How you can celebrate NAIDOC Week 2025
Since 1975, the first week of July has been marked by celebrations across the country for NAIDOC Week – a time to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
This year marks a particularly powerful milestone as we celebrate 50 years of NAIDOC Week. That’s 50 years of honouring and elevating Indigenous voices, culture, and resilience – and 50 years of staunch Blak resistance, advocacy and storytelling. This year’s theme, “The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy,” is all about honouring the achievements of the past while celebrating the bright future that lies ahead for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Beyond the official week, NAIDOC’s history can be traced back to early movements for First Nations recognition and rights. From the first Day of Mourning in 1938 – one of the first major civil rights gatherings in the world – to today’s celebrations of culture, NAIDOC Week has become a testament to the enduring strength of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Below are just a few ways you can learn about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth. You can also find a full list of events across the country through the NAIDOC website.
TO ATTEND
Screening – Wash My Soul in the River’s Flow
Date: Tuesday 8th July at 6.30pm
Location: The Capitol RMIT, 113 Swanston Street, Melbourne VIC 3000
Details: Proud Gamilaraay woman and Lecturer in Music Industry at RMIT, Dr Kat Nelligan curates and hosts this special screening of Wash My Soul in the River’s Flow—a cinematic tribute to the enduring legacy of Archie Roach and Ruby Hunter, and an inspiring panel of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, including Amos Roach and Kiwat Kennell, as they reflect on intergenerational creativity, cultural inheritance, and the continuing influence of Archie and Ruby’s music and message.
A portion of proceeds from the evening will support the Archie Roach Foundation, creating life-changing opportunities for young First Nations people and emerging artists.
Cost: $10 with a portion of proceeds from the evening will support the Archie Roach Foundation, creating life-changing opportunities for young First Nations people and emerging artists. MobTix available for First Nations attendees.
Screening – NAIDOC Week Shorts 2025
Date: Thursday 10th July at 6.00pm
Location: Cinema 2, Level 2, ACMI, Fed Square
Details: In keeping with this year’s theme, our NAIDOC Shorts program kicks off with a suite of short films showcasing the breadth of Indigenous filmmaking, from factual to fantasy. Following this program is the feature documentary Our Warrior: The Story of Robbie Thorpe.
Cost: Full price $20, Concession $16, ACMI Member $14, Blak Member tickets free.
Screening – Our Warrior: The Story of Robbie Thorpe
Date: Thursday 10th July at 7.30pm
Location: ACMI, Fed Square
Details: a screening of the documentary exploring the legacy of Krauatungalung (Gurnai) and Djapwurrung (Gunditjmara) political activist Robbie Thorpe. The documentary examines Thorpe’s childhood and early years in Melbourne‘s inner city suburb of Fitzroy, and his subsequent role in the great legacy of Indigenous resistance to invasion. The powerful documentary explores the emergence of his radical politics as a controversial and uncompromising sovereign black activist.
Cost: Full price $20, Concession $16, ACMI Member $14, Blak Member tickets free.
VIC NAIDOC March
Date: Friday 11th at 10.00 am – 5.30pm
Location: Victorian Aboriginal Health Service, 186 Nicholson Street, Fitzroy, VIC, 3065
Details: The Victorian NAIDOC March is one of the most significant events of NAIDOC Week: a proud and powerful expression of solidarity, resistance, and strength. Each year, thousands of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, along with allies and supporters, take to the streets of Melbourne to walk together in the spirit of truth, justice, and celebration. The March is a call for recognition, a demand for change, and a celebration of our cultures, communities, and continued survival.
NAIDOC in the City
Date: Friday 11th July from 1.00pm to 6.00pm
Location: Fed Square
Details: Featuring a powerhouse line-up headlined by ARIA-winning electronic duo Electric Fields, with performances by Isaiah Firebrace, Scott Darlow, Cerulean (DJ set), Canisha, The Violet Summers and Koori Youth Will Shake Spears. Explore the vibrant KHT NAIDOC Week Market, featuring over 20 First Peoples stallholders with art, craft, design, fashion, jewellery and more. Alongside the market, KHT will host a variety of free workshops and activities for all ages, as well as a welcoming Elders Lounge and quiet space.
Everyone is welcome, with kids’ activities, delicious food trucks and stalls, and much more kicking off from 1pm.
Cost: free
Exhibition – We Sit in Circle
Date: Tuesday 1st to Friday 18th from 9.00am to 5.00pm
Location: Queen Victoria Women’s Centre, 210 Lonsdale Street Melbourne, VIC, 3000
Details: Presented by The Torch in partnership with Queen Victoria Women’s Centre (QVWC), We Sit in Circle is about strength, hope, and survival. The exhibition consists of artworks created by First Nations women who have been impacted by the criminal legal system, foregrounding community, resilience and the healing power of creative expression.
Cost: free | More information:
Exhibition – Katie West: Rockpools
Date: Saturday 5th July to Saturday 30th August
Location: West Space, Collingwood Yards
Details: a new exhibition by Yindjibarndi artist Katie West. Working from Noongar Ballardong Country in Western Australia, Katie West’s practice is defined by experiments in a ‘custodial ethic’, grounded in the understanding that the health of human society and Country mirror one another. Realised across photography, installation and sound transmitted via radio, Rockpools examines the entanglement of industry and Aboriginal kinships through the artists’ position as a Stolen Generations descendant, reconnecting with Country and practicing custodianship through creative practice.
Cost: free | More information
TO WATCH
Seven days, seven docos: Indigenous documentaries to watch this NAIDOC Week – and most are free
A selection from The Guardian, from an ‘electrically powerful’ look at the final chapter of Adam Goodes’ AFL career to a must-see portrait of Gurrumul, along with Australia’s ‘greatest protest movie.’
No subscriptions? No problems! Here are some of the best movies and TV series you can watch for free
A selection of projects from ABC News highlighting the creativity, talent and tenacity of First Nations people in front of and behind the camera.
SBS On Demand NAIDOC Week 2025
Discover SBS’s selection of iconic and award-winning Indigenous films, documentaries and series.
To read
Curated by Ari Mills
Ari Mills is a proud Kuku Yalanji and Murrinh Patha writer and poet. They incorporate their love for community, Queerness and Black liberation in their writing to come to explore Black Queer love stories in truth telling.
Ari aims to create love spaces for mob to share and grow with each other, showcasing our mobs’ creativity and innovation. Their work has been published in Nangamay Mana Djurali (Dream Gather Grow), an Indigenous LGBTQI+ anthology, and in Australian Poetry’s Best of Australian Poems 2023. Featuring new works in writing festivals such as the Emerging Writers, Blak & Bright and more. Recently, displaying their artworks in partnerships with the likes of the Incinerator and Mixed Zoning gallery.
Curated by Elija Money
Elijah Money is a proud Wiradjuri queer brotherboy, raised and residing on Kulin Nations.
As a multidisciplinary creative, his work spans visual art, writing, creative producing, hosting workshops, MCing, and performing as a drag queen. Deeply personal and politically charged, Elijah’s practice reflects his lived experience as a multifaceted individual. His work is grounded in celebrating First Peoples’ queer joy and fostering spaces of empowerment. Using storytelling and self-expression, Elijah continues to challenge narratives by using compassion and pride.
Discover Elijah’s reading list
NAIDOC Week book recommendations from Magabala Books
A curation of books by Magabala Books, Australia’s leading Indigenous publishing house, centred on this year’s theme – “The Next Generation”. The list includes books for children and young adults.
To support
Bubup Wilam Aboriginal Child and Family Centre
Bubup Wilam, meaning “Children’s Place” in Woi Wurrung language, is an Aboriginal Community Controlled Education, Health and Wellbeing organization. This ensures the local Aboriginal Community have control over issues that directly affect their community and take up their right to self-determination in a meaningful and effective way. Bubup Wilam provides Aboriginal children, families, and the community with access to an integrated range of health and wellbeing services and programs centering around the child through attending our long day and kindergarten programs. This is then extended to their school aged siblings and the family.
Common Ground
Common Ground is a First Nations not-for-profit and collective of First Nations people changing systems through storytelling.
Storytelling is the thread that weaves First Nations people with our Old People, Ancestors, Country and kin. Stories connect us with each other, our allies and ourselves. Common Ground builds on existing community power to strengthen the stories we tell ourselves and others, so we can reimagine stronger futures. Futures that are grounded in reciprocity, justice and truth-telling.
The Dhadjowa Foundation
The Dhadjowa Foundation is a national grassroots organisation that’s been established to provide strategic, coordinated and culturally appropriate support for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families whose loved ones have died in custody. The Dhadjowa Foundation delivers grassroots support for families through three key activities: peer support; financial assistance and campaign capacity building – all of which are family-led and founded in self-determination.
Djirra
Djirra is a place where culture is shared and celebrated, and where practical support is available to all Aboriginal women and particularly to Aboriginal people who are currently experiencing family violence or have in the past.
Pay The Rent
Saying sorry isn’t enough. Australia is founded on land that was stolen from Indigenous people. The wealth that has been generated by that theft is disproportionately distributed. All people who live here today, or who have lived here in the past, have not benefited equally from the continuing dispossession of Indigenous people. Indeed, many are deliberately and profoundly marginalised from power and the spoils of colonialism. Paying the Rent is a step towards acknowledging these facts. It is part of a process that all non-Indigenous people – individually and collectively – need to enter into if we are to move towards justice, truth, equality and liberation for First Nations people.
Together for Treaty
A national movement of First Nations peoples and allies building unstoppable momentum for truth, Treaty and justice.
Seed
Seed empowers First Nations young people to lead change in their communities and take collective action on campaigns that make a real difference in fighting for climate justice. Our communities, already bearing the brunt of this crisis, must also be at the forefront of driving solutions—protecting country, culture and community from extractive industries.
Donate or take action today in support of Seed:
To shop
Clothing The Gaps
Clothing the Gaps is an Aboriginal social enterprise uniting people through fashion and cause. This week, in addition to their store on Sydney Road in Brunswick, you can also find them at their pop in Melbourne Central and at the NAIDOC After March Market in Fed Square.
Gammin Threads
Gammin Threads is the creative outlet of Yorta Yorta and Taungurung woman Tahnee Edwards, who is also a community worker at Djirra. In her own words, “Gammin threads is a love letter to my culture and to blackfellas everywhere. It’s a staunch aunty label that likes good design and being cheeky.”
Haus of Dizzy
At the helm of Haus of Dizzy, proud Wiradjuri woman Kristy Dickinson creates bold, playful, statement-making jewellery that celebrates and honours Indigenous culture. Often featuring powerful political and social messages, each Haus of Dizzy piece is designed, laser-cut, hand-painted and assembled in the company’s studio, located in Fitzroy, Melbourne/Naarm.
House of Darwin
Founded by Larrakia man Shaun Edwards, House of Darwin is a social enterprise and clothing company celebrating the culture and spirit of the Northern Territory.
Kinya Lerrk
Kinya Lerrk is a 100% Aboriginal owned business run by visual artists Emma Bamblett (Wemba Wemba, Gunditjmara, Ngadjonji and Taungurung) and Megan Van Den Berg (Dja Dja Wurrung, Yorta Yorta and Boon Wurrung) who have a strong history of collaboration on design/arts-based projects.
For the kids
Screening – In My Blood It Runs
Date: Thursday 10th July at 4.15pm to 6.15pm
Locations: narrm ngarrgu Library, 141 Therry Street Melbourne VIC 3000
Details: family-friendly screening of In My Blood It Runs. Dujuan is a child-healer, a good hunter and speaks three languages. As he shares his wisdom of history and the complex world around him we see his spark and intelligence. Yet Dujuan is ‘failing’ in school and facing increasing scrutiny from welfare and the police. As he travels perilously close to incarceration, his family fight to give him a strong Arrernte education alongside his western education lest he becomes another statistic. We walk with him as he grapples with these pressures, shares his truths and somewhere in-between finds space to dream, imagine and hope for his future self.
Cost: free
Haus of Ziggy Lee
Proudly founded by a Wiradjuri family and named after Kristy Dickinson’s son, Ziggy Lee, Haus of Ziggy Lee is a premium children’s clothing line dedicated to celebrating Indigenous culture and empowering the First Nations community and its allies.
NAIDOC Week reading parties
Locations: City Library (Monday 7 July, 10.30am to 11.30am, Kathleen Syme Library (Tuesday 8 July, 10.30am to 11.30am), Library at The Dock (Wednesday 9 July, 10.30am to 11.30am), Southbank Library (Thursday 10 July, 10.30am to 11.30am)
Details: celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander authors by joining us at your local library for a NAIDOC week reading party. Hot drinks, cushions and a selection of picture, junior and adult books from across our collection provided. Bring your own warm blanket and enjoy an hour reading together as a family.
First Nations Bedtime Stories by Common Ground
First Nations Bedtime Stories is a week of storytelling. It brings stories as old as time into homes, classrooms and workplaces around Australia. Every year Common Ground works with different First Nations creatives and communities to film five stories. The films are shared online, and people come together to watch them over five days.
Discover last year’s Bedtime Stories
Sign up to join this year’s week of storytelling
Koori Curriculum NAIDOC Week 2024 Collection
A selection of books curated by The Koori Curriculum, a multiple award winning Aboriginal early childhood consultancy based on the Central Coast, NSW. Selection includes books for kids and young adults, alongside resources for educators.
