NAIDOC Week

NAIDOC Week's a time to celebrate the histories, cultures and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. It’s held each year during the first week of July and is an important annual event where everyone’s invited to join in the celebrations. 

Each year NAIDOC will choose a theme to build the celebrations around. It's a great opportunity to bring First Nations perspectives into your classroom in a way that’s fun, informative and celebratory.

What does NAIDOC stand for?

NAIDOC stands for National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee. To understand what all that means though, we need a little bit of a history lesson. 

In 1955, the Day of Mourning or Aborigines Day was moved from the Sunday before January 26 to the first Sunday in July. It was shifted because people wanted to focus more on celebrating First Nations cultures rather than protesting. The National Aborigines Day Observance Committee was then created in 1956 to organise national events.   

In 1975,  it was decided to celebrate for a whole week — rather than just one day. NAIDOC Week was born! Then in 1991, NAIDOC Week expanded to recognise Torres Strait Islander people and cultures.  

And that's why it’s called NAIDOC Week.

Why's NAIDOC Week important?

NAIDOC Week is important as it’s an opportunity for learning, connection and community. 

It gives First Nations people and non-Indigenous people the opportunity to celebrate and connect with community and Country. And it’s a chance for everyone, not just First Nations people, to celebrate all aspects of First Nations histories and cultures.

As well as this, with its origins based in one of the first major civil rights gatherings in the world, NAIDOC Week is an important time to reflect on the challenges faced by First Nations people — to look at how far we’ve come and how far we still have to go.

Why do we celebrate NAIDOC Week?

There are so many reasons why people get involved with NAIDOC Week. It’s a chance to celebrate First Nations Peoples of Australia, a chance to highlight challenges that need addressing, a chance to learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander histories, and a chance to engage with amazing cultures that are thousands of years old.