Here's how you can explore, respect and learn about important Indigenous sites near you

NAIDOC Week is celebrated each July in recognition of the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. The theme this year, Heal Country! calls for greater protection of the environment, sacred sites and the Indigenous cultural heritage from exploitation, desecration, and destruction.

A bushwalker looking at a rock at the Aboriginal Heritage walk, Ku-ring-gai National Park, NSW Source: NSW Dept of Planning, Industry and Environment

Highlights

• Its theme, Heal Country! is about taking responsibility for the land and showing respect for everything that connects with it.
• The Canberra region is home to thousands of significant sites, with many accessible to the public, as Wally Bell explains.
• Heal Country! reminds us that caring for the land and cultural heritage is a responsibility that falls on every Australian, says Stacie Piper.

The theme of this year's NAIDOC Week, Heal Country! calls for greater protection of the environment, sacred sites and all that is tightly interwoven with the cultural heritage of the land’s Traditional Custodians.

Stacie Piper is a Wurundjeri and Dja Dja Wurrung woman and Chairperson of the Victorian NAIDOC Committee. She says that the theme is enormously relevant to every person who calls Australia home.

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Stacie Piper says Heal Country! means deliberate engagement.

 

“Everybody who lives here needs to care for it as we always did – look at it in the way we do, visit it, care for it, pay your respects. That’s all part of healing, and there’s an exchange because it heals us as well.”

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