Celebrating NAIDOC Week 2025

Celebrating NAIDOC Week 2025

6 July – 13 July is NAIDOC Week

NAIDOC Week is an opportunity for all Australians to learn, recognise and celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples – the oldest continuous living cultures on earth and our first conservationists. This week, and every week, we recognise the immense contribution of Indigenous people to the knowledge and conservation of Australia’s birds.

BirdLife Australia works with First Nations People across Australia to share knowledge, and manage, protect and care for birds and Country. And to celebrate NAIDOC Week, we’re spotlighting some of these partnerships.

Mindaribba Local Aboriginal Land Council

Wonnarua Country, NSW

Regent Honeyeaters are returning to Wonnarua Country, thanks to the efforts of BirdLife Australia’s Woodland Birds team and Mindaribba Local Aboriginal Land Council.

This Critically Endangered species was once seen in flocks of hundreds in the spotted gum-ironbark forests of the Tomalpin Woodlands, the largest remaining woodland in NSW’s Hunter Valley. But ongoing land clearing has driven the Regent Honeyeater to the edge of extinction. Today, fewer than 300 birds remain in the wild – and these woodlands are one of their few breeding strongholds.

The ecologically and culturally significant Tomalpin Woodlands are owned by Mindaribba Local Aboriginal Land Council, and together, we’re giving one of our rarest birds a second chance.

In partnership with Taronga Zoo and the NSW Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW), BirdLife Australia and Mindaribba are working together to boost their wild population, as part of a national effort to help this Critically Endangered species recover.

At Tomalpin, three successful large-scale releases of zoo-bred birds have returned over 100 Regent Honeyeaters home to Country.

As the songs of the Regent Honeyeaters return to these forests, this project is a powerful parallel to the re-awakening of the Wonnarua Language: when Wonnarua Elder Uncle Richard Edwards first welcomed the birds back to Country, it was the first time that the Tomalpin Woodlands had heard its Traditional Language spoken in over 150 years.

Our Woodland Birds team and Mindaribba have also embarked on an ambitious, world-first mistletoe restoration project, working with arborists to plant 4,500 mistletoe seeds on the upper branches of Spotted Gums. Together, we’re restoring critical breeding and feeding habitat for Regents and other woodland birds and helping these forests recover from fire.

We’re honoured to walk on these lands and undertake this important work with the Wonnarau People, who’ve been caring for Regent Honeyeaters and their habitat since time immemorial. Our team is excited to celebrate this partnership at the Mindaribba Family Fun Day, as part of NAIDOC Week celebrations.

Ngarrindjeri community

Murray Mouth, Ngarrindjeri Country, South Australia

At Murray Mouth in South Australia, Endangered Fairy Terns have had their most successful breeding season on record – thanks to the support of the Ngarrindjeri community.

When Fairy Terns were observed courting and assessing potential nest sites, BirdLife Australia staff, National Parks and Wildlife Service Rangers and Ngarrindjeri community members installed a 1.2km exclusion fence and interpretive signage at the site to help keep the colony safe.

Thanks to their hard work, 83 chicks successfully fledged from 141 nests over the 2024–25 season – a huge leap from the previous year’s count, when just 10 birds fledged from 15 nests.

Located at the end of the Murray River, the Coorong, Lower Lakes and Murray Mouth region is one of Australia’s most important wetland areas – and one of South Australia’s most important breeding sites for the Endangered Fairy Tern.

Murray Mouth is part of the Yarluwar-Ruwe (Sea Country) of the Ngarrindjeri People, who continue to care for these lands and waters, sharing a close cultural and spiritual connection to Ngartjis, or totems, like the Fairy Tern – considered special friends that provide support, protection and guidance.

Fairy Terns are listed as Critically Endangered in Victoria and Endangered in South Australia, and their population is declining across south-eastern Australia. These small, beach-nesting seabirds and their breeding sites are threatened by human activities such as off-road vehicles, predation by introduced species and off-leash dogs and the impacts of climate change, including more frequent storms.

At the beginning of the season, there were just 1,000 Fairy Terns left in South Australia – and with so few breeding sites in the state, every bird matters.

In celebration of this year’s NAIDOC Week theme of Next Generation: Strength, Vision and Legacy we’d especially like to acknowledge the contributions made by the younger Ngarrindjeri community members who have participated in workshops, site protection, fencing and signage installation and monitoring across the breeding season. Thanks to them, the next generation of Fairy Terns has a brighter future.

This project is supported by the Limestone Coast Landscape Board’s Grassroots Grants program and is funded by the regional landscape levy.

Indigenous Grant for Bird Research and Conservation

Stay tuned! We’ll soon be announcing the winners of the 2025 Indigenous Grant for Bird Research and Conservation – providing resources and training workshops for Indigenous groups in support of their bird research and conservation efforts.

Last year, the Grant was awarded to the Dhimurru Aboriginal Rangers in north-eastern Arnhem Land, whose research and monitoring programs are helping improve the health of the health of the region’s culturally and ecologically significant seabirds and marine environment.