NAIDOC Week: Celebrating Culture, History, and First Nations Excellence
Sunday 5th July 2026 – Sunday 12th July 2026
Every Year across Australia, NAIDOC Week is a time to recognise and reflect on stories that stretch back tens of thousands of years. Stories that are still being lived, shared, and honoured today. However, more than just a celebration, it is also a reminder of the strength, resilience, and living culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, the world’s oldest continuous cultures.
2026 Theme: “50 Years of Deadly”
NAIDOC Week has grown from a call for recognition into a nationwide week of events, stories, and reflection shared in communities, workplaces, and schools. This year is especially significant, marking 50 years of NAIDOC Week. The theme “50 Years of Deadly” honours that milestone, using the word “deadly” it is used in its Aboriginal English context, meaning powerful, excellent, and full of pride. The theme recognises not only the past 50 years of NAIDOC, but also the strength, creativity, and leadership of First Nations communities who have shaped and carried it forward. It’s a celebration of survival, culture, and achievement, and a reminder of the generations who have paved the way.
The Week comes to life with cultural performances, art exhibitions, storytelling sessions, and opportunities to learn directly from First Nations voices and perspectives. Each year is the NAIDOC Awards, which celebrate outstanding achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across areas like community leadership, sport, education, and culture.
Did you know NAIDOC Week Has An Annual Poster Competition?
One of the most recognisable parts of NAIDOC Week each year is the poster competition. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists create original artwork inspired by the annual theme, with the winning piece becoming the official poster used across the country. It’s a creative way of telling stories visually, and it often sets the tone for how NAIDOC Week is seen and shared in communities, schools, and workplaces.
The very first NAIDOC poster, created in 1972, was titled “Advance Australia Where?”, and it wasn’t just decorative. It carried a strong message about the realities facing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples at the time, and the push for recognition and rights.
1972 NAIDOC Week Poster titled, Advance Australia Where?
Today, the posters tell a different kind of story. What began as bold, protest-driven artwork has evolved into a yearly tradition of storytelling that reflects each NAIDOC Week theme. They continue to stay deeply rooted in culture, while highlighting identity, pride, and the passing of knowledge between generations. The 2025 winning poster, “Ancestral Lines”, is a striking example of this. Created by Jeremy Morgan Worrall, a Ngarbal Gamilaraay artist, it represents the way knowledge, culture, and connection to Country are carried forward through family lines and shared experience.
2025 NAIDOC Week Poster titled, Ancestral Lines
The winner of the 2026 poster competition has been recognised for a powerful artwork that reflects this year’s theme, “50 Years of Deadly”. Paralpi, by Zaachariaha Fielding a proud Yankunytjatjara man, explored the strength, resilience, and cultural pride of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples over five decades of NAIDOC Week showing how “deadly” represents survival, identity and achievement across generations.
2026 NAIDOC Week Poster titled, Paralpi
Ultimately, NAIDOC Week is a reminder that learning doesn’t stop after one week. It can be the beginning of ongoing reflection and action, and an opportunity for organisations to think more deeply about how they contribute to reconciliation in a lasting and meaningful way.