As NAIDOC weeks draws to a close once again, I want to pay respects to all the deadly mob who have come before us, who are with us now as elders and those that are following the song lines of our elders.
The oldest living culture on earth does not have a single word for disabilty but views disability more as a state of the human condition, focusing more on specific impairments, “aunty can’t walk real well” or “uncle can’t hear too good” (First People’s Disability Network, 2025).
In a community where the focus is on caring for everyone, where all mob are treated equally, where kinship and family are the backbone of the connection to community and country, we can only as a whole nation aspire to this.
We are not there yet!
The rates of Aboriginal children in custody are still high. The rates of disabled men, women and children abused in our institutions are high. Death in custody is a real and present danger for community and racism within systems impact services and treatment community received.
We are not there yet!
When we speak of disability and being disabled as a member of a community (the broader Australian community), most of us know that in this land, having a disability means you are discriminated against, daily, actually ever time you go out in public there are acts of unconscious bias and even conscious bias towards us as disabled people.
We are served last in shops, we are spoken to like children, we are excluded from mainstream society. Our outcomes for health, education, employment and housing are the bottom of the statistic in this country.
BUT resilience can be seen and witnessed in even the darkest of corners, where disabled people are pushing back, where community is standing by us and in some instances, we are thriving.
The intersectionality between black and disabled provides us with a lens to examine our priorities when it comes to unconscious bias and institutional racism. It is time to call it out. Not in a rabble of disconnected individuals but as a community.
It is reported that 63% of Aboriginal people with disabilities have a physical disability (australian institute for health and welfare 2025).
So at the end of this NAIDOC week 2025, I want to give thanks to those who are striving, thriving, and pushing back against the almost insurmountable societal challenges that we all face everyday. The theme of NAIDOC 2025 is, Next Generation: strength, vision, and legacy. To mob stay, deadly and strong!
We can get there!
(I am a stepchild, raised by an aboriginal man since I was 12 years old, a Palawa man, whose mother was Violet Smith (née Burgess). I have an undergraduate degree in Indigenous studies from the University of Tasmania.
#NAIDOC2025 #NAIDOCWeek #StrengthVisionLegacy
