Blak History Month
Blak History Month is an observance celebrated in July in Australia that aims to recognize and honor the history and contributions of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders to the nation's culture. Established in 2008, this monthlong celebration aligns with NAIDOC Week, which commemorates Indigenous Australian culture and its historical significance. Though inspired by Black History Month celebrations in other countries, Blak History Month seeks to address the unique experiences and heritage of Indigenous Australians, who represent a diverse range of groups with a rich history dating back tens of thousands of years.
The term "blak" was adopted by some Aboriginal artists in the 1990s as a reclamation of language historically used in derogatory ways. The movement has gained popularity among artists and educators, leading to the development of resources and merchandise to support educational efforts about Indigenous history. Despite its grassroots support and growing recognition within communities, Blak History Month has not received official acknowledgment from the Australian government. The initiative highlights the ongoing efforts to educate about and celebrate the contributions of Indigenous peoples, alongside the historical context of their struggles and resilience in the face of colonialism.
Blak History Month
Blak History Month in Australia, celebrated in July, is a monthlong period of celebration and recognition commemorating the history of Aboriginal Australians and Torres Strait Islanders and their contributions to Australian culture. As of the 2020s, the Australian government does not officially recognize Blak History Month, though the movement has gained popularity since it began in 2008. Blak History Month coincides with NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islander Day Observance Committee) Week, a weeklong period of remembrance and recognition of indigenous Australian culture that developed from a 1930s protest movement. The creation of Blak History Month was inspired by Black History Month celebrations in the United States and the United Kingdom.
Australian Ethnic History
The Australian Aborigines are a diverse group of people representing the original inhabitants of the island continent. Genetic research suggests that the ancestors of the first Aborigines arrived in Australia between forty-five thousand and fifty thousand years ago. The Aborigine population has since diverged into more than four hundred distinct genetic and linguistic groups.
The Torres Strait Islanders are descendants of an indigenous people that settled the Torres Strait Islands between Queensland, Australia, and Papua New Guinea. There are fewer than fifty thousand representatives of the Torres Strait Islander population remaining in Australia, and they represent a distinct ethnic lineage descended from the Melanesian people.
As of 2021, government estimates indicated that the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander populations constituted approximately 3.8 percent of the Australian population, with about 980,000 people of Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander descent living in the nation. Since the arrival of European colonists in Australia in 1788, there have been repeated conflicts between colonial and indigenous Australians over issues such as land management and the division of resources. During most of the colonial and postcolonial periods in Australia, Aborigines were subject to racism and prejudice, being forcibly moved from home territories and having their rights limited by a system of racial profiling that divided the Aborigines into "full bloods" and "half castes."
In the 1920s, Aborigine rights groups began forming in Australia, working for national recognition of Aborigine culture and of their contribution to the history of the nation. Among the earliest organizations were the Australian Aborigines Progressive Association (AAPA), which formed in 1924, and the Australian Aborigines League (AAL), which formed in 1932.
On January 26, 1938, the day of the national holiday Australia Day, Aboriginal rights groups conducted a major protest in the streets of Sydney, Australia, later known as the "Day of Mourning." Since this time, some Aborigine groups have called Australia Day "Survival Day" or "Invasion Day," in recognition of the effect of European occupation on the indigenous inhabitants. The 1938 protest of Australia Day resulted in the establishment of a new national holiday known as Aborigines Day, which was held from 1940 to 1955 on the Sunday preceding Australia Day. The National Aborigines Day Observance Committee (NADOC) formed in 1957 to organize and facilitate the development of the national celebration and protest. In 1975, NADOC reorganized the event into a weeklong celebration and remembrance period from the first to the second Sunday in July. The committee changed its name to the National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee (NAIDOC) in 1991, with the acronym "NAIDOC" becoming the official name of the celebration.
Blak History Month
The term "black" has been used derogatively to refer to Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders since early in the colonial occupation of Australia. In the 1990s, a few Aboriginal artists began using the alternative spelling "blak" instead, as a way of coopting the terminology once used to justify prejudice. The term has been traced to the work of artist Destiny Deacon, an Aborigine artist from the K’ua K’ua people, who created an exhibition called "Blak Lik Mi" in 1991. Deacon continued to use the term "blak" to refer both to Aborigines and Torres Strait Islanders and their collective creative, cultural work.
Following Destiny Deacon’s example, other Aboriginal artists began using the term "blak" in artistic and cultural exhibitions. For instance, artist Djon Mundine used the term in her "Blak Insights Exhibition and Symposium" at the Queensland Art Gallery and the "Black2Blak" exhibition at the Campbelltown Regional Arts Centre in 2007.
In 2008, artist and artistic manager Sam Cook, CEO of Kiss My Blak Artists, issued a call for the month of July to be recognized across Australia as Blak History Month. Before becoming an artistic manager, Cook was a musician who later worked as a director of the Dreaming Festival, a music festival held in Queensland celebrating Aborigine and Torres Strait Islander artists and musicians. The proclamation, written by Cook on January 26, 2008, called for all Australians to celebrate the entire month of July as Blak History Month, comparing the proposal to the monthlong celebrations in Canada, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
After Cook’s proclamation, a number of artists and educators embraced the idea of Blak History Month, organizing a nonprofit organization that sells Blak History–themed merchandise to fund educational materials and local celebrations of the proposed holiday. The establishment of Blak History Month in July coincides with NAIDOC Week and therefore seeks to embrace and include NAIDOC celebrations as part of a broader, longer celebration of indigenous culture in Australia.
Volunteers and supporters of the Blak History Month movement also created a website, Blak History Month for Teachers, that provides classroom ideas, links for educational research, posters and printouts, and reading lists for educators interested in bringing indigenous history into the classroom. While the concept of Blak History Month has gained viral popularity in Australia, the holiday has not been embraced by the Australian government.
Bibliography
"About." NAIDOC. www.naidoc.org.au/about. Accessed 1 May 2024.
"About Blak History Month." Blak History Month, 2023, www.blakhistorymonth.com/about. Accessed 1 May 2024.
“Estimates of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.” Australian Bureau of Statistics, 31 Aug. 2023, www.abs.gov.au/statistics/people/aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-peoples/estimates-aboriginal-and-torres-strait-islander-australians/30-june-2021. Accessed 1 May 2024.
Thomas, Jason. "‘Survival Day’ Marked across Australia." SBS News, 26 Jan. 2015. www.sbs.com.au/news/article/survival-day-marked-across-australia/07uhu7yfy. Accessed 1 May 2024.
"Why ‘Blak’? The History Behind the Spelling." BW Tribal Clothing, 2024, bwtribal.com/blogs/news/why-blak-the-history-behind-the-spelling. Accessed 1 May 2024.