NAIDOC Week - The Next Generation – Strength, Vision and Legacy
This year, NAIDOC Week celebrates 50 years of recognising and honouring First Nations cultures, achievements and struggles. The 2025 theme, The Next Generation – Strength, Vision and Legacy, is both a celebration of what has been and a commitment to what lies ahead. It speaks to our responsibility not only to reflect, but to build, invest and guide with intention.
As a Githabal Bundjalung woman, I carry stories of both strength and sorrow. My ancestors, skilled trackers and drovers, lived with deep knowledge of Country and used that knowledge to support their communities. Others in my family experienced the harsh reality of government control, forced removals and policies designed to erase culture and identity. These histories sit side by side. They shape how I move through the world and why I believe so strongly in the power of truth, learning and legacy.
This theme calls us to consider what we are handing forward. It is not just about survival. It is about pride. It is about building a future where our children and grandchildren are strong in their identity, visible in the systems that shape them, and confident in their knowledge of the past.
My relative, Uncle Clive Williams, who was active during the 1967 Referendum, once said, “We have to live according to today and not to yesterday.” That wisdom reminds me that our work now is about preparing the next generation to lead in the world as it is, while equipping them to create the world as it should be.
That preparation begins with education.
After the failure of the Voice referendum, many of us felt the weight of misunderstanding and resistance. But it reinforced something we have always known. Real change begins in what we teach, how we teach it, and who gets to be heard. When First Nations voices, histories and knowledge systems are embedded in classrooms from the earliest years, children grow up with a clearer, more honest view of this country. They grow up with empathy. They grow up knowing that truth and justice are not abstract - they are lived and they matter.
We need a national approach that puts First Nations perspectives at the centre of education policy and curriculum. Not as one-off units or commemorative moments, but as an ongoing foundation. This is how we foster strength in the next generation. This is how we ensure they inherit more than struggle. We want them to inherit clarity, cultural pride and the tools to shape better systems.
Legacy is not just about remembrance. It is about action that lasts. For me, that legacy is about truth-telling in schools. It is about seeing Indigenous young people walking proudly in every space, strong in who they are, respected for what they know, and supported to lead.
As we mark five decades of NAIDOC Week, we honour those who paved the way, and we turn toward those coming after us. The next generation deserves more than our survival stories. They deserve our guidance, our investment and our belief in their leadership.
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