“We are proud of the fact we have the largest number of Indigenous employees in all the different Thales sites in Australia,” Director of integrated weapons and sensors, Graham Evenden said. 

Thales workers were invited to attend the celebrations, starting with a flag raising ceremony. 

“This is the first time the Aboriginal flag has been raised at Thales, so this is quite important for us,” Mr Evenden said. 

“We have started creating a reconciliation plan that will be taken seriously, so that it has diversity and inclusion for our Indigenous workers.” 

Lithgow Thales has 10 Indigenous workers, four being women and two apprentices. 

“We are set up to grow and have more Indigenous workers in the future, this is only the start,” he said. 

Lithgow City Mayor Stephen Lesslie spoke about the importance of Thales for Lithgow and for showing respect to Indigenous people. 

“I just want to congratulate Thales for recognising and acknowledging the importance of this, it is great to see local business acknowledging Indigenous peoples,” he said. 

“The small arms factory is important to Lithgow but also to me personally because my dad worked here for 18 years as a medical officer.”

The traditional smoking ceremony was conducted by Wiradjuri woman, Sharon Riley. 

“NAIDOC week allows us to share what it means to us as people, we are able to share our culture with you,” she said. 

“The Wiradjuri people are strong, creating movements in government so that we can be classed as people.” 

Thales workers were asked to walk through the smoke from the fire after leaves were added.

“It cleanses you and allows your mind better thinking,” she said. 

Aunty Helen and Sharon passed around a possum skin to show the workers how warm they are and the cultural practises. 

The group then participated in learning different roping techniques that could be used for making traditional headdresses. 

Graduate in mechanical engineering Elyse Hudson is one of the women behind the diversity council. 

“We are celebrating Thales Lithgow’s long history with Aboriginal women, we just thought it would be a natural fit to have a diversity council,” she said. 

“It is exciting because as a first for Thales we are permanently positioning the Aboriginal flag outside.” 

Worker Latia Hardie said that they aimed to grow the celebration and show Indigenous workers that Thales cares. 

Lithgow Arms general manager Bruce Hutton said it has been a great social activity where workers could learn more about NAIDOC. 

“This was a nice and harmonious way for staff to learn a bit more about the culture,” he said.