2025 Significant dates

January 26: Invasion Day / Survival Day
While Australians are encouraged to celebrate Australia Day as the day Australia was founded, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people mourn the impacts of colonisation.

February 8: Anniversary of the Woodward Commission 1973
The Woodward Commission was crucial in recognising Aboriginal land rights in the Northern Territory. Its recommendations led to the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976.

February 12: Beginning of the Freedom Ride 1965
The 1965 Freedom Ride, led by Charles Perkins, saw University of Sydney students travel through regional NSW to protest racial discrimination and poor living conditions for Aboriginal people. They challenged segregation in places like the Walgett RSL and Moree swimming pool, drawing national attention and contributing to the 1967 referendum.

February 13: Anniversary of the National Apology
On 13 February 2008, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd made a formal apology to Australia’s Indigenous peoples, particularly to the Stolen Generations whose lives had been deeply affected and traumatised by past government policies of forced child removal and Indigenous assimilation.

March 20: National Close the Gap Day
National Close the Gap Day is a time for all Australians to come together and commit to achieving equity for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

March 21: International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination
March 21 is observed around the world as the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination (IDERD). Beginning in 1979, the UN encouraged a week of solidarity by member states with those peoples suffering from the horrors of racism. The date served as a stark reminder of the atrocities that could be perpetrated against racial minorities.

April 5: Anniversary of the 1997 Bringing Them Home Report
Bringing Them Home is the 1997 Australian Report of the National Inquiry into the Separation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children from Their Families. The report marked a pivotal moment in the controversy that has come to be known as the Stolen Generations.

April 15: Royal Commission into Aboriginal deaths in custody 1987
The Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody was established on 10 August 1987 to investigate the high number of Aboriginal deaths in custody between 1980 and 1989. The final report, issued on 15 April 1991, made 339 recommendations to reduce these deaths and address related social, cultural, and legal issues.

May 1: Anniversary of the Pilbara Strike, 1946
The Pilbara Strike began on 1 May 1946 with around 800 Aboriginal pastoral workers walking off stations in north-west Western Australia. It lasted until 1949 and was the longest industrial action in Australian history, demanding fair wages and better working conditions.

May 4: Aboriginal Land Rights Act (NSW), 1983
The Aboriginal Land Rights Act 1983 (NSW) was passed on 4 May 1983. It allowed Aboriginal peoples to claim certain Crown lands and established Aboriginal Land Councils to manage these lands.

May 26: National Sorry Day
National Sorry Day offers the community the opportunity to acknowledge the impact of the policies spanning more than 150 years of forcible removal of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children from their families.

May 27: Anniversary of the successful 1967 Referendum
In 1967 over 90% of Australians voted in a Referendum to allow Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to be counted in the census.The Referendum also gave the Commonwealth Government power to make national laws on behalf of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

May 27 – 3 June: National Reconciliation Week
National Reconciliation Week offers people across Australia the opportunity to focus on reconciliation, to hear about the cultures and histories of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and to explore new and better ways of meeting challenges in our communities.

May 28: Anniversary of the Sydney Bridge Walk for Reconciliation
250,000 Australians walked across the Sydney Harbour Bridge on this day in 2000 to show their support for Reconciliation in Australia.. Similar bridge walks in many towns and cities followed.

May 29: Anniversary of the Torres Strait Islander flag
Every National Reconciliation Week on 29 May, we acknowledge and pay tribute to Bernard Namok Senior on the anniversary of the Torres Strait Islander Flag

May 27 – 3 June: National Reconciliation Week
National Reconciliation Week offers people across Australia the opportunity to focus on reconciliation, to hear about the cultures and histories of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and to explore new and better ways of meeting challenges in our communities.

May 27 – 3 June: National Reconciliation Week
National Reconciliation Week offers people across Australia the opportunity to focus on reconciliation, to hear about the cultures and histories of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, and to explore new and better ways of meeting challenges in our communities.

June 3: Mabo Day
This marks the anniversary of the High Court of Australia’s historical judgement, which acknowledged the existence of Native Title. On this day in 1992, the court upheld the claim by Eddie ‘Koiki’ Mabo on behalf of the Meriam people in the Torres Strait that they had occupied the Islands of Mer for hundreds of years before the arrival of the British. The decision overturned a legal fiction that Australia was Terra Nullius (a land belonging to no one) at the time of British colonisation.

June 10: Myall Creek Massacre 1838
There have been many Aboriginal massacres throughout Australia’s colonial history but the most famous of these is that which occurred at Myall Creek near Inverell in NSW. On this day, twelve colonists killed at least least 28 unarmed Indigenous people of the Gamilaroi nation. The massacre is infamous for the sole reason it was the one and only time that the perpetrators were found guilty of murder and hanged. Although there were other massacres that occurred after this, since then no-one has gone punished for their crimes.

June 12: Anniversary of The Barunga Statement, 1988The Barunga Statement was presented to Prime Minister Bob Hawke at the Barunga Festival. This statement called for Indigenous rights, including self-determination, land rights, and an end to discrimination.

July 1: Coming Of The Light – Torres Strait Islands
Many island cultures have traditionally celebrated a Coming of the Light festival in some form or other. On this day it is celebrated in the Torres Strait Islands.

July 6-12: NAIDOC Week
Celebrations are held across Australia each July to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

July 9: Anniversary of the Aboriginal Flag
The flag was first raised on 9 July in 1971 at a land rights rally in Victoria Square/Tarntanyangga, Adelaide, on then-National Aborigines Day. It has become an enduring symbol of Aboriginal strength, representing Aboriginal people and their ongoing spiritual connection to the land.

August 4: National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day and the week leading up to it, is a time for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander families to celebrate the strengths and culture of their children.

August 7: Beginning of the Noonkanbah Blockade, 1980
The Noonkanbah dispute in Western Australia’s remote north put land rights on the national agenda and led to the foundation of the Kimberley Land Council. In 1980, after a two-year stand-off, the Yungngora People and their supporters sat in a dusty Kimberley creek bed, blocking the path of the drilling rigs.

August 8: International Day of Allyship
This is a day dedicated to celebrating and promoting the power of allyship across the globe. On this special day, we come together to recognise the importance of standing up for one another, fostering inclusivity, and building bridges of support and understanding.

August 9:  International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples
The International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples is observed on August 9 each year to promote and protect the rights of the world’s Indigenous population. This event also recognises the achievements and contributions that Indigenous people make to improve world issues such as environmental protection.

August 13: Anniversary of the Yirrkala Bark Petitions, 1963
Two bark petitions were presented to the Australian Parliament’s House of Representatives. This was a formal attempt by the Yolngu to have their land rights recognised.It was also the first time documents incorporating First Nations ways of representing relationships to land were recognised by parliament.

August 14: Beginning of the Coniston Massacre, 1928
The Coniston massacre, which took place in the region around the Coniston cattle station in the then Territory of Central Australia from 14 August to 18 October 1928, was the last known officially sanctioned massacre of Indigenous Australians and one of the last events of the Australian Frontier Wars. 

August 14: Anniversary of the declaration of Martial Law on Wiradjrui, 1824
Martial law was declared across the Bathurst region on August 14 1824, by the newly formed New South Wales legislative assembly. Instated by Governor Thomas Brisbane, the declaration was a result of multiple failed attempts at expanding settlement, with colonisers having run-ins with local Wiradjuri resistance whilst trying to quarter and fence land for themselves and their livestock.

August 23: Anniversary of the Wave Hill Walk-off, 1966
About 200 Gurindji stockmen, domestic workers and their families initiated strike action at Wave Hill station in the Northern Territory. Negotiations with the station owners, the international food company Vestey Brothers, broke down, leading to a nine-year dispute.This eventually led to the return of a portion of their homelands to the Gurindji people in 1974, and the passing of the first legislation that allowed for First Nations peoples to claim land title if they could prove a traditional relationship to the country.

September 4: Indigenous Literacy Day
Indigenous Literacy Day is celebrated on the first Wednesday in September. It aims to help raise funds to raise literacy levels and improve the lives and opportunities of Indigenous Australians living in remote and isolated regions. We need your support to help raise funds to buy books and literacy resources for children in these communities.

September 12: Anniversary of the Battle of One Tree Hill, 1843
The Battle of One Tree Hill was one of a series of conflicts that took place between European and a group of men of the Jagera and other Aboriginal groups in the Darling Downs area in the Colony of New South Wales in the 1840s, as part of the Australian frontier wars. It was one in which the Europeans were routed by a group of local Aboriginal men under the warrior Multuggerah, a rare event both in its form, as pitched battles between the two groups, and in its outcome.

September 13: Anniversary of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People
The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples was adopted by the United Nations General Assembly during its 61st session at UN Headquarters in New York City on 13 September 2007.

September 28: John Pat Day
A sad anniversary that should have marked the change that’s needed: the death of 16-year-old Yindjibardi boy, John Pat died in a police cell on 28 September in 1983 at Roebourne police station in Western Australia (WA).

October 3: Anniversary of the Going Home Conference, 1994
Held in Darwin at Kormilda College in 1994, the Going Home Conference brought together over 600 Aboriginal people who had been forcibly removed as children to discuss common goals.

October 26: Anniversary of Uluru being returned to the Traditional Owners
In a symbolic moment for Indigenous land rights, the Governor-General ceremoniously handed the freehold title to Uluru back to its 200 traditional owners. It would be another three decades before climbing was banned on 26 October 2019.

October 28: Anniversary of the Pinjarra Massacre, 1834
The Pinjarra Massacre took place on 28th October, 1834 in Pinjarra, Western Australia. The event is remembered as one of the most horrendous massacres of Aboriginal peoples in Australia’s history.

November 8: Indigenous Veterans Day
A date to recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders contributions to military service, particularly in the First and Second World Wars and the Korean War.

December 8: Aboriginal Lands Trust Act (SA) Passed, 1966
The Aboriginal Lands Trust Act 1966 is the short title of an Act of the Parliament of South Australia, assented to on 8 December 1966, with the long title “An Act to establish an Aboriginal Lands Trust, to define the powers and functions thereof, for purposes incidental thereto and for other purposes”. This Bill was introduced by Don Dunstan, who was then, the South Australia’s Attorney-General and Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, and who later became Premier.

December 10: Human Rights Day
This day marks the anniversary of one of the world’s most groundbreaking global pledges: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). This landmark document enshrines the inalienable rights that everyone is entitled to as a human being – regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status. The Declaration was proclaimed by the United Nations General Assembly in Paris on 10 December 1948 and sets out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected.  

December 16: Aboriginal Land Rights (NT) Act
In December 1976 the federal parliament passed the Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act. It was the first legislation in Australia that enabled First Nations peoples to claim land rights for Country where traditional ownership could be proven.

December 24: Native Title Act passed, 1993
The Native Title Act 1993 is a law passed by the Australian Parliament, the purpose of which is “to provide a national system for the recognition and protection of native title and for its co-existence with the national land management system”. The Act was passed by the Keating government following the High Court’s decision in Mabo v Queensland (No 2) (1992). The Act commenced operation on 1 January 1994.