This year's NAIDOC Week theme, 50 Years of Deadly, is a tribute to those who built the NAIDOC Week movement, marking the milestones of its achievements, actions, stories, and strengths.
At International Towers, the story of action and change doesn't begin with a building. It begins with a person. Two hundred years before Barangaroo was a place, she was a Cammeraygal matriarch - an independent leader, a fearless advocate for her community, and the woman who gave the British what may have been the world's first lecture on sustainability.
Since the establishment of International Towers, celebrating First Nations culture has been central to who we are - and NAIDOC Week has been a fixture of our community calendar from our earliest years. As we celebrate 50 Years of Deadly, here's a timeline of the milestones International Towers has contributed towards reconciliation, observance, and celebration - and the much older story we're privileged to be part of.
Before 1788: The First Matriarch
Barangaroo, a matriarch of the Cammeraygal - traditional owners of much of the land around what we now call Sydney Harbour - counsels Governor Arthur Phillip, prioritising her community's interests over her own. Her voice shapes the earliest dialogue between First Nations peoples and the colony. This precinct is a living monument to her legacy.
2015-2019: Foundations on Country
2015: International Towers opens its doors at Barangaroo - a precinct that pays homage to an extraordinary First Nations woman, on land that holds more than 65,000 years of continuous culture.
2018: We collaborate with ANTaR to bring the Sea of Hands to Tower Two and Tower Three for National Reconciliation Week - a symbol first installed outside Parliament House in 1997.
2018: NAIDOC Week lights up Tower Three. Under the theme Because of Her, We Can, nearly 200 community members watch Bangarra Dance Theatre - newly arrived tenant partners who made International Towers their artistic home - perform in the lobby, alongside mali dharngurr, a photographic exhibition by renowned Indigenous storyteller A. Professor Wayne Quilliam celebrating inspirational Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women.
2019: In the lead-up to NAIDOC Week, we host the original Uluru Statement from the Heart and a landmark panel on how corporate Australia can support constitutional recognition, featuring Professor Megan Davis, Sam Mostyn, and Nicola Wakefield-Evans.
2019: NAIDOC Week grows - a smoking ceremony at Exchange Place, Sounds of NAIDOC live performances across our foyers, an exclusive community preview of Wellama, the Welcome to Country artwork at The Cutaway, and a VIP cultural experience for Indigenous students from Gawura school, including a private Bangarra rehearsal.
2019: We begin our ongoing support of the Schools Reconciliation Challenge with Reconciliation NSW - exhibiting student artwork, contributing financial and in-kind support, and joining the art judging panel. During Reconciliation Week, we host Karen Mundine, CEO of Reconciliation Australia, in conversation with our community.
2020s: Building Momentum
2021: We stand with the Uluru Statement from the Heart, encouraging our community to read, understand, and support it.
2022: NAIDOC Week's Get Up! Stand Up! Show Up! brings a smoking ceremony and cultural dance to the precinct, with the Rainbow Serpent taking over our lobbies.
2022: We proudly support the Indigenous Literacy Foundation's 'Barramundi Song' initiative - recreating a much-loved children's song as board books in Tiwi, Mangarrayi, Alawa, and Marra languages for distribution to remote Communities.
2023: For NAIDOC Week's For Our Elders, we welcome Aunty Oriel Green, Aunty Peta Hudson, Uncle Rob Bundle, and Uncle Barry Winmar - alongside weaving workshops, songlines, native soundscapes, and a week-long celebration of Elders' wisdom.
2023: In the year of the referendum, we share Barangaroo's own story in the national conversation on an Indigenous Voice to Parliament - not as an innovation, but as “an unmissable opportunity to resume a dialogue which began two centuries ago.”
2024: NAIDOC Week's Keep the Fire Burning! Blak, Loud & Proud comes to life - an interactive flame installation, live events across the towers, a First Nations pop-up gallery, and smoking ceremony, dance, and Welcome to Country at Barangaroo. For the fifth consecutive year, Schools Reconciliation Challenge artwork fills the Tower Two and Tower Three lobbies, with the Aboriginal, Torres Strait Islander, and Australian flags flying in unison above.
2025: For The Next Generation: Strength, Vision, Legacy, we celebrate young First Nations leaders with the Indigenous Literacy Foundation - a live panel on strength, vision, and legacy, cultural performances, native food tastings by award-winning Aboriginal-owned business Indigiearth, a book competition, Connection Pins, and the ILF Pop-Up shop.
2026: Leading the Next 50 Years
National Reconciliation Week 2026: We go 'All In' - Connection Pins at reception, artwork by Nardurna (Ryhia Dank), a Gudanji/Wakaja artist, throughout the building, and a deepening partnership with the Indigenous Literacy Foundation's Talent Pathways Program.
NAIDOC Week 2026 (5-12 July): We celebrate 50 Years of Deadly with the Deadly Pop-Up Shop - exclusive ILF x Clothing the Gaps merchandise designed by emerging First Nations artists, with 100% of proceeds supporting future Talent Pathways programs - plus the limited-edition 2026 Connection Pin 'Carrying Forward' by Nardurna (Ryhia Dank), the year-long Deadly Drops series on Amica, and a native treat from a First Nations food business, announced first on Amica.
3-5 July 2026: The National Indigenous Art Fair returns to The Cutaway, welcoming the community into one of the country's great celebrations of First Nations art and makers.
Fifty years of NAIDOC. Eight years and counting of celebrating it here on Barangaroo's country - and a story of connection that stretches back millennia. With every performance, pin, artwork, and partnership, we're not just looking back at 50 Years of Deadly - we're helping lead the change for the next 50. Be a part of the celebration today. 🖤🟡❤️