For Our Elders #NAIDOC2023
Join NAVA in celebrating NAIDOC Week 2 – 9 July 2023 and the significant contributions and leadership of First Nations visual artists and storytellers.
Image: ENOKi, For Our Elders 2023, commissioned by NAVA.
ID: Graphic illustration in bright neon shades of green, blue, pink, purple and orange depicting people holding hands and dancing around large figures representing elders. Above them is a wedge tailed eagle hugging the elders and dancing with a crow on their shoulder.
Held from 2 – 9 July 2023, NAIDOC Week celebrates Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. This year’s theme – For Our Elders – encourages all of us to celebrate, acknowledge and honour their knowledge, experience and guidance, ‘not only through generations of advocacy and activism, but in everyday life and how to place ourselves in the world.’
Join NAVA in celebrating NAIDOC Week and the significant contributions and leadership of First Nations visual artists and storytellers by attending local NAIDOC community and arts events and supporting First Nations artists, organisations and fundraisers.
Artist Statement by ENOKi
For this year's theme 'For Our Elders' I wanted to illustrate the love that elders deserve for everything they do for the community, they are keepers and sharers of knowledge, they've fought so hard and continue to fight even harder for us so we can get the opportunities they didn't have the same privilege to have. Our Elders give us so much love and set us straight when we need it most, they deserve so much respect and care and to be celebrated this year and every year going forward.
What’s On
OCCURRENT AFFAIR by proppaNOW, 24 June – 5 August 2023 NAS Galleries, Gadigal/Sydney NSW
For Our Elders Exhibition, 24 June - 26 August, Kingston Arts Centre, Moorabbin Vic
My History, Your History, Our History, Sylvia Perrurle Neale, 29 June 20 2 July, Watch this Space, Mparntwe/AliceSprings, NT
What a Little Yarn Can Do, 29 June - 5 August, Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative, NSW
For our Elders Exhibition, 30 June - 5 August, Wanneroo Library and Cultural Centre, Boorloo/Perth WA
NAIDOC Week 2023 events, 30 June - 27 July, Western Australian Museum, Boorloo/Perth WA
National Indigenous Art Fair, 1 - 2 July, Overseas Passenger Terminal, The Rocks, Gadigal/Sydney NSW
For the Elders Exhibition, 2 July - 12 August, RANT Arts, Devonport, lutruwita/Tasmania
First Nations Sunday Market, 2 July, Art Centre Melbourne, Naarm/Melbourne Vic
Koorie Heritage Trust exhibitions and workshops, 2 - 9 July, Federation Square, Naarm/Melbourne Vic
EYDN July Peer Network: NAIDOC WEEK, 4 July, JFA Purple Orange, Kaurna/Adelaide SA
Tennant Creek Cultural Activities and Movie Night, 4 July, Nyinkka Nyunyu Art and Culture Centre, Patta Warumungu/Tennant Creek NT
Canberra Community NAIDOC Week Event, 6 July, Woden Town Square, Ngunnawal and Ngambri/Canberra ACT
Powerhouse Late: Re-Right, 6 July, Powerhouse Ultimo, Gadigal/Sydney NSW
NAIDOC SA – March and Family Fun Day, 7 July, Tarntanyangga/Victoria Square, Adelaide SA
Teen Art Workshop: For our Elders, 7 July, Adelaide Contemporary Experimental, Kaurna/Adelaide SA
Finders Keepers Market, 7 - 9 July, Royal Exhibition Building, Naarm/Melbourne Vic
NAIDOC Week Story Time and Craft, 12 July, Wetherill Park Library, Gandangara and Dharug/Sydney NSW
Penrith Naidoc 2023: Sharing Knowledge, Sharing Culture Twilight Markets, 14 July, Dharug/Penrith NSW
First Nations Perspectives In Visual Arts: Teacher professional development webinar, 20 July, online
For Our Elders, Elders Ceramics Group, until 27 July, Australian Design Centre, NSW
Search for events local to you via the NAIDOC Week events page.
Buy First Nations art
Buy art from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander owned businesses, First Nations Art Centres, galleries registered with the Indigenous Art Code or from independent First Nations artists directly. For information on how to buy art ethically, visit the Indigenous Art Code. For links to ethical dealers and First Nations Art Centres around the country, search members of the Indigenous Art Code or visit the peak bodies:
- Arnhem, Northern and Kimberley Artists (ANKA)
- Desart
- Aboriginal Art Centre Hub Western Australia (AACHWA)
- Indigenous Art Centre Alliance (IACA)
- UMI Arts
- Ku Arts
In NSW
- Aboriginal Culture, Heritage & Arts Association Inc (ACHAA)
- Blak Markets
- Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Co-operative
In Vic
NAVA acknowledges the Gadigal, Wangal, Dharug, Dharawal, Kaurna, Ngunnawal, Ngambri and Dja Dja Wurrung peoples as the Traditional Custodians and knowledge-holders of the unceded lands on which we live, learn and work.
We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first artists and storytellers on this continent, and pay our respects to First Nations communities' Ancestors and Elders.
Sovereignty was never ceded. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.
