NAIDOC Week 2022

NAIDOC Week celebrations are held across Australia in the first week of July each year (Sunday to Sunday), to celebrate and recognise the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

NAIDOC Week is an opportunity for all Australians to learn about First Nations cultures and histories and participate in celebrations of the oldest, continuous living cultures on earth.

The theme for this year is Get up! Stand up! Show up! It encourages all of us to champion change while celebrating those who have already driven and led change in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities over generations.

Here’s an activity to celebrate NAIDOC Week 2022 in your classroom.

1. Create a class definition for the word ‘changemaker’

2. Then, construct a list of ‘changemakers’ who have contributed to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities – teachers may wish to split the class into groups and assign them a specific decade to focus on researching prior to collating a list as a class.

3. Once the class list has been compiled, assign each student a ‘changemaker’ and give them 20 minutes to investigate:
– Who is this changemaker?
– What did they do?
– What impact did they have on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities?

4. Give students another 10 minutes to write a 3-4 sentence bio which captures this changemaker.

5. If time allows, have students submit their changemakers’ bio via a Typeform and create a resource to share with other grades in the school to commemorate NAIDOC Week.

Primary and Secondary Teachers may also wish to explore SBS Learn’s comprehensive NAIDOC Week 2022 Teacher Resource Pack.

It’s full of fantastic lesson ideas and can be downloaded here (PDF).