The Mother Organisation The Aborigines Advancement League: 50 Years Of Deadly NAIDOC 2026
This NAIDOC Week, we're celebrating the Aborigines Advancement League for nearly seventy years, the mother organisation that has stood at the heart of Aboriginal Victoria.
โIt began in March 1957, when Pastor Sir Doug Nicholls, Doris Blackburn, Stan Davey and Gordon Bryant came together for the people of the Warburton Ranges, building the League as the mother organisation in the fight for citizenship rights, fair pay, education and Country.โ
Today, based on Wurundjeri Country in Thornbury, that fight continues, and the League stands for Mob across Victoria at every stage of life from family support and housing to aged care, the funeral service and programs for Elders.โ
Welcoming spaces like the Lady Gladys Nicholls Hostel and Gurwidj Neighbourhood House and proudly host the Fitzroy Stars Football and Netball Club and the Melbourne Stars Basketball Club.โWatch our video to step inside and hear the full story.
NAIDOC 2026 | 50 Years Of Deadly Merch View all
50 Years of Deadly, and More: The History of NAIDOC Week
This year, NAIDOC Week turns 50. For many, it's a week of marches, morning teas, flag-raisings and community events. But behind the celebration sits a much longer story, one that stretches back nearly a century to a single act of resistance on a hot January day in 1938. To understand what NAIDOC really means, and why it carries both grief and celebration at once, you have to go back to where it began.
Murals of The Aborigines Advancement League
We Walk in the Footprints of Giants Mural
We Walk in the Footprints of Giants mural depicts all the Board members of the AAL for 60 years from 1957-2017 with the ones at the back walking in the footprints of the giants in the front. For over six decades these leaders made a huge contribution to the AAL by lobbying, protesting and marching together for the common cause of gaining rights for Aboriginal people, not only in Victoria, but throughout Australia.
St Georges Road Mural: A history of Land Rights and Victorian Aborigines
A history of Land Rights and Victorian Aborigines with images to represent pre-colonial past, resistance to invasion, dispossession, social justice struggles, the tent embassy, a history of the Land Rights Movement and a map of Victorian tribal territories.
AAL Life Members Mural โBalit Nanggt-bulโ
Margaret Tucker MBE, Geraldine Briggs OAM, Merle Robertha Jackomos OAM, Alick Jackomos OAM, Elizabeth Morgan, Eleanor Harding, Clara Luttrell-Garisou, John Stewart Murray OAM, Emmanuel Cooper OAM
Unconquerable and Enduring Leadership
On the Board room building depicts the Founding Members of the AAL, Pastor Doug Nicholls, Stan Davey, Gordon Bryant and Doris Blackburn as well as the First Aboriginal President, William Onus and the longest serving President, Dr. Alf Bamblett.
The Aborigines Advancement League @ The Arts Centre Melbourne
