This NAIDOC Week, Community Mental Health Australia (CMHA) joins the national community in marking a significant milestone under this year’s theme, 50 Years of Deadly.
Culture, identity and connection to Country are inseparable from wellbeing. For CMHA and the community-managed mental health sector, NAIDOC Week is a moment to reaffirm that mental health outcomes for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities improve when culture leads and communities are in control of the solutions.
“We know that self-determination isn’t just a principle, it’s what actually improves outcomes,” said Kerry Hawkins, CEO of Community Mental Health Australia (CMHA).
“When Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities lead the design and delivery of mental health support, that support works better, because it’s grounded in culture, not layered on top of it.”
“NAIDOC Week is a time to celebrate, but it’s also a time for organisations like ours to reflect on whether we’re doing enough to back that leadership, in policy, in funding, and in who holds decision-making power,” she added.
CMHA recognises that this week, and the work it represents, belongs to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Our role is to listen, to follow the lead of First Nations communities and organisations, and to keep pushing for the structural change needed so that self-determination is backed with real resourcing and rights, not just marked once a year.
“Fifty years on, this theme is a reminder that progress hasn’t happened by accident, it’s happened because people kept showing up, generation after generation,” Kerry said.
“That history matters, but so does what we do with it now,” she concluded.
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CMHA acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and pays our respects to Elders past and present.
We recognise their culture, heritage and right to self-determination.
Read more about the official 2026 NAIDOC theme at naidoc.org.au
