NAIDOC Week 2020

Always Was, Always Will Be.

How to get involved in NAIDOC Week 2020 and the Blak-owned businesses to support.

Words By Brittany Lyons

In the spirit of reconciliation, Shop Monde acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout Australia and their connections to land, sea and community. We pay our respect to their elders past and present and extend that respect to all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples today.

It’s NAIDOC Week here in Australia. A week dedicated to acknowledging the traditional custodians of the land we’re lucky enough to call home, and celebrating their 65,000 years of existence.

Since its inception in the 1920’s, NAIDOC or, National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee, has stood as a group of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders who seek to increase awareness in the wider global community of the status and treatment of Australia’s first nations peoples.

Prompted by the protest of Australia Day (January 26th), these Aboriginal rights groups sought to boycott the National Holiday as it commemorated and celebrated the beginning of genocide for Aboriginal Australians. Referred to by NAIDOC and similar groups as the ‘Day of Mourning’ back in the 20th century, January 26th is now more commonly referred to as ‘Invasion Day’ and stands to condemn the arrival of European settlers in 1788.

Since the 1920’s the NAIDOC Group have been persistent in rallying for the change of national policy and aiding in passing legislation to recognise and bring change to the broken relationship between Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians and ‘settler’ Australians.

Most recently, NAIDOC Week stands as a 7-day long national celebration to commemorate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Celebrations are held not only in indigenous communities, but Australia-wide.

It is a fantastic opportunity to participate in a range of activities to not only support your local Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander communities but to also learn more about the history of our first nations peoples.

If you’re looking for ways to celebrate NAIDOC Week in your local community, head to the NAIDOC events page to get involved.

Each NAIDOC week is assigned a theme, and the theme of 2020 is ‘Always Was, Always Will Be’.

This statement recognises that First Nations people have occupied and cared for our great continent for over 65,000 years. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders are Australia’s first explorers, first navigators, first engineers, first farmers, first botanists, first scientists, first diplomats, first astronomers and first artists.

Always Was, Always Will Be. acknowledges that hundreds of Nations and cultures covered this continent. All were managing the land, the biggest estate on earth, to sustainably provide for their future.

First Nations People are spiritually and culturally connected to this country.

NAIDOC 2020 invites all Australians to embrace the true history of Australia, a history which dates back thousands of generations.

NAIDOC is about seeing, hearing and learning the First Nations’ 65,000+ year history and celebrating one of the oldest continuing cultures on the planet.

Always Was, Always Will Be.

If you’re unable to join in local NAIDOC Week celebrations, we encourage you to support Aboriginal owned and led businesses, bringing indigenous Australian culture to the world through crafts, clothing and their own versions of storytelling.

We’ve listed some of our favourite brands, but more can be discovered via the @tradingblak Instagram page.