Aboriginal Women and shared their rich and impactful stories to a sold-out audience.
We partnered with several Local Councils across the state as well as the Multicultural Communities Council of South Australia to deliver a series of Australia a Country of Belonging active citizenship workshops.  These events brought together our newest arrivals and citizens that now call South Australia home to share with us their experiences and to provide a further connection to the myriad of opportunities available within the local community. 
We've run successful nomination campaigns for our Awards programs including the Australian of the Year AwardsCitizen of the Year AwardsInspiring South Australian Women’s Award and the Award for Leadership in Languages and Cultures.
We partnered with the Chief Scientist to present In Conversation with Dr. Richard Harris SC OAM as part of the National Science Week activities.
We hosted Eddie Woo in the Regions, bringing him to over 3,000 students and public events in the Riverland and Murraylands.
We held events for our Australia Day Ambassadors which will help shape the future of the program including a cultural awareness evening.
We partnered with the Red Cross to present an afternoon of engagement with our 2019 Australian of the Year, Dr. Richard Harris SC OAM for 50 young people connected to community organisations such as Red Cross, Centacare, AnglicareSA, Uniting Communities, Youth Inc and Rec Inc.
We were overjoyed to celebrate our 16 SA Australian of the Year Nominees at the Presentation Evening and are so proud that our four finalists - 2020 South Australia Australian of the Year – Dr James Muecke AM,  2020 South Australia Senior Australian of the Year – Sylvia McMillan, 2020 South Australia Young Australian of the Year – Zibeon Fielding & 2020 South Australia Local Hero Emmah Money, will be representing our state at the National Awards on the eve of Australia Day 2020!
We've had great meetings with the National Australia Day Network and are excited by the plans for Australia Day in each State and Territory. 
We brought together members of our multicultural community to hear their experiences in arriving and living in South Australia with our very special event Australia a Country of Opportunity.
We held meetings with our newly formed Open Circle with members of South Australia’s Aboriginal Community to shape an Australia Day that is meaningful and respectful of our First Nations Peoples.
We held our Australian of the Year Luncheon for just over 500 people at the Adelaide Convention Centre with 2019 Australians of the Year Dr. Richard Harris SC OAM & Dr. Craig Challen SC OAM.

Now, we are looking to delivering a bigger and more spectacular Australia Day for South Australia! We are working with our Councils across South Australia - truly the 'arms and legs' of Australia to discover the unique stories that happen in our towns and cities on Australia Day. 

We will be holding a very special Smoking Ceremony at 7am on Sunday the 26th of January in Elder Park to mark the start of Australia Day 2020. The ceremony will be led by Senior Aboriginal leaders and is being shaped by the Open Circle.
Our Australia Day Ambassadors will visits towns, cities and communities right across the State to share their stories and celebrate the New Citizens and honour the outstanding members of our community through the Citizen of the Year Awards.
Australia Day in the City - Parade, Concert and Fireworks will see Adelaide come to life with vibrancy, colour, and community as we begin the event with the Australia Day Parade where over 3,500 people will celebrate their culture, their stories and what they love about Australia and being Australian. This will be followed by the Australia Day Concert in Elder Park with the acts to be announced very soon and the spectacular fireworks display! 

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