40 Fun Facts About NAIDOC Week

In 2020 NAIDOC Week was pushed out of its usual slot by COVID-19 and held in which month instead?

November hosted the week from 8 to 15 November 2020, after the committee postponed its usual dates that March for the safety of communities; the national awards night was cancelled altogether.

The 2026 NAIDOC theme '50 Years of Deadly' borrows a word that means what in Aboriginal English?

In Aboriginal English, deadly means excellent or very good, much as young speakers use wicked or sick. The same sense named the Deadly Awards, which honoured Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievement.

On the Torres Strait Islander flag, what is the white shape above the five-pointed star?

The white shape is a dhari headdress, a dancer's headdress worn by Torres Strait Islander men and now a symbol of the people. It is traditionally built around shell and trimmed with white feathers.

In 2022 the federal government paid about $20 million to buy what from the Aboriginal flag's designer?

The flag's copyright cost $20.05 million, shared between the designer and licence holders, after a clothing licensee had demanded that Aboriginal businesses stop selling clothing that featured the flag; it is now free for anyone to use.

From 1940, Aborigines Day, the forerunner of NAIDOC Week, was held on the Sunday before which date?

Aborigines Day sat on the Sunday before Australia Day because it grew directly out of the 1938 Day of Mourning protest; it later moved to winter so it could celebrate culture as well as protest.

The 1938 Day of Mourning was staged on the 150th anniversary of which event?

The First Fleet's arrival was being marked with an official parade through Sydney, and the protesters had to wait for it to pass before they could march in silence to their own meeting.

According to its designer, the yellow circle on the Aboriginal flag represents what?

The yellow circle is the Sun, described by the flag's designer as the giver of life and protector. The black above it stands for Aboriginal people and the red below for the earth and the ochre used in ceremonies.

Unlike an Acknowledgement of Country, which anyone may give, a Welcome to Country may be performed only by whom?

A recognised Traditional Owner gives the welcome because it continues an old protocol: crossing into another group's Country once required asking permission, and the hosts then welcomed the visitors.

Which NAIDOC theme for 2020, the year the week was delayed, echoes a long-standing land rights chant?

Always Was, Always Will Be shortens the chant 'always was, always will be Aboriginal land'; the committee chose it to recognise that First Nations people have cared for the continent for over 65,000 years.

The 1938 Day of Mourning congress met in which Elizabeth Street building in Sydney?

Australian Hall hosted the first national protest meeting of Aboriginal people only because the organisers were refused Sydney Town Hall, and the delegates came in by the back door.

NAIDOC Week begins on the first Sunday of which month and runs through to the following Sunday?

The week starts on the first Sunday in July, so its exact dates shift each year; it was a single day until 1975, when the committee stretched it to a full week.

In 1984 NADOC asked for National Aborigines Day to be made what?

NADOC wanted a national public holiday so the country would celebrate and recognise the cultural history that makes it unique. The request was never granted, which is why NAIDOC Week still falls on ordinary working days.

In the acronym NAIDOC, the letters D and O stand for which two words?

The D and O are Day Observance, a reminder that NAIDOC began as the committee running a single day of remembrance, not a week of festivals. In full it is the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee.

The 2012 NAIDOC theme marked 40 years of which protest camp, set up on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra?

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy began on 26 January 1972 as a beach umbrella that four men planted on the lawn, and the Aboriginal flag flew there from late that year, which helped make it a national symbol.

At which 1994 event did Cathy Freeman stir controversy by carrying the Aboriginal flag on her victory lap?

At the Commonwealth Games in Canada, Freeman carried the Aboriginal flag on her lap of honour and was reprimanded by Australian team officials; six years later she carried it again after her Olympic gold in Sydney.

The manifesto handed out at the 1938 Day of Mourning was titled 'Aborigines Claim' what?

Citizen Rights was the claim of the pamphlet Jack Patten and William Ferguson published for the protest, and five days later they led a deputation that put a ten-point plan to the prime minister.

On the Torres Strait Islander flag, the wide blue band between the green stripes stands for what?

The blue is the sea, Malu, that separates the two green stripes of land: Papua New Guinea above and the mainland below. Thin black stripes between them represent the people themselves.

National Reconciliation Week opens on 27 May each year, the anniversary of which landmark event?

The 1967 referendum, in which more than 90 per cent of voters agreed to change the Constitution, was held on 27 May; the week closes on 3 June, the day of the 1992 Mabo decision.

The 2023 NAIDOC Week theme was dedicated to which group?

Elders were honoured with the theme 'For Our Elders', which the committee chose to thank them as cultural knowledge holders and trailblazers; women had their year in 2018 with 'Because of Her, We Can!'.

Which tennis champion, retired only months earlier, was named National NAIDOC Person of the Year in 2022?

Ash Barty, a Ngarigo woman through her great-grandmother, had quit as world number one at 25; the award honoured her work giving Indigenous children the chance to take up sport.

Which prime minister's government proclaimed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags official in 1995?

Paul Keating's government had both flags proclaimed under the Flags Act in mid-1995; a paperwork oversight let the Aboriginal flag's proclamation lapse on 1 January 2008, and it had to be reissued with backdated effect.

Who designed the Torres Strait Islander flag in 1992, winning a local competition with the entry?

Bernard Namok's design won a competition held during a cultural revival workshop run by the Islands Coordinating Council, and three years later it was proclaimed an official flag of Australia.

The designer of the Torres Strait Islander flag came from where, the region's administrative and commercial centre?

Thursday Island became the Torres Strait's government base in 1877, and its pearling industry then drew thousands of workers from Japan, the rest of Asia and the Pacific.

Which 2019 NAIDOC theme took its three words from the agenda set out in the Uluru Statement from the Heart?

Voice, Treaty, Truth named the three reforms the 2017 Uluru Statement asked for; the first of them, a Voice written into the Constitution, went to a referendum in 2023 and was voted down.

Which 2017 NAIDOC theme urged the country to value its hundreds of Indigenous tongues?

Our Languages Matter was chosen to stress that the continent's roughly 250 Indigenous languages carry history, spirituality and song, and that many of them were at risk of being lost.

Each point of the white star on the Torres Strait Islander flag stands for one of what?

Each point is one of the five island groups of the Torres Strait, while the star itself marks peace and the importance of stars in navigation. It sits below the white emblem at the flag's centre.

Which city, known as Boorloo in the Noongar language, hosted the 2025 National NAIDOC Awards?

Perth hosted the 2025 ceremony, and the top honour stayed in the host state: West Australian GP and dentist Daniel Hunt was named Person of the Year for his work in Indigenous health.

Which actor, cast in Walkabout at 16 and a lead in Storm Boy, received the 2019 NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award?

David Gulpilil was a traditional dancer spotted at Maningrida by director Nicolas Roeg before he had ever acted. He went on to Crocodile Dundee and Rabbit-Proof Fence and twice won the national best actor award.

What did federal cabinet do in 1938 with William Cooper's petition to the King?

Cabinet declined to send it on, ruling that 'no good purpose would be gained' by putting it before the King; the original petition and its 1,814 signatures were later lost by the government.

Which Day of Mourning organiser founded the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship with Faith Bandler in 1956?

Pearl Gibbs, who had spoken for Aboriginal rights on radio in 1941 and sat on the state's Aborigines Welfare Board, set up the fellowship to bring black and white activists together.

In the 1939 Cummeragunja walk-off urged by Jack Patten, residents crossed which river to leave New South Wales?

They crossed the Murray into Victoria and camped on the far bank near Barmah, beyond the reach of the New South Wales protection board, in protest at a harsh manager and poor living conditions.

The Aborigines Progressive Association, organiser of the Day of Mourning, was launched in 1937 in which NSW town?

Dubbo was home to William Ferguson, a shearer turned union organiser, who launched the association there after the state widened the powers of its Aborigines Protection Board in 1936.

Day of Mourning participant Doug Nicholls, later the first Aboriginal knight, played VFL football for which club?

Fitzroy signed Nicholls in 1932 and gave him a job as its groundsman, five years after he had failed to win a place at Carlton; he played 54 games before turning to the church.

Aboriginal flag designer Harold Thomas became the first Aboriginal person to do what, in 1969?

Thomas was the first Aboriginal person to graduate from an art school, finishing with honours at the South Australian School of Art two years before his flag flew. Removed from his family at seven, he had won the scholarship at 17.

Which Torres Strait holiday on the first day of NAIDOC Week's month marks missionaries landing at Erub in 1871?

The Coming of the Light recalls the London Missionary Society party landing at Kemus Beach, where the elder Dabad befriended the newcomers and persuaded his people to let them stay.

'Makarrata', the agreement-making process named in the Uluru Statement from the Heart, is a word from which language?

Yolngu law gives the word its weight: makarrata is the peace made after a dispute, and it first named a ritual in which the wrongdoer was speared, often in the thigh, to settle the matter.

The 2024 NAIDOC theme used the spelling 'Blak', a term coined in the early 1990s by which photographer?

Destiny Deacon coined 'Blak' for her photo series Blak lik mi, reclaiming the word for Indigenous culture by dropping the c; her pictures cast kitsch black dolls in darkly comic scenes.

Which town, called Mparntwe by its Arrernte custodians, hosted the 2026 National NAIDOC Awards?

Alice Springs finally staged the awards on 15 August 2026, after ceremonies planned for the town in 2020 and 2021 were both cancelled during the pandemic.

When NAIDOC's national awards began in 1985, the top honour carried which title, now the Person award?

Aboriginal of the Year was the title when the poet Kath Walker won it in 1985; two years later she handed back her MBE in protest at the Bicentenary, and she became known as Oodgeroo Noonuccal.

Which Essendon footballer set out to walk from Melbourne to Canberra in 2004 and won the 2025 NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award?

Michael Long set out on foot for Canberra in late 2004 and kept walking until Prime Minister Howard agreed to meet him. His 1995 complaint after being racially abused in an Anzac Day match led to the AFL's racial vilification code.