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?

For the only time in its history, NAIDOC Week ran in November, from 8 to 15 November 2020. The winter slot it normally occupies had been impossible to hold safely that year.

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 roughly how much to buy the Aboriginal flag's copyright from its designer?

The payment was $20 million, precisely $20.05m, shared between the designer and licence holders so the flag became free for anyone to use. A clothing licensee had been demanding Aboriginal businesses stop printing it.

From 1940 to 1955, 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 held on 26 January. Only in 1955 was it moved to winter so it could celebrate culture as well as protest.

In which year did NADOC add the I for Islanders and become NAIDOC, recognising Torres Strait Islander people?

The change came in 1991, when NADOC became NAIDOC to recognise Torres Strait Islanders and to describe a full week rather than a single day. The week itself had already been running since the mid-1970s.

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

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?

Only a recognised Traditional Owner or custodian, typically an Elder, can welcome visitors onto their Country. An Acknowledgement is the respectful alternative used when no Traditional Owner is available to perform the welcome.

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

Always Was, Always Will Be condenses the chant 'always was, always will be Aboriginal land' into a national theme. It was the 2020 theme and was carried through to the delayed week later that year.

The 1938 Day of Mourning congress met in which Elizabeth Street building in Sydney, later saved from demolition?

Australian Hall hosted the first national protest meeting of Aboriginal people, and about 100 attended. A developer planned a 34-storey tower on the site in the 1990s before it was bought back and heritage-listed.

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. The timing dates back to the 1950s, when the original day was moved into winter.

In 1984 NADOC asked the federal government to turn National Aborigines Day into 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 and is the longest continuous protest for Indigenous land rights in the world. The Aboriginal flag was raised 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?

Freeman carried both flags around the track at the Commonwealth Games after winning the 200 metres, and officials objected. Six years later the Olympic crowd in her home country saw her do the same without a murmur.

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

Citizens' Rights was the demand: Aboriginal people were not counted as citizens and were governed by state protection boards. Days later a delegation 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 national vote?

The 1967 referendum passed on 27 May, and the week closes on 3 June, the day of the 1992 Mabo decision. The day before it starts, 26 May, is National Sorry Day.

Which three-word NAIDOC theme of 2023 honoured the senior community members who pass on knowledge?

For Our Elders was the 2023 theme, and the awards that year added to the honour by recognising two Elders, one male and one female, as they do every year. The 2025 theme turned to the next generation.

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

Ash Barty was Person of the Year in 2022, the year she won the Australian Open as world number one and then quit the sport at 25. The award goes to someone who has made a difference to Indigenous communities.

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 1953 in mid-1995, more than two decades after the Aboriginal flag was first raised. The Aboriginal flag had first been raised at a rally in Adelaide in 1971.

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

Bernard Namok won the 1992 competition with the design and died the following year. The flag was first presented at the Torres Strait Cultural Festival that May and was recognised nationally only three years later.

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

Thursday Island, called Waiben in the Kawrareg dialect, sits about 39 kilometres north of Cape York and runs the region's local government. Its 2021 census population was just 2,805 people.

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: a constitutional Voice, a treaty process and truth-telling. The awards ceremony that year was held in Melbourne.

Which 2017 NAIDOC theme, launched in Cairns, urged the country to value its hundreds of Indigenous tongues?

Our Languages Matter was the 2017 theme, chosen when more than 250 Indigenous languages were estimated to have been spoken at colonisation and many were endangered. The UN named 2019 the International Year of Indigenous Languages.

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 navigational importance of stars to a seafaring people. It sits below the white emblem at the flag's centre.

Which city hosted the 2025 National NAIDOC Awards, held under the theme 'The Next Generation'?

Perth hosted in 2025, the year the theme was 'The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy'. The ceremony moves to a different city each year and is chosen by the National NAIDOC Committee.

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 the federal cabinet do with the Australian Aborigines' League's 1,814-signature petition to the King in 1938?

Cabinet declined to send it on to the King, so the request for direct Aboriginal representation in parliament never left the country. The petition, gathered over four years, had reached the government in August 1937.

Which Day of Mourning organiser made the first radio broadcast by an Aboriginal woman, from Wollongong in 1941?

Pearl Gibbs spoke on station 2WL three years after helping organise the 1938 protest. She later became the only woman ever to serve on the New South Wales Aborigines Welfare Board.

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 near Barmah, out of reach of the New South Wales protection board. Around 100 people left over poor sanitation, a harsh manager and the threat of child removals.

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

Dubbo was the home of co-founder Ferguson, a shearer and union organiser who led the association's western branch. The group was wound down in 1944, six years after its biggest day.

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

Nicholls joined Fitzroy in 1932 and became a Churches of Christ pastor before his 1972 knighthood. A postage stamp with his portrait was released during NAIDOC Week in 2022, on the fiftieth anniversary of that knighthood.

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 reaching Erub, also called Darnley Island, in 1871. Islanders mark it each year at Kemus Beach, the spot where that first meeting took place.

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

Makarrata is a Yolngu word for a process of conflict resolution, peacemaking and justice, or a reunion after a struggle. The statement was adopted at a four-day convention at Uluru in May 2017.

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. A Kuku Yalanji and Torres Strait Islander artist, she posed kitsch black dolls to expose racism.

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

Alice Springs staged the 2026 awards on 15 August, a month after NAIDOC Week itself had ended. The night honoured the late Rhoda Roberts with the Lifetime Achievement Award.

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

Aboriginal of the Year was the original title, introduced in 1985 alongside an award for young people aged 12 to 25. Today's ten categories, from Sportsperson to Innovation, are all chosen by the National NAIDOC Committee.

Which Essendon footballer walked 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.