Emma Garlett: With its roots in mourning, NAIDOC Week is now a celebration

Today, NAIDOC Week is one of the most significant events on the Australian calendar.

Around the country, we gather to celebrate the strength, courage, leadership and resilience of First Nations people throughout our history.

We honour our elders and champion our youth.

We hold walks and art exhibitions, family days and award ceremonies. There are festivals and sporting events and school assemblies.

NAIDOC Week has its roots in an act of protest by Indigenous activists in Sydney, who held what they called the Day of Mourning back on January 26, 1938. From those beginnings, NAIDOC Week has grown into a week-long festival to not only mourn what we have lost but to commemorate our achievements and culture.

Here in Perth, we’ll hold the NAIDOC National Awards, celebrating the best of Blak excellence.

It is what it is today in our State because of the hard work of our elders, including Glenda Kickett.

Dr Kickett has spent the past 18 years on the NAIDOC Perth Committee, 17 of which she has been its chairwoman.

She’s seen the event grow from humble beginnings.

“When we started there wasn’t any NAIDOC Week. We had our first ceremony in Forrest Place with a tiny tent. over the 18 years I have seen it grow so much,” she said.

“(Today) there are so many events across Perth and WA. It is not just Aboriginal people it is non-Indigenous people getting involved.”

This year’s NAIDOC theme is The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy.

Dr Kickett said it was essential that we have a pipeline of talent; young leaders who can celebrate the work that has been done already and build upon it.

Leadership programs such as Miss NAIDOC and Mr NAIDOC helped to bring some of those young people to the fore, giving them the platform they need to strive for progress into the future.

NAIDOC Week 2025 begins this Sunday and runs for eight days.

And as important as it is, and as entrenched as it has become on the Australian calendar, Dr Kickett says NAIDOC Week isn’t the be all and end all.

“We should be celebrating all the time, not just on NAIDOC week,” she said.

As NAIDOC Week continues to grow, it is a powerful reminder of how far we have come, as First Nations peoples and as an inclusive Australian country. It is an opportunity to uplift the next generation of leaders and to bring the entire community together to learn, yarn and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and achievement.

Emma Garlett is a legal academic and Nylyaparli-Yamatji-Nyungar woman