What is NAIDOC?
NAIDOC celebrations are held around Australia in the first full week in July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
NAIDOC originally stood for “National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee”. This committee was once responsible for organising national activities during NAIDOC Week (see History of NAIDOC), and its acronym has become the name of the week itself.
The week is celebrated not just in the Indigenous community, but also in increasing numbers of government agencies, schools, local councils and workplaces.
View ideas on how to celebrate NAIDOC Week.
In addition to the many local activities, NAIDOC celebrations traditionally have a ‘national focus’:
- a national focus city or town is chosen - for 2007 it is Darwin, Northern Territory
- celebrations are based on a national theme - the theme for 2007 is 50 Years: Looking Forward, Looking Blak
- a national NAIDOC poster based on the theme is distributed, chosen from entries to the NAIDOC Poster Competition
- celebrations culminate in an awards ceremony and ball held in the focus city - in 2007 the National NAIDOC Awards and Ball will be held at SkyCity Casino, Darwin on Black Friday, 13 July 2007
- at the ball, national awards are given to Indigenous achievers in a number of categories.
For many years, the Australian Government has been the major funding contributor to national focus activities.
Wherever you live, taking part in NAIDOC Week is a great way to celebrate Indigenous culture and build bridges between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians.
Source: National NAIDOC
History
NAIDOC has its origins in the fight for Aboriginal rights that began to gather pace in the 1920s and 1930s. In those years, organisations such as the Australian Aborigines Progress Association, the Australian Aborigines League, and the Aborigines Progressive Association were established to draw attention to the living conditions suffered by Aboriginal people and their lack of citizenship rights.
In 1937 activists William Cooper and William Ferguson joined forces to plan a “Day of Mourning” for 26 January 1938, the 150th anniversary of British settlement of Australia. Around 1000 Aboriginal people attended a conference on that day, and the following week a deputation presented the Prime Minister with a proposed national policy for Aboriginal people. (This was rejected because the Commonwealth then had no constitutional responsibility for Aboriginal affairs.)
Cooper also wrote to the National Missionary Council of Australia (NMCA) seeking its support in promoting a permanent annual Aborigines Day. From 1940 the NMCA encouraged churches to observe the Sunday before the Australia Day weekend as “Aboriginal Sunday”. In 1955 the NMCA changed the date to the first Sunday in July.
In 1957 a National Aborigines Day Observance Committee (NADOC) was formed with support and cooperation from federal and state governments, the churches and major Indigenous organisations. Its aim was to promote Aboriginal Sunday as a day to focus community attention on the nation’s Aboriginal people.
After the 1967 Aboriginal Referendum and the establishment in 1972 of a Federal Department of Aboriginal Affairs, the national focus on Indigenous issues increased significantly. In 1974 NADOC became an all-Indigenous committee, and in 1975 extended Aboriginal Day to National Aborigines Week.
In 1985 NADOC agreed to change the dates of the week from July to September and in 1988 the committee’s name was changed to NAIDOC − National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee − to acknowledge Torres Strait Islander people.
In 1991 the committee decided to shift the celebrations back to the first week in July (Sunday to Sunday) starting from 1992.
The committee was wound up in the mid-1990s, when the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission (ATSIC) assumed control of NAIDOC Week, making decisions on the theme, venue and poster.
In 2005 an interim committee was set up in South Australia to coordinate National NAIDOC celebrations in Adelaide. Since 2006, Indigenous leader and former Senator Aden Ridgeway has been the chairperson of the national committee. He was given the role as NAIDOC’s custodian in 2005.