This week, the ACA will join millions around the country in celebrating NAIDOC Week, an important time to commemorate and recognise the history, culture, and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.
This year’s NAIDOC Week, its 50th year of uplifting Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, cultures, and resilience, takes place under the theme ‘The Next Generation: Strength, Vision, & Legacy.’ Selected by the National NAIDOC Committee, 2025’s theme aims to acknowledge past achievements and focus on the bright future ahead. Key to the theme is celebrating the strength of young Indigenous leaders, the strong vision of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, and the undying legacy of Indigenous elders. This year, the National NAIDOC Committee has also embraced self-determination as a model for the next generation, a key factor in achieving independence.
Through participation in NAIDOC Week, we are not only able to reflect on the past 50 years of learning about the cultures and histories of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth, but also look towards and build a brighter, better future.
What is the ACA’s relationship with NAIDOC Week?
At the ACA, our vision for reconciliation is to see improved health outcomes and participation in health decision-making by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities. Fundamental to realising this vision is increasing the number of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples graduating as chiropractors, with our ACA Study Grant key to helping us actualise this goal. Improving access to chiropractic care for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and achieving improved health outcomes and equitable access for all Australians are also core aspects of our reconciliation vision.
Additionally, we’ve worked closely with Reconciliation Australia to develop our latest Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) throughout this year, which will include any actions or deliverables from our two-year Innovate RAP that concluded last year that weren’t completed. Key to this will be the continued development of cultural awareness training for this year’s annual conference in Melbourne and the development of the ‘next’ – an innovation of the training aimed at accommodating localised learning delivery and experience.
Of course, the ACA’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Rural Remote Practitioners (ARRPN) is a key player in this journey, representing both the Association and the profession in conversations related to healthcare in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, promoting cultural safety in chiropractic practice, especially for those in rural and remote communities, and driving important recognition and participation opportunities such as NAIDOC Week and National Reconciliation Week.
NAIDOC Week offers an excellent opportunity for the chiropractic profession to engage with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities to forge and fortify deeper understandings of culture, knowledge, connection to land, and ways of healing.
How You Can Participate
Members are encouraged greatly to engage with some of the ACA’s resources during NAIDOC Week to develop an understanding of cultural safety, closing the gap, and the experience of First Nations Chiropractors within our profession. These include:
- The Closing the Gap Webinar (October 2020) available in the ACA’s webinar library
- ACA Podcast – Episode 72: Experiences of an Aboriginal chiropractor with Dr Bill Hayward.
- ACA Podcast – Episode 58: National Reconciliation Week with Dr Joan van Rotterdam.
On top of this, the NAIDOC Week website showcases local events right across the country and invites the public to plan an event to recognise the celebration’s 50-year anniversary. Their website also features further details on this year’s theme and educational resources that unpack NAIDOC Week and explore the history of themes for each year.
Participating in NAIDOC Week is not only critical in developing a deeper cultural understanding and cultural safety, or for its ability to facilitate major steps towards achieving our Reconciliation Action Plan’s goal, but it also allows us to achieve our overarching goal for more Australians to value and benefit from chiropractic care.
For those wishing to learn more about NAIDOC Week, including this year’s theme, or participate in or host an event, you can visit www.naidoc.org.au