NAIDOC Week extends from Sunday of the first week of July each year. At first sight its name may seem bureaucratic. The acronym stands for the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee. This year marks the seventieth anniversary of its founding. But its larger history tells the story of brave Australian Indigenous people and some non-Indigenous supporters who protested against their dispossession and exclusion from Australian citizenship and society and representation in government. It also celebrates Indigenous culture and marks the growth of knowledge about colonial settlement and the suppression of Indigenous and Islander cultures, the recognition of their variety, and the continuing struggle for equality and for recognition by Australian Governments and their administration.
The story of NAIDOC Week speaks not only to Indigenous and Islander Australians but to all of us Australians who are committed to a more just society that recognises its debts. The story includes the struggle to be heard, the small gains made, the building of support by non-Indigenous Australians, the larger hopes disappointed, the new challenges, and the long road that has always stretched ahead. Even the acronym NAIDOC Week speaks of an early demand that has consistently been refused but is still pressed, of the importance of organisation, and of an enlargement of vision. It looks to the past and to the future.
The campaign for an Indigenous Day arose out of small movements among Indigenous Australians for recognition and inclusion, many of which were met by force. They demanded that the date of the landing of the First Fleet, a symbol of Indigenous dispossession, should not be celebrated as Australia Day. Among the Indigenous movements was the Australian Aborigines League, founded by William Cooper, a Yorta Yorta man who worked on stations in Victoria and raised a large family. As an adult he studied and joined the Australian Workers Union in which he represented Indigenous communities who were denied aid during drought and the 1930s Depression. He founded the Australian Aborigines League and drew up a petition asking the King for direct participation in Parliament, the ability to vote, and rights to land. The Government refused to forward the petition, and again later refused a request for an Indigenous policy. Both petitions were refused, and he was bitterly disappointed.
On Australia Day in 1938, however, an Indigenous conference and march were held on Australia Day under the name of the Day of Mourning. Cooper asked the National Missionary Council, itself the fruit of reaction to sectarian visions of Church, to support the continuing yearly celebration of the Day. From 1940 it was held on the Sunday before Australia Day and was named simply as Aborigines Day. In 1955 it was moved to the first Sunday of July in order to mark it as a day to celebrate Aboriginal culture as well as to protest. In the same year, the National Aborigines Day Committee was formed, which, in 1991, was changed to recognise the distinctive culture of Torres Strait Islanders. Its request to make National Aborigines Day a public holiday was also denied.
'Young Indigenous Australians will need to be strong in owning and taking pride in their identity. They will need to maintain and fight for a vision of a society in which they have a privileged place and to build on the legacy of those who have with such persistence and courage laid the tiles in the mosaic that is NAIDOC Week.'
The long history of NAIDOC and of its antecedents provides compass bearings in the turbulent aftermath of the failure to pass the referendum on the Voice to Parliament. The process that led to the referendum, for all its limitations, marked the growth of Indigenous organisation, leadership and confidence. It also marked a growing understanding among all Australians of the war and dispossession involved in the colonial settlement of Australia, the racial discrimination involved in the Stolen Generations, and the continuing inequality of Indigenous Australians. Australia Day, the focus of NAIDOC’s history, is now as much a day of contestation and of public education as it is of celebration.
The failure of the referendum to pass, the racial prejudice that it revealed, and the continuing disproportionate incarceration of Indigenous children and deaths in custody and other indices of inequality, however, also disclose how much needs to be done if Indigenous and Torres Strait Islanders and their culture are to be recognised and treated as equals by other Australians and our Governments.
The theme of NAIDOC Week this year looks forward to encourage the younger Aboriginal and Islander generation. It is ‘Keep the Fire Burning: Strength, Vision and Legacy’. It celebrates the fire that has been preserved and blown into flame, but recognises that fires can go out, and that they need continually to be stoked in cold weather and storms. Many non-Indigenous people will also resist the claim that they have benefited from the dispossession of persons whose descendants have a unique and privileged place in Australian society. That inner resistance and unease has naturally found expression in prejudice and discrimination that grow louder when they are challenged.
It follows that young Indigenous Australians will need to be strong in owning and taking pride in their identity. They will need to maintain and fight for a vision of a society in which they have a privileged place and to build on the legacy of those who have with such persistence and courage laid the tiles in the mosaic that is NAIDOC Week. They also call for the support of those of us who are not Indigenous to interest ourselves in their history and culture and to protest when they are discriminated against and slandered.
Journal and reflection on the following
Why was NAIDOC Week originally created, and how has its purpose evolved over time?
How does celebrating culture and identity help heal the wounds caused by injustice and discrimination?
What do you think the “fire” symbolises in the theme ‘Keep the Fire Burning: Strength, Vision and Legacy’?
In what ways can learning about William Cooper’s actions inspire both Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians today?
Why do you think some people resist acknowledging the historical and present-day injustices towards Indigenous Australians?
What role can non-Indigenous Australians play in continuing the vision and legacy of NAIDOC Week?
How can young people today – both Indigenous and non-Indigenous – keep the NAIDOC fire burning in their communities and schools?
Discuss
Song - Took the Children Away
Prayer
Loving Creator, we give thanks for the rich cultures, stories, and strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. We honour the ancestors who walked this land, who spoke for justice, and who lit the fire of hope and identity. Help us to walk humbly alongside one another, listening deeply, standing for truth, and working for reconciliation. May we, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, keep the fire burning with strength, vision, and legacy — building a future where every voice is heard, every culture celebrated, and every person treated with dignity and love. Amen.
(Audio Available)
