Welcome to 2025. We start the year reflecting on 26 January. Organisers of events will encourage celebration of the nation on this day, but the choice of the date when the first fleet arrived and colonisation and dispossession started is painful for many. Since 1938, the 150th anniversary, this has been a day where people have gathered to mourn and protest, recognising it instead as ‘Invasion Day’ or ‘Survival Day’.
In the ACT, there will be two events at the Aboriginal Tent Embassy. The first, at 6am, is a Dawn of Mourning. There is also a rally at 10am. More details will be available via the Aboriginal Tent Embassy Facebook page: (www.facebook.com/atesovereignty).
You can find out more about the issues around Survival Day in the articles on the ANTAR National website (https://antar.org.au/issues/survival-day/) and this NITV article: EXPLAINER: What is the January 26 public holiday actually commemorating?. The ANTAR National website also includes a list of events happening around Australia on 26 January.
ANTaR ACT Election Campaign
Following on from our campaign and scorecard for the ACT Election, we will be meeting with the members of the new ACT Legislative Assembly to follow through on the commitments they made through the campaign on our key issues of interest.
So far members of ANTaR ACT have met with Suzanne Orr, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, and Chiaka Barry, Shadow Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs. It was very valuable to be able to meet the new Minister and Shadow Minister and talk about the issues and actions needed for issues facing First Nations people in the ACT. In the next month, we hope to meet with the Greens and new independents.
ANTaR ACT Organising Group
The next meeting of the ANTaR ACT organising group will be at 6pm on Monday 10 February at a venue yet to be decided (meeting face to face again and trying a new venue). If you would like to join us and be involved in our ongoing advocacy and actions, please RSVP to: info@antaract.org.au.
Events coming up
Wurrumay Collective Community Event
Sunday 26 January, 10am-2pm, Wurrumay Collective, 102/16 Lonsdale St, Braddon
Free community event. Come together to share and learn about First Nations people and culture, with native food and drinks, jewellery making, kids colouring in and sensory play. Performance from Johnny Huckle with his daughter Dindima Violet. All welcome.
For more information, contact Tash: tash@wurrumaycollective.com, https://wurrumaycollective.com/ .
Ray Dimakarri Dixon with the Standing Strong Band, supported by Stuart Joel Nugget
Sunday 26 January, 4.00-6.00pm, Smith’s Alternative, 76 Alinga St, Civic
Ray Dimakarri Dixon, a proud leader in Australia’s Indigenous music scene, grew up singing in one of the world’s oldest languages, Mudburra, now only spoken by 50 people. Ray writes and records music under his traditional name ‘Dimakarri’, and is a passionate protector and custodian of Mudburra Country, channelling the fire that fuels him into a profound musical output. Stuart Joel Nugget is a Jingil and Mudbarra man from the remote Barkly region of the NT, currently based in Alice Springs.
In the Nguku – Water is Life tour, Ray and Stuart are backed by Blue Mountains outfit The Standing Strong Band. They sing about country and culture, and the threats to water from fracking, agribusiness and climate change.
For more information and bookings, see: www.smithsalternative.com/events/ray-dimakarri-dixon-89395.
Community Day 2025
Sunday 26 January, 11am to 4pm, National Museum of Australia
The day will begin with a Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony on the piazza at 11am, with Paul Girrawah House. Performances during the day include Wiradjuri Echoes (11.30, Gandel Atrium) and a lakeside concert featuring Jem Cassar-Daley and Stewart Barton (2pm), while hands-on activities include bush animal making with Ronnie and Coen Jordan (11.30am – 2pm, drop in, Gandel Atrium) and weaving a miniature dillybag necklace with Jessika Spencer (bookings required). There will be a First Australians tour at 3pm, departing from the information desk.
For more information, see: www.nma.gov.au/whats-on/family-day-2025-australia-day-at-the-museum.
Meet the author – Juno Gemes
Monday 10 February, 7.00-8.00pm, Manning Clark Room, Cultural Centre Kambri (ANU Building 153), ANU, Acton
Juno Gemes will be in conversation with former Minister for Indigenous Australians Linda Burney, moderated by Ann McGrath, on her new book Until Justice Comes: Fifty Years of The Movement for Indigenous Rights. This significant book brings together a powerful collection of over 220 photographs, fusing Juno Gemes’ current and continuing work with her unique living archive. It is the summation of a career witnessing and advocating for change: a collection of photographs making visible the history of First Nations people’s struggle for justice over the last fifty years in Australia.
Registration is required for this event. For more information and registration, see: www.anu.edu.au/events/meet-the-author-juno-gemes.
ANTaR ACT acknowledge the traditional custodians of the land on which Canberra is situated, the Ngunnawal and Ngambri people. We acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of this city and this region. We also acknowledge other Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who may visit this area.