Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers are advised this article contains names and images of deceased people. Following on from the failed referendum, this year’s NAIDOC theme, “Keep the fire burning! Blak, Loud and Proud”, continues NAIDOC’s long-standing practice of responding to current events and looking to the future of the ongoing survival of Indigenous people. NAIDOC events have always combined advocacy, protest and celebrations of culture through music, dance and art.
This year is no exception. The acronym NAIDOC represents the now old-fashioned sounding National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee. The name sounds out of date because the organisation, as the National Aborigines Day Observance Committee (NADOC) was established in the late 1950s at the height of the assimilation era.
Organised by church missionary councils in collaboration with the Federal government, the first “Aborigines Observance Day” was scheduled for July 12 1957. Government and mission assimilation agendas framed many of the activities in the early years, but opportunities to perform publicly at an annual demonstration in Sydney’s Martin Place from 1959, and in a talent quest from 1961 , soon became a meeting place for talented musicians and performers. Here we see the seeds of the thriving Indigenous music scene of the present day.
The 1961 and 1962 talent quest stages featured gumleaf players, guitars, piano accordions and homemade instruments including one c.
