'We’ve got to save our kids from Covid' - a message from NLC Chairman Samuel Bush-Blanasi

Through our direct families we all have relationships as parents, children, uncles, aunties, nephews, nieces and so on.

Through our kinship systems we are all related through clan groups and through our land, our culture and ceremonies. We all live our future through our children and it is to our children that we owe our greatest responsibilities.

Without our children we are nothing. They are the only future we have.

There is a lot we don’t know about how COVID-19 will affect our children but we do know that we have to protect them to make sure their lives are fulfilled.

It is our job, as parents and kinship relatives and family members to protect them and the best way we can do that is to protect ourselves. To make sure we don’t get sick and our friends and family don’t get sick.

The Northern Land Council supports the call by AMSANT that urgent steps are needed to contain the COVID-19 outbreak in Katherine and the Big Rivers region of the NT.

For everyone in the Katherine and Big Rivers region the CHO has given us all clear messages – get vaccinated; use the Territory Check In App; if you feel no good, stay away from work and other people and get tested for COVID-19; wash your hands and use hand sanitiser regularly and maintain social distancing where possible.

We also need to keep a good look out over the next few weeks and months. The NLC’s message for everyone travelling interstate this holiday season is to enjoy your time with family and friends but please, don’t be the one to bring it back to the NT or your community.

Finally, I’d like to wish you all an enjoyable festive season and look forward to seeing you all happy--and most importantly--healthy, in the New Year.