NAIDOC Week's theme in 2025 - The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy - is at the core of the Wurundjeri women's dance group and cultural network Djirri Djirri.

The group regularly attends cultural ceremonies and events around their Country in Naarm.

On Wednesday, Djirri Djirri hosted a dance workshop, 'Biik Ngarrga', for locals at the Burrinja Cultural Centre in Upwey on the city's eastern fringes.

"We are a Wurundjeri women's dance group, but also a cultural network. We are descendants of William Barak's sister Annie Borate, our family come from Corranderrk Mission, and we're here reviving our songs and dances and sharing it with everybody," Djirri Djirri's Stacie Piper told National Indigenous Times.

Ms Piper led Wednesday's workshop, welcoming local parents and children into the space at the centre currently holding the ngurrak-al marram-u - body of the mountain art exhibition is co-curated, and features the work of, Djirri Djirri founder, leader, singer and songwriter Mandy Nicholson.

The group is hosting multiple workshops this NAIDOC Week.

Parents and children were introduced to the story and movements expressed in Djirri Djirri's dances - sharing knowledge of Country and animals, creation stories and language.

"We're at a stage now where we can share our cultural knowledge, our songs and dances a little bit wider," Ms Piper told National Indigenous Times.

"We like to start with our community and make sure that they're accessing culture, language and ceremony, because it's really important - given we're still in the early stages of waking all of this up."

"But we are sharing it, particularly during NAIDOC Week, with the wider community and kids from the local communities because people really want to learn it."

Ms Piper noted the generations of her family who came before were subjected to post-colonial policy and lived at a time of discrimination intended to stop and suppress language and culture.

It's her "responsibility" to pass the knowledge on to the next generations, she said.

Nanjera Pender is one of the younger members of Djirri Djirri.

She and her sister have been part of the group for practically their whole lives, she told National Indigenous Times at the workshop.

"It shapes us as strong, staunch black women in this modern society, and it really gives us a foundation to grow off," Ms Pender said.

"From a little child, and now speaking at these workshops and dances really shows how important it is to share culture orally, and teaching as well, as the next generations are the ones that are going to be fighting the fight that our ancestors fought."

This year's NAIDOC Week theme, 'The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy' is "what Djirri Djirri do", Ms Piper said.

"We're passing on cultural knowledge from one generation to the next. It's their right of passage, and we're sharing it with the next generation of the wider community as well," she said.

The ngurrak-al marram-u - dody of the mountain exhibition space includes works from eight artists', both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, who capture their response to a three-day walk across Wurundjeri Country in the Dandenong Ranges surrounding Corhanwarrabul (Mount Dandenong) guided by Mandy Nicholson.

Ms Nicholson gave the project its name in Wurundjeri language.

Gretel Taylor co-curated the exhibition. She also took part in Wednesday's dance workshop

"It was a real reminder of the power of that and what it means, you know, to be, you know, privileged to be able to share in this dance of Country with custodians," she said.