NAIDOC Week 2021 will be held from Sunday 4 July to Sunday 11 July.

NAIDOC originally stood for ‘National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee’. This committee was responsible for organising national activities during NAIDOC Week. Its acronym has now become the name of the week itself.

This year’s theme – Heal Country! – calls for stronger measures to recognise, protect, and maintain all aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and heritage. It entails formal recognition that Indigenous people have been dispossessed and the implementation of specific programs designed to redress the grave social and economic disadvantage that has followed this dispossession.

NAIDOC Week celebrations normally culminate in the National NAIDOC Awards Ceremony. However, as a result of current COVID-19 restrictions, the 2021 Awards Ceremony that was scheduled to take place in Mparntwe (Alice Springs) has been postponed until later in the year.

As well, the Inner West Council’s program of NAIDOC events has been postponed until further notice.

Note, however, that SBS On Demand will be celebrating NAIDOC Week. View the program here.

Also the ABC will showcase Indigenous storytelling across television, radio and online, including the premieres of arts documentaries ‘Firestarter: The Story of Bangarra’, ‘My Name is Gulpilil’ and ‘Dubboo: Life of a Songman’. Details can be accessed here.

In addition, refer to National NAIDOC Committee’s top 20 tips on how to get involved in NAIDOC Week in a COVID safe way.