PREMIUM

‘Powerful’: Fifty years of NAIDOC posters

By Caitlyn Grant

Jul 6, 2022

Get up! Stand up! Show up!: This year’s NAIDOC Week poster by Gudanji/Wakaja artist Ryhia Dank. Photo by Megan Fisher

Stepping into Wellways Wyndham St, Shepparton, office what meets the eye isn’t one, or two or even three, but 50 NAIDOC Week posters.

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To celebrate NAIDOC Week, the framed posters lining the walls each tell a different story, beginning in 1972.

“Nearly everyone that’s come through and seen it have had similar responses,” Wellways Shepparton Reconciliation Action Planning Committee chair Paul Dann said.

“Each one has its own significance for different people, but even the older ones still hold themes of today.

“Some of the older ones have very powerful language.”

National NAIDOC Week is held in the first week of July and is a time to celebrate the culture and achievements of First Nations’ peoples, while also acknowledging the nation’s history and injustices.

NAIDOC’s poster competition encourages First Nations artists to submit work that reflect each year’s theme, this year’s being ‘Get up! Stand up! Show up!’ encouraging systemic change.