NAIDOC must be respected, not reduced to social media and afternoon tea tokenism

Zak Kirkup Published July 7, 2022 at 9.40am (AWST)

opinion

NAIDOC Week: A celebration of Indigenous culture and a reflection of the struggle the oldest continuous culture has had just to attain basic human rights.

Like so much with our Aboriginal population, NAIDOC Week is marred in difficulty and as we look at this important week in the context of 2022, I can't help but feel like there is so much tokenism that the importance has been watered down to LinkedIn posts, afternoon teas and temporary intrigue which seem to punctuate the office environment.

This is why I become so skeptical when NAIDOC Week rolls around each year.

Not because the intent of NAIDOC is wrong, but because of the way it has become corporatised and leveraged.

Briggs summed it up best this week with the below tweet:

https://twitter.com/Briggs/status/1543731228846608386?s=20&t=ERO7HiPXPAPdPxesr01zBA

NAIDOC Week is far more serious than any corporate social media post can offer and deserves far more attention.

What we now know as NAIDOC Week originally started off in the 1920s and 30s as a protest, and a call for a public holiday.

Nearly one century later the spirit and focus of the protest has not waned but the public holiday to celebrate Indigenous culture has yet to be delivered.

Throughout the 1920s Aboriginal (and non-Aboriginal) people protested January 26 due to the terrible treatment and total lack of recognition of Indigenous people in the country.

At a time when there was still indiscriminate murder of Aboriginal people culminating in the deaths of 17 at the Coniston massacre in 1928, various social groups realised they needed to become more activist to further their cause.

After a group of Aboriginal men and women gathered in Sydney on January 26 1938, they moved a motion pleading for dignity and recognition. T

he motion reveals just how lowly Indigenous people were in our country at the time as they pleaded for equality:

"WE APPEAL to the Australian nation of today to make new laws for the education and care of Aborigines, we ask for a new policy which will raise our people TO FULL CITIZEN STATUS and EQUALITY WITHIN THE COMMUNITY."

Yet even this was too much to ask for.

Throughout the 1940s and 50s these protests would continue to occur and, largely because governments didn't enjoy the Sunday before Australia Day being protested, it was agreed to create a nationally recognised day on the first Sunday of July 1955.

The day became a week in 1974, and despite there being calls for a public holiday to celebrate and recognise the rich cultural history that makes Australia unique, this never eventuated.

NAIDOC Week started as a protest and a plead to the Australian people to grant equal rights and recognition to Aboriginal people.

The original and old Australians, pleading to the new and young Australians to be given education, opportunity, electoral representation and justice.

Nearly one hundred years later are we content that progress has been made?

Nearly one hundred years later, can our country be satisfied with the treatment of Indigenous people who are still left behind in nearly every economic and social measure?

I suspect the answer is no and in absence of real progress the nation comforts ourselves with a cupcake, a cup of tea and a post on social media.

NAIDOC Week and indeed, Aboriginal Australia, deserves far better than that.