NAIDOC Week for 2019 runs from July 7 to 14.
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The very powerful theme for this year is: Voice. Treaty. Truth. Let's work together for a shared future
In their official explanation of this theme, NAIDOC says "For generations, we have sought recognition of our unique place in Australian history and society today. We need to be the architects of our lives and futures."
"Voice. Treaty. Truth. were three key elements to the reforms set out in the Uluru Statement from the Heart. These reforms represent the unified position of First Nations Australians," NAIDOC said.
VOICE
This first part of the theme is really very simple. "Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people want their voice to be heard," NAIDOC says.
TREATY
"A substantive treaty has always been the primary aspiration of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander movement," NAIDOC says.
"In the European settlement of Australia, there were no treaties, no formal settlements, no compacts.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people therefore did not cede sovereignty to our land. It was taken away from us. That will remain a continuing source of dispute."
They were also excluded from the Constitutional convention debates of the 1800s in the lead up to Australia's Federation.
TRUTH
"Our sovereignty has never been ceded - not in 1788, not in 1967, not with the Native Title Act, [and] not with the Uluru Statement from the Heart," NAIDOC says.
"The history of our First Peoples is the history of all of us, of all of Australia, and we need to own it," say NAIDOC's co-chairs Pat Thompson and John Paul Janke.
Hearing the full history of First Peoples "is necessary before we can come to some true reconciliation, some genuine healing for both sides," added the co-chairs.
After this true history is told, "Then we can move forward together," they said.
WORKING TOGETHER
The outcome NAIDOC seeks is very much a peaceful one that's also fair and really very simple.
"Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples have always wanted an enhanced role in decision-making in Australia's democracy," NAIDOC says.
For more information visit: www.naidoc.org.au
