This week is NAIDOC Week, a week, as the organisers put it, "to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples".
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"NAIDOC is celebrated not only in Indigenous communities, but by Australians from all walks of life. The week is a great opportunity to participate in a range of activities and to support your local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community."
What's behind it?
First things first: NAIDOC stands for "National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee".
The committee is responsible for organising the week but its initials have now become the name of the celebration itself.
Its origins go back a century when Aboriginal rights groups started to boycott Australia Day each January 26.
On Australia Day in 1938, protesters marched through Sydney in one of the first big civil rights demonstrations anywhere in the world. It became known as the Day of Mourning.
It became an annual event right through the '40s and '50s, morphing from a protest into a protest plus a celebration of Aboriginal culture.
The National Aborigines Day Observance Committee (NADOC) was formed. In the early 1990s, the title was expanded to include Torres Strait Islanders.
NAIDOC it became and NAIDOC it remains.
What happens?
There are events across the country. The NAIDOC website lists them, with the ability to search by area.
The events are sometimes practical - a discussion on increasing Aboriginal participation in the construction industry, for example - or cultural.
What's its message?
"It's a real opportunity to celebrate Indigenous culture," according to Barbara Causon who chairs a group overseeing measures to improve the treatment of Aboriginal children in care in the ACT.
"It's an opportunity for us to showcase our culture.
"For non-Aboriginal people, it's an opportunity to join in and give support to the importance of our culture - our living culture - and to the connection with this country."
But it's not just a cultural event
"Every year, NAIDOC is seen as a day of protest," according to John Paul Janke, who co-chairs the organising committee.
The important issues of protest could be land-rights or deaths in custody or protecting sacred sites, he said.
He emphasised that the week had its origins in the civil rights movement in the 1920s when Aboriginal peoples were living under restrictions to voting and denials of basic rights, including to education.
"It's also seen as a celebration of the survival of Aboriginal and Torres Straits Islander cultures and peoples," he said.
He said it is also an event for non-Indigenous Australians.
"It's an invitation to the rest of Australia to join in these celebrations but also to have a conversation."
He urged people to get involved.
It's a real opportunity to celebrate indigenous culture. It's an opportunity for us to showcase our culture.
- Barbara Causon
Is NAIDOC Week a celebration or a protest?
A bit of both, according to Indigenous Australians who are involved in it.
Paul House (Girrawah) from Canberra said, "NAIDOC Week is all about 'voice'. It's about truth telling."
"NAIDOC week is a great opportunity to educate ourselves and broader Australia and to unite alongside First Nations Australians."
For him, the truth is that Australia was conquered and land was taken, so more needs to be done to provide justice to today's indigenous Australians.
He wants a greater representation in the higher echelons of power like parliament and the judiciary.
He thinks the week is also about instilling pride in the younger generation in their own culture.
"All First Nations peoples have a responsibility to let our children and families know about their culture.
"We want to see our children grow up in a society that acknowledges, respects and honours the indigenous peoples of our country."
For him, NAIDOC Week is about both indigenous Australians and non-Indigenous Australians acknowledging and valuing the ancient culture.
"It's about mutual respect," he said.
"We do it with ANZAC Day. Why is NAIDOC Week any different?"
A celebration
Julie Tongs who runs the Winnunga Nimmityjah Aboriginal Health Service's centre in Canberra sees this week not just as a celebration of the long sweep of history but as a celebration of more immediate local achievements - like keeping the health service for her community going through the epidemic.
"We do need to be able to celebrate.
"It's been such a challenging year. We've had bushfires and then we got COVID. We've been at the front line right through this period and I'm proud of that."
But there's the bigger picture, too. She wants everybody to think about the history of Australia since the arrival of Europeans.
She wants non-Aboriginal people to reflect.
"I think they need to think about how they can have a greater understanding of who we are and the impact that colonisation has had on this country - to educate themselves about the true history of this country."
The big message
"What it means is the recognition that First Nations people exist on this continent," Michael Woodley, a community leader in Western Australia told this paper.
"What it should mean to non-indigenous Australians is that there is a unique race of people who are as old as time itself - and that should be a source of pride.
"The world's oldest living culture is here."