PREMIUM

‘Powerful’: Fifty years of NAIDOC posters

author avatar
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.

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.

Bringing them home: The 1998 NAIDOC Week poster. Photo by Megan Fisher
Ten years on: The year 2012 ‘Spirit of the Tent Embassy: 40 years on’ by Amanda Joy Tronc. Photo by Megan Fisher
Storytelling: The 1983 poster. Photo by Megan Fisher
Display: 1979 NAIDOC Week poster showing the International Year of the Child. Photo by Megan Fisher
A trip through the years: Wellways had a viewing session for people to see the works. Photo by Megan Fisher
NAIDOC: The posters are hanging along the hall and on two walls. Photo by Megan Fisher
Themes: The 2018 poster, ‘Because of her, we can!’ by Cheryl Moggs. Photo by Megan Fisher
History: The 1988 theme, ‘Recognise and Share the Survival of the Oldest Culture in the World’. Photo by Megan Fisher