NAIDOC WEEK

50 years of deadly, 65,000 years of caring for Country

_{Illustrations: Madi Mercer @_ghostgum}

July 9, 2026

Celebrating a legacy thousands of generations in the making, and still standing strong today.

This NAIDOC Week marks 50 years since NAIDOC became a national movement celebrating the strength, culture, and leadership of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Fifty years is worth celebrating. In terms of environmental justice, it is also a reminder of a much longer story.

For more than 65,000 years, First Nations peoples have cared for Country, protected ecosystems, upheld Law and fought for the right to continue doing so. Long before Western environmental law existed, there were sophisticated systems of governance, responsibility, and stewardship grounded in Country. Today’s environmental justice movement has much to learn from the wisdom and enduring practices of First Nation’s Australians.

At Environmental Justice Australia, we’re quite a bit younger (35 years), but we’ve long been guided by the determination of Elders and knowledge holders before us. And we’ve also had the privilege to work alongside First Nations leaders and communities who continue that legacy today.

A legacy of environmental justice

While many of the milestones below are remembered as moments in Australia's legal or political history, they have also shaped environmental justice. As First Nations peoples secured greater recognition of their rights, they strengthened their ability to protect Country, defend cultural heritage and hold governments to account.

1963

The Yirrkala Bark Petitions became the first traditional documents recognised by the Australian Parliament. Yolngu leaders combined Yolngu law and Australian parliamentary processes to challenge mining on Country, laying the foundations for future land rights campaigns.

1966

Vincent Lingiari led the Gurindji people’s Wave Hill Walk-Off. What began as a strike against unfair working conditions became a defining movement for land rights and self-determination, forever changing Australia’s understanding of the relationship between justice and Country.

1967

The 1967 Referendum marked another important turning point. While it did not create equal rights overnight, it removed discriminatory constitutional provisions and enabled the Commonwealth to make laws for Aboriginal people, reflecting growing recognition that Australia’s future could not be built without First Nations voices.

1972

The Aboriginal Tent Embassy transformed the lawns outside Parliament House into a powerful and enduring call for land rights, sovereignty and justice.

1976

The Aboriginal Land Rights (Northern Territory) Act 1976 became the first Australian law to recognise Traditional Owners’ rights to land. It acknowledged, for the first time in Australian legislation, that First Nations peoples’ enduring relationship with Country deserved legal recognition.

1986

As Australia’s legal system evolved, so too did First Nations leadership within it. Pat O’Shane became Australia’s first Aboriginal person appointed as a magistrate, helping reshape the justice system from within while advocating throughout her career for fairness, accountability and First Nations rights.

1992-3

The legal landscape shifted again when Eddie Koiki Mabo and fellow Meriam plaintiffs succeeded in overturning the legal fiction of terra nullius. The High Court’s decision recognised that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples’ rights to Country had never simply disappeared. The following year, the Native Title Act established a legal framework for recognising those rights.

2017

First Nations leaders have also reshaped how Australian law understands nature itself. The Yarra River Protection (Wilip-gin Birrarung murron) Act 2017 became the first Australian Act with a title in a First Nations language and recognised the Birrarung as one living, integrated natural entity. It embedded Wurundjeri voices in the river’s future management and reflected a growing willingness to learn from First Nations ways of caring for Country.

2017-2023

That same year, the Uluru Statement from the Heart offered a generous invitation to Australia through Voice, Treaty and Truth, recognising that caring for Country and self-determination are inseparable. It called for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to have a meaningful say in decisions that affect their lives, communities and Country. The Statement went on to inspire the 2023 Referendum on a constitutionally enshrined Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice to Parliament.

While the Referendum was unsuccessful, the Uluru Statement’s invitation “to walk with us in a movement of the Australian people for a better future” continues to guide First Nations leaders and communities across Australia.

2019-2022

Momentum, particularly at a State level, has continued to build over the last decade. In 2019, Victorians elected the First Peoples’ Assembly of Victoria, establishing the representative body that would lead Australia’s first Treaty process. Three years later, in 2022, Victoria established the nation’s first independent Treaty Authority to oversee Treaty negotiations between the State and First Peoples.

2024

South Australia became the first state to legislate and implement a First Nations Voice to Parliament and Government, creating a formal mechanism for Aboriginal voices to help shape laws and policies affecting their communities.

2025-2026

Victoria’s Treaty process reached another historic milestone in 2025 with the agreement of the Statewide Treaty, setting the framework for the next phase of Treaty-making. Negotiations have now begun on Local Traditional Owner Treaties, with the Dja Dja Wurrung, Bidwell-Maap, Tati Tati, Wotjobaluk Nations and Taungurung peoples among the first parties entered on the Victorian Treaty Negotiations Register.
Treaties have the potential to strengthen the protection of cultural heritage, embed First Nations leadership in the care of land and waters, and support decision-making grounded in the enduring connection between people and Country.

Together, these reforms recognise that environmental justice cannot be separated from self-determination.

The legal milestones tell only part of the story. Behind every legal victory are generations of Elders, communities and advocates who refused to give up, often without recognition or certainty that change would come.

This deadly legacy continues, today

Environmental Justice Australia is privileged to work alongside First Nations clients, partners and communities who are carrying justice forward in powerful ways, both ancient and contemporary.

Monica Morgan, a respected senior member of the Yorta Yorta Nation, has dedicated decades to protecting Country, advancing truth-telling and advocating for justice. Her leadership spans generations, continuing a legacy of defending Yorta Yorta rights that was also carried by her mother, the late Elizabeth Morgan, who faced racism while standing up to protect sites of cultural significance in the Barmah Forest.

In 2024, Monica achieved another landmark for First Nations justice. Represented by Environmental Justice Australia, she became the first First Nations person in Victoria to successfully prove racial vilification under the state's Racial and Religious Tolerance Act. The case arose after years of abuse, intimidation and racist attacks directed at Monica and the Yorta Yorta community over their support for the protection of Barmah National Park and the removal of feral horses to restore its environmental and cultural values.

"This decision is a small victory that shows the white legal system can sometimes acknowledge the detrimental harm of the society it represents. The system is stacked against us but this time it has worked. It's important our mob know they can utilise this."
Monica Morgan

Monica's case reminds us that protecting Country often also means confronting racism, defending cultural authority and ensuring First Nations voices can participate safely in decisions about their lands and waters.

Read more about Monica's case here

_{Photo: Doug Gimesy}

Along the Murray River, Brendan Kennedy, a proud Tati Tati and Wadi Wadi man, and leader with The Murray Lower Darling Rivers Indigenous Nations (MLDRIN), continues to champion healthy rivers, healthy communities and self-determination. Through his advocacy and his work with Environmental Justice Australia, Brendan demonstrates how environmental justice, disability justice and First Nations justice are deeply interconnected.

As Victoria reached the landmark Statewide Treaty in 2025, Brendan reflected on what the moment meant for his people and future generations:

"It's a celebration and it's a reward. I see all the little babies and the children, and I think how they get to experience this and it becomes a norm that they grow up with!
We're activating and self-determining who we are. We just broke through a barrier, so now we look ahead and plant the seeds of the future."
BRENDAN KENNEDY

Today, Brendan is helping shape the next chapter of Treaty as the Tati Tati Nation begins negotiations towards a Local Traditional Owner Treaty, following its inclusion on Victoria's Treaty Negotiations Register. As a Tati Tati Traditional Owner, he is part of the work to negotiate an agreement that reflects his Nation's priorities, responsibilities to Country and aspirations for future generations.

_{Photo: Mitchell Barkman}

On Larrakia Country, Tibby Quall, a senior Larrakia Elder of the Danggalaba Kulumbirigin clan, and Lorraine Williams, also a Larrakia Elder of the Danggalaba Kulumbirigin clan, continue to fight to protect Binybara (Lee Point), one of Darwin's last remaining coastal woodland ecosystems and a place of profound cultural significance. Binybara contains important cultural artefacts and sacred places that are not simply remnants of the past, but part of a living culture, connecting Larrakia people to Country, law and identity.

Represented by Environmental Justice Australia, Tibby is challenging decisions that would allow these cultural artefacts to be removed for development. In 2025, the Northern Territory Civil and Administrative Tribunal found that the Heritage Council's decision-making process had been flawed, acknowledging that the system designed to protect Larrakia cultural heritage had fallen short. As the case continues, it raises important questions about whether Australia's cultural heritage laws are strong enough to protect First Nations Country, and whether Traditional Owners are genuinely heard when decisions affecting their Country are made.

"It's one of our most sacred areas, part of our laws and customs that we hold."
tibby quall

Together, Tibby and Lorraine's advocacy reminds us that protecting the environment also means protecting living culture, respecting First Nations authority and ensuring Traditional Owners can care for Country for generations to come.

"Larrakia People haven't been consulted with. We are the custodians of the Country, and our voices need to be heard."
Lorraine WILLIAMS