2025 NAIDOC REFLECTIONS FROM FULLASHIP FELLOWS & ALUMNI

Culture is Life’s Fullaship Program Fellows and Alumni have shared their thoughts on some reflective questions during NAIDOC 2025. This year celebrates 50 years of NAIDOC. The theme for 2025 is The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy. We know the importance of amplifying the voices and stories of the young adults we work alongside in the Fullaship Program and are so glad to share some of their beautiful reflections and writing with you all through this article.

Q. How do you see you and/or your generation carrying forward the strength and legacy of your Elders?

Our Ancestors and Elders are the ones who have embedded their strength, resilience and legacy within us. Through their stories, culture and resistance against colonisation and colonial oppression. I see our Elders passing on the torch to us – the next generation – to continue that fight, continue our cultural practices, speak our languages and heal for our communities now and for the next generation – Lillian, 2022 Fellow

Putting our hand up for opportunities that our Elders didn’t have. They endured, so we could conquer. A gentle reminder to put belief back into those who believe in us – Tyson, 2025 Fellow

My Elders and Ancestors endured so much and survived. I honour their hard work and unwavering strength in everything I do, because without them, I would not be here. Their courage, resilience, and passion have shaped the path I walk today, especially in the work I do supporting young Aboriginal people.

I feel their strength within me every day. I could have chosen a different path, but I choose this work because of the legacy they’ve left. I saw them change the narrative and shift the trajectory for our people. That legacy is now my responsibility to carry forward, for the generations still to come – Shaylem, 2023 Fellow

As young Aboriginal leaders, we’re not just here to continue the fight — we’re here to carry forward the love, the humility and the heart our Elders led with. That’s the legacy too — strength, but also kindness, compassion and deep care – Shai-Lee, 2024 Fellow

Q. What is your dream for your Culture, Country or community into the future?

I want our mobs to continue to be connected to culture, Country and language. To also be reconnected if needed too. Our birthright as First Nations people is to be connected to Country, culture, language and kin. My dream is for our communities and families to heal from their trauma for themselves and the next generation – Lillian, 2022 Fellow

I have ambitions to help with the reintroduction of cultural fire into the Victorian landscape and to revitalise the cultural fire knowledge – Tyson, 2025 Fellow

My dream for my community is for culture to be an everyday practice again. Such as speaking our languages, making bushcrafts, yarning together more, women’s and men’s business, harvesting and hunting our foods and more. Based on the work people are doing in the community, it does help break barriers of shame in our community, allowing the community to be more comfortable in practicing culture as well. Overall my end goal is to see my people in the future to be rich in their culture, have plenty of mob around them making them feel proud of their culture and I want to see my community flourish. – Blake, 2025 Fellow

Q. What is one call to action you have right now from your community?

I wish for fairness, equality and empathy from non-Aboriginal Australia, so that us mob are able to exist free of racism and discrimination. Our people are still dying in custody, are dying 10+ years younger and still being removed at a higher rate now than that of the Stolen Generation. Our mob deserves better, we deserve justice – Lillian, 2022 Fellow

Collectively, we can focus on continuing to create real opportunities to bring young mob on journeys to be involved in matters which impact their lives; opportunities where young people can actually see and be part of a tangible net benefit, impact or improvement. Young people need spaces to connect, environments which support their growth in themselves and their community.

Acknowledging the actual world around us, I pose some questions to consider… Who has the responsibility to support our next generations? Is the onus only on the young person? Is the onus only on those creating the environment? Is it both? Is it more or less than both? Where have you seen young people do well? Can you remember how or why that happened? What part, small or large, can you play in supporting the next generation? – Joel Matysek, 2024 Fellow.

Our thoughts shape our reality so let’s dream big, think positively and be intentional in your actions. Opportunities in life are endless! – Tyson, 2025 Fellow

Don’t be silent. Silence is violence and it kills. Across the globe, we are witnessing horrific abuse of human rights. If you believe what’s happening in Gaza, Sudan, or the Congo doesn’t affect you, it’s time to reflect on the privilege that allows you to look away.

Closer to home, Aboriginal people are still dying at the hands of police. The number of Aboriginal children being removed from their families continues to rise. Our women are being lost to a violence epidemic.

Stop turning a blind eye.

Activism takes many forms. If you can’t attend rallies, show up in other ways – share the stories, have the conversations, raise awareness. Don’t choose comfort over justice – Shaylem, 2023 Fellow

We don’t need any more short-term buckets of money — we need long-term, sustained funding that actually supports our communities beyond the life of a program or political term. Right now, our mob are being caught in systems — justice, child protection, education, health — and we’re crying out for support. What we need is real investment, not just in services, but in people. Sometimes, the most powerful thing you can do isn’t a new policy, it’s simply listening and showing up with compassion. Our Elders and our community from our babies, young people to adults, they are all feeling it. Don’t add to the barriers. Be the hand that lifts the mob up. Lead with love and care – Shai-Lee, 2024 Fellow

Q. Who is someone – past or present – who inspires you and why?

My Nan Priscilla Iles – She is an Elder in the community. She helped start a foundation, DCYSY (Darumbal Community Youth Service) in Rockhampton, Qld. The first proper Indigenous group formed here with 3 other founders, doing good for her community. She worked with other Elders here in Australia and overseas with First Nation’s people from other communities, preaching culture and sharing her knowledge. I am trying to travel around, meet more people, gain more perspective and knowledge, just like my Nan has done. She is a big role model for me and I want to follow a similar path as it gives me passion to do what I do. Just knowing that I’m lucky enough to have someone in my life and family with such a wide range of cultural knowledge is so inspiring. It allows me to know that I can inspire others, work towards cultural goals in my community and do big things as a proud Aboriginal man. She has opened my eyes to many pathways and made me want to strive for positive change for me and the people of my community – Blake, 2025 Fellow

My grandparents are my biggest inspiration — especially my grandmother and matriarch, Issabell Johnson (née Collins). She taught me to challenge the ‘norm’, speak up for what’s right and stand strong for those who aren’t being heard. Her biggest lesson was that love is everything — as Blackfullas, if we’ve got love, we’ve got hope – and that’s something we all need. So as a leader that means making sure no one’s left behind. We don’t move forward, unless we all do – Shai-Lee, 2024 Fellow

Q. What does this year’s NAIDOC theme mean to you?

A call to enable opportunities for succession planning on a Community level, including an opportunity for existing leaders and elders to seek out and mentor young people in their Communities – Fullaship Alumni member

This year’s theme reminds and affirms a few things for me. Strength…the strong women in my life who have shaped who I am today. Vision…do not lose sight of where you aspire to be and understand that the quickest way to get where you want to be is slowly. Legacy…acknowledging that my old people’s legacy was built from the foundations of resilience and perseverance. Now I have an opportunity to build a legacy for my kin – Tyson, 2025 Fellow

Working with Aboriginal young people in care and detention, my thoughts immediately go to them. They are our future, yet too often they are the ones who are let down. I’m constantly in awe of their strength in surviving the systems that too often fail them. They carry with them a powerful vision for a better world, one free from discrimination, over-criminalisation, and over-surveillance.

This theme also reminds me of the legacy we are responsible for leaving behind, a foundation that enables them to thrive. And in doing so, I reflect on the strength and determination of those who came before us, whose legacies continue to guide our Path – Shaylem, 2023 Fellow

This year’s NAIDOC theme symbolises the movement and passing of the baton to us, the next generation. Our Elders have been fighting for over 50 years and now it’s our time, as young leaders, to step up and carry that legacy forward – Shai-Lee, 2024 Fellow

The theme is about the next generation, my whole life is based around teaching the next generation and stepping up into the roles of our Elders and Ancestors. Youth are the next generation to gain this knowledge and carry the flame that has been burning for so long. I see the strength in our people, our systems, our mobs, raising up young people in culture. Young People know who they are and having clear pathways to becoming Elders one day is important for the next generation. I personally believe targeting the youth is a vital step to reawakening the culture in my community. Teaching our cultural knowledge and passing it down to our young mob so that they are raised with it allows it to be more common throughout the community. Once these young mob are grown up it will be the normal thing in my hometown for everyone to be practicing their culture as there will be more people for the next generation to learn from – Blake, 2025 Fellow

Q. What does your community do during NAIDOC? What are you most looking forward to?

NAIDOC is such an important time in our community, it brings mob together and reminds us why connection matters. Life’s too short to only come together at
funerals; NAIDOC gives us the chance to celebrate, connect, and honour each other while we’re here. I love being in community during NAIDOC, attending events,
yarning, and reflecting on the strength and resilience of our people. Every year, I look forward to seeing more and more mob showing up. It’s a powerful reminder that this is what our Elders and Ancestors fought for, for us to be proud, visible, and united – Shaylem, 2023 Fellow

Even though I’m living away from my Country and extended community, I’m so excited to see the strength, pride and advocacy across our mob — especially in the kids and babies. They are our future, and I love seeing them walk strong in the legacy our Elders have left for us – Shai-Lee, 2024 Fellow