NAIDOC Week: Australia's Indigenous celebration rooted in protest and resistance
NAIDOC Week, held each July in Australia, celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history and culture—but its origins lie in a 1938 civil rights protest, and new research shows racism remains widespread in Australian workplaces.
Every July, workplaces across Australia mark NAIDOC Week with corporate breakfasts and office morning teas. But the annual observance is far more than a celebration. It grew from a political movement demanding justice, and that spirit of resistance defines it still.
From protest to national observance
NAIDOC Week's roots trace to the Day of Mourning on January 26, 1938, when Aboriginal leaders gathered to protest 150 years of colonisation and draw national attention to discrimination, dispossession, and the denial of basic human and civil rights. According to reporting in The Conversation, it was one of Australia's first major civil rights protests, challenging the triumphant national narrative of colonisation and demanding citizenship and justice for Aboriginal people.
Over decades, what began as a single day evolved into a national movement. In the 1950s, organisers moved the observance from January to July to distinguish it from Australia Day and encourage broader community participation—allowing Aboriginal communities to commemorate on their own terms. By 1975, it had expanded into a week-long event. In 1991, the National Aborigines Day Observance Committee renamed itself the National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC), formally recognising Torres Strait Islander peoples alongside Aboriginal peoples.
"While the week has evolved into a national celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures and achievements, its foundations remain firmly rooted in the pursuit of justice, equality and self-determination."
Racism remains the reality
Yet even as workplaces celebrate, new research published by the Centre for Indigenous People and Work reveals the scale of ongoing workplace discrimination. A survey of 1,158 Indigenous workers found that more than half (58%) reported experiencing racism sometimes, often, or very often at work. The Gari Yala: Speak the Truth report, developed by First Nations researchers and released earlier this year, is the only Australian report of its kind capturing Indigenous experiences of work.
The research shows incremental progress. In 2020, only 26% of Indigenous workers reported never hearing racial slurs or "jokes" about Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people at work. By 2025, that figure had risen to 29%. But at that pace of change, according to The Conversation, it would take generations before Indigenous workers no longer encounter racist comments at the workplace.
Racism at work—institutional and interpersonal—drives real harm: it reduces job satisfaction, increases staff turnover, and damages employer reputation.
What works: Reconciliation Action Plans
The research identified a stark difference between workplaces with and without formal Reconciliation Action Plans (RAPs). Half (50%) of Indigenous workers in organisations with RAPs rarely or never experience racism, compared to 36% in organisations without them. RAP organisations were also three times more likely (34% versus 10%) to have both anti-racism measures and structured support mechanisms in place.
The broader context
The research comes as a parliamentary inquiry into racism, hate and violence directed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people received nearly 600 submissions. In January 2024, the issue took a violent turn when a 31-year-old man was charged with engaging in a terrorist act after allegedly throwing a homemade explosive into a crowd at a peaceful Invasion/Survival Day rally in Perth. The device failed to detonate, but the incident underscored rising tensions.
The annual themes of NAIDOC Week, according to The Conversation, tell a story of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander political priorities over decades—from early focus on self-determination and land rights, to more recent emphasis on truth-telling, women's leadership, and Indigenous sovereignty. That trajectory reflects how the observance has remained tethered to its founding purpose: not just to celebrate, but to demand change.