NAIDOC Week Trivia
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40 free NAIDOC Week trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
NAIDOC Week grew out of a protest. In 1938 Aboriginal leaders marked the 150th anniversary of the First Fleet with a Day of Mourning, and the annual day that followed was moved, renamed and widened over the decades until it became the midwinter week of festivities Australians know today. This quiz covers that story: the activists who organised the first protest and what they asked for, the committee whose initials spell NAIDOC, the two flags and the people who designed them, the annual themes and poster competition, and the National NAIDOC Awards. It suits teachers preparing for the week, workplaces running a NAIDOC event, and anyone who has watched the flags go up each winter and wondered what lies behind them. Every answer is explained and sourced.
30 of 40 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In 2020 NAIDOC Week was pushed out of its usual slot by COVID-19 and held in which month instead?
November
November hosted the week from 8 to 15 November 2020, after the committee postponed its usual dates that March for the safety of communities; the national awards night was cancelled altogether.
Q 02The 2026 NAIDOC theme '50 Years of Deadly' borrows a word that means what in Aboriginal English?
Excellent
In Aboriginal English, deadly means excellent or very good, much as young speakers use wicked or sick. The same sense named the Deadly Awards, which honoured Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander achievement.
Q 03On the Torres Strait Islander flag, what is the white shape above the five-pointed star?
A dhari headdress
The white shape is a dhari headdress, a dancer's headdress worn by Torres Strait Islander men and now a symbol of the people. It is traditionally built around shell and trimmed with white feathers.
Q 04In 2022 the federal government paid about $20 million to buy what from the Aboriginal flag's designer?
The flag's copyright
The flag's copyright cost $20.05 million, shared between the designer and licence holders, after a clothing licensee had demanded that Aboriginal businesses stop selling clothing that featured the flag; it is now free for anyone to use.
Q 05From 1940, Aborigines Day, the forerunner of NAIDOC Week, was held on the Sunday before which date?
Australia Day
Aborigines Day sat on the Sunday before Australia Day because it grew directly out of the 1938 Day of Mourning protest; it later moved to winter so it could celebrate culture as well as protest.
Q 06The 1938 Day of Mourning was staged on the 150th anniversary of which event?
The First Fleet's arrival
The First Fleet's arrival was being marked with an official parade through Sydney, and the protesters had to wait for it to pass before they could march in silence to their own meeting.
Q 07According to its designer, the yellow circle on the Aboriginal flag represents what?
The Sun
The yellow circle is the Sun, described by the flag's designer as the giver of life and protector. The black above it stands for Aboriginal people and the red below for the earth and the ochre used in ceremonies.
Q 08Unlike an Acknowledgement of Country, which anyone may give, a Welcome to Country may be performed only by whom?
A recognised Traditional Owner
A recognised Traditional Owner gives the welcome because it continues an old protocol: crossing into another group's Country once required asking permission, and the hosts then welcomed the visitors.
Q 09Which NAIDOC theme for 2020, the year the week was delayed, echoes a long-standing land rights chant?
Always Was, Always Will Be
Always Was, Always Will Be shortens the chant 'always was, always will be Aboriginal land'; the committee chose it to recognise that First Nations people have cared for the continent for over 65,000 years.
Q 10The 1938 Day of Mourning congress met in which Elizabeth Street building in Sydney?
Australian Hall
Australian Hall hosted the first national protest meeting of Aboriginal people only because the organisers were refused Sydney Town Hall, and the delegates came in by the back door.
Q 11NAIDOC Week begins on the first Sunday of which month and runs through to the following Sunday?
July
The week starts on the first Sunday in July, so its exact dates shift each year; it was a single day until 1975, when the committee stretched it to a full week.
Q 12In 1984 NADOC asked for National Aborigines Day to be made what?
A public holiday
NADOC wanted a national public holiday so the country would celebrate and recognise the cultural history that makes it unique. The request was never granted, which is why NAIDOC Week still falls on ordinary working days.
Q 13In the acronym NAIDOC, the letters D and O stand for which two words?
Day Observance
Q 21Which prime minister's government proclaimed the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags official in 1995?
Paul Keating
Paul Keating's government had both flags proclaimed under the Flags Act in mid-1995; a paperwork oversight let the Aboriginal flag's proclamation lapse on 1 January 2008, and it had to be reissued with backdated effect.
Q 22Who designed the Torres Strait Islander flag in 1992, winning a local competition with the entry?
Bernard Namok
Bernard Namok's design won a competition held during a cultural revival workshop run by the Islands Coordinating Council, and three years later it was proclaimed an official flag of Australia.
Q 23The designer of the Torres Strait Islander flag came from where, the region's administrative and commercial centre?
The D and O are Day Observance, a reminder that NAIDOC began as the committee running a single day of remembrance, not a week of festivals. In full it is the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee.
Q 14The 2012 NAIDOC theme marked 40 years of which protest camp, set up on the lawns of Parliament House in Canberra?
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy
The Aboriginal Tent Embassy began on 26 January 1972 as a beach umbrella that four men planted on the lawn, and the Aboriginal flag flew there from late that year, which helped make it a national symbol.
Q 15At which 1994 event did Cathy Freeman stir controversy by carrying the Aboriginal flag on her victory lap?
The Commonwealth Games
At the Commonwealth Games in Canada, Freeman carried the Aboriginal flag on her lap of honour and was reprimanded by Australian team officials; six years later she carried it again after her Olympic gold in Sydney.
Q 16The manifesto handed out at the 1938 Day of Mourning was titled 'Aborigines Claim' what?
Citizen Rights
Citizen Rights was the claim of the pamphlet Jack Patten and William Ferguson published for the protest, and five days later they led a deputation that put a ten-point plan to the prime minister.
Q 17On the Torres Strait Islander flag, the wide blue band between the green stripes stands for what?
The sea
The blue is the sea, Malu, that separates the two green stripes of land: Papua New Guinea above and the mainland below. Thin black stripes between them represent the people themselves.
Q 18National Reconciliation Week opens on 27 May each year, the anniversary of which landmark event?
The 1967 referendum
The 1967 referendum, in which more than 90 per cent of voters agreed to change the Constitution, was held on 27 May; the week closes on 3 June, the day of the 1992 Mabo decision.
Q 19The 2023 NAIDOC Week theme was dedicated to which group?
Elders
Elders were honoured with the theme 'For Our Elders', which the committee chose to thank them as cultural knowledge holders and trailblazers; women had their year in 2018 with 'Because of Her, We Can!'.
Q 20Which tennis champion, retired only months earlier, was named National NAIDOC Person of the Year in 2022?
Ash Barty
Ash Barty, a Ngarigo woman through her great-grandmother, had quit as world number one at 25; the award honoured her work giving Indigenous children the chance to take up sport.
Thursday Island
Thursday Island became the Torres Strait's government base in 1877, and its pearling industry then drew thousands of workers from Japan, the rest of Asia and the Pacific.
Q 24Which 2019 NAIDOC theme took its three words from the agenda set out in the Uluru Statement from the Heart?
Voice, Treaty, Truth
Voice, Treaty, Truth named the three reforms the 2017 Uluru Statement asked for; the first of them, a Voice written into the Constitution, went to a referendum in 2023 and was voted down.
Q 25Which 2017 NAIDOC theme urged the country to value its hundreds of Indigenous tongues?
Our Languages Matter
Our Languages Matter was chosen to stress that the continent's roughly 250 Indigenous languages carry history, spirituality and song, and that many of them were at risk of being lost.
Q 26Each point of the white star on the Torres Strait Islander flag stands for one of what?
The island groups
Each point is one of the five island groups of the Torres Strait, while the star itself marks peace and the importance of stars in navigation. It sits below the white emblem at the flag's centre.
Q 27Which city, known as Boorloo in the Noongar language, hosted the 2025 National NAIDOC Awards?
Perth
Perth hosted the 2025 ceremony, and the top honour stayed in the host state: West Australian GP and dentist Daniel Hunt was named Person of the Year for his work in Indigenous health.
Q 28Which actor, cast in Walkabout at 16 and a lead in Storm Boy, received the 2019 NAIDOC Lifetime Achievement Award?
David Gulpilil
David Gulpilil was a traditional dancer spotted at Maningrida by director Nicolas Roeg before he had ever acted. He went on to Crocodile Dundee and Rabbit-Proof Fence and twice won the national best actor award.
Q 29What did federal cabinet do in 1938 with William Cooper's petition to the King?
Declined to send it on
Cabinet declined to send it on, ruling that 'no good purpose would be gained' by putting it before the King; the original petition and its 1,814 signatures were later lost by the government.
Q 30Which Day of Mourning organiser founded the Aboriginal-Australian Fellowship with Faith Bandler in 1956?
Pearl Gibbs
Pearl Gibbs, who had spoken for Aboriginal rights on radio in 1941 and sat on the state's Aborigines Welfare Board, set up the fellowship to bring black and white activists together.