2026
Acrylic On Canvas

Noreena Kadibil is a First Nations Artist, a proud Kartujarra woman, currently residing on Martu Country (Western Australia).

The 2026 theme marks five decades of NAIDOC as a nationally recognised movement celebrating First Nations culture, resilience and community leadership. It reflects on the journey and the role NAIDOC continues to play in building respect, understanding and a shared future.

Minyipuru, or Jakulyukulyu (Seven Sisters), is a central Jukurrpa (Dreaming) narrative for Martu and other First Nations peoples, associated with the seasonal Pleiades star constellation. Relayed through song, dance, stories and paintings, Minyipuru serves as a creation narrative and a source of knowledge relating to the physical properties of the land, and an embodiment of Aboriginal cultural laws. When Martumili Artists was established in 2005, this was the first Jukurrpa story the artists agreed to paint for a broader public.

Beginning in Roebourne on the west coast of Western Australia, the story evolves as it moves eastward across the land, following a group of women as they walk, dance, and even fly from waterhole to waterhole. As they travel, the women camp, sing, wash, dance and gather food, leaving markers in the landscape and creating landforms that remain to this day, such as groupings of rocks and trees, grinding stones and seeds. Throughout their journey, the women are pursued by a lustful old man, Yurla, while interactions with other animals, groups of men, and spirit beings are also chronicled.