January 26 Survival Day Dawn Ceremony returns in 2022

Ballarat’s award-winning Survival Day Dawn Ceremony will be again presented at Lake Wendouree on 26 January 2022. 

The Koorie Engagement Action Group (KEAG) invites everyone to the ceremony to be held from 5.30am at Viewpoint, Lake Wendouree.  

The Dawn service commemorates Sovereign First Peoples who fought in the frontier wars and those who died in widespread massacres across Australia during colonisation, which began on January 26, 1788. 

The January 26 Survival Day Dawn Ceremony is aimed at bringing community together to start the day off on a meaningful, healing and respectful journey (just as ANZAC Day Dawn Service is important to all Australians) to acknowledge people who fought for a better life for all today. 

The inaugural ceremony held in 2020 was awarded the Highly Commended Award in Reconciliation Victoria’s HART Awards (Helping Achieve Reconciliation Together) and was also a finalist in the 2021 LGPro Awards for Excellence in the Indigenous Community Partnerships Category. 

City of Ballarat Central Ward Councillor, Belinda Coates describes the Dawn Survival Day ceremony as an incredibly important and solemn event in recognition of January 26 as a day of mourning and profound hurt for First Nations people. 

“January 26 is a time to pause and reflect on what it means to live in this great land. It’s a time for truth telling and to remember our collective history,” she said.

The Ballarat community is invited to attend the Survival Day Dawn Ceremony and to stand together in solidarity.  

The Survival Day Dawn Ceremony is presented in line with Victorian Government COVID-safe regulations. 

Attendees will be asked to maintain social distancing and check in on arrival. COVID marshals will be available to assist.  

Very limited seating available. For more information and updates, please visit www.facebook.com/KEAGBallarat