Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday Resources 2026
Walking Together in Christ: 40 Years on!
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday Resources
5 July 2026
The National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Catholic Council has created these resources to support and inspire Parishes, Organisations, and Schools in celebrating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday. These liturgical resources are offered with flexibility in mind and can be adapted to reflect the unique context of each community across Australia.
Where possible, Parishes and Schools are warmly encouraged to work alongside Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander members of their community to respectfully incorporate Traditional symbols and expressions into the Mass.
NATSICC also encourages open and ongoing conversations with local Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, so that these celebrations may be enriched in ways that are authentic, meaningful, and grounded in community.
Liturgy Team Message
Welcome to this year’s celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday. As we gather in faith, we do so as a people shaped by story — by the Gospel, by culture, and by the journeys that have brought us to this moment. We gather in the presence of God, who walks with us always, and who calls us into unity as one people.
This year invites us into reflection. We mark 40 years since St Pope John Paul II spoke to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in Alice Springs, and we celebrate 50 years of NAIDOC Week. These milestones are more than anniversaries — they are reminders of enduring faith, resilience, and our shared call to walk together. At times, it is important to look back. Not to dwell in the past, but to recognise the path that has been travelled — to see the strength, the challenges, and the grace that have carried us forward. In this, we trust in God’s providence, present in every step of our journey.
Our theme, Walking Together in Christ: 40 Years On!, speaks to this moment. It calls us to continue the journey with humility and hope - listening deeply, and walking side by side as one Body in Christ, guided by the Holy Spirit. Across this land, the Church is enriched by the cultures and voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples. Their spirituality, connection to Country, and deep sense of community continue to shape and strengthen the life of the Church in Australia. As St Pope John Paul II reminded us, the Church is enriched by the many cultures it embraces. This is not something we simply acknowledge — it is something we are called to live. Today’s Liturgy is an invitation to listen to, reflect, and to encounter Christ in one another.
Wherever you are gathered — in Parish, school, or community — may this celebration be a moment of grace. May it renew our hearts, deepen our unity, and strengthen our commitment to walk together in faith. We thank you for being part of this journey.
Artwork
The Time for Rebirth is Now!' created by Youth Delegates at the 2003 NATSICC Assembly – Adelaide. Drawn from St Pope John Paul II's address to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples in Alice Springs (1986).
Resource Booklet
The 24 page, full colour booklet for 2026 has been designed to help Schools, Parishes and organisations celebrate the gifts of First Australian Catholics.
The kit includes:
Liturgy Suggestions - Prayers of Intercession, Hymns. Homily notes by Bishop Michael Morrissey
Walking Together - Ways in which Parishes that do not have First Nations people present can celebrate the day
Acknowledgment of Country and Welcome to Country Guide
Youth Activities
Parish and Catholic groups Discernment Activities
Booklet download - Web Version | Print Ready
Poster
Click on the image to download a high resolution version of the 2026 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday Poster. We would love to see it on your Bulletin board!
Activities
Youth Activity
Group Activity
Multimedia
Virtual Acknowledgment
This Acknowledgment of Country and presentation for use in Parishes and Schools will set the scene for your Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Sunday Celebrations is currently being prepared. It is suited for Parishes, Schools and Organisations who have been unable to invite a Traditional Custodian to provide a Welcome to Country. You can either stream the video using the link below, or download to your local machine in readiness for you celebration by clicking here. The file size is 111mb.
Music
Homily Notes
“I bless you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, for hiding these things from the learned and the clever and revealing them to mere children” (Matthew 11:25)
A little child is always open to the other person they encounter, especially their parents who have loved them into life. For the parents, their lives are filled with joy and hope with their little child. These encounters happen across every culture and tradition, and Jesus reminds us in the Gospel for this Sunday. Little children reveal this deep wisdom coming from God who loves us since the beginning of time.
The danger of focusing only on the importance of knowledge and study can miss human gifts that can make a difference to another person’s life and circumstance, being present to each other without judgement, listening, compassion, kindness and respectfulness to another human being. In this passage, we are given a glimpse into the human heart of Jesus, the faithful servant of the Father’s action in the world. Little children remind us through their actions without judgment of the Sacred Heart of Christ. AI does not recognise the human dimensions of our lives or fully understand our disappointments and aspirations for a better life for our children.
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, with their intimate connection to Country, the bush as we call it in Australia, remind us, as the Prophet Elijah was reminded after his struggles with the priests of Baal, that God was present “in the light sound of silence” (1 Kings 19:13). Too much activity can diminish our connection to the God we love and to each other. People can become commodities to each other when the Spirit is absent from our lives.
In his address to First Nations peoples in Alice Springs in 1986, Saint Pope John Paul II said, “The silence of the bush taught you a quietness of soul that put you in touch with another world, the world of God’s spirit. Your careful attention to the details of kinship spoke of your reverence for birth, life and human generation. You knew that children needed to be loved, to be full of joy. They need a time to grow in laughter and to play, secure in the knowledge that they belong to their people.”
These words by the Pope suggest that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, even if they did not know Jesus, would understand these words from Matthew’s Gospel, revealing an intimacy and relationship to culture and land—a gift they can share with all Australians, especially for our children. If we can live with an open heart and mind in relationships with all peoples, we will know God, who is love, has always loved this beautiful world revealed to us in Jesus himself.
The second part of today’s Gospel connects us with the reality of life for many people living on the margins, the peripheries of society, and often excluded unintentionally because of culture and background. “Come to me, all you who labour and are overburdened, and I will give you rest. Shoulder my yoke and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble of heart… Yes, my yoke is easy and my burden light” (Matthew 11:28–29a, 30).
The journey through life does not follow straight lines with sealed footpaths. On the journey, Matthew reminds all people we are not alone. Jesus does walk beside us through life, sharing his yoke to guide us with hope. In our history, the First Australians did feel very alone, with few people walking with them through a history with little hope or light for a better way, where they were separated from what gave meaning to their very existence. Great damage was done to families, culture and traditions, where healing does not happen very easily.
Again, Pope John Paul reminded us of the hidden history of displacement for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, which impacted many generations even to today: “Christian people of good will are saddened to realize—many of them only recently—for how long a time Aboriginal people were transported from their homelands into small areas or reserves where families were broken up, tribes split apart, children orphaned and people forced to live like exiles in a foreign country.”
What if Christians can emulate the vision from the Prophet Zechariah in the first reading, walking beside—not ahead or behind—First Nations peoples with humility and openness to their lives as they are to ours? Australia will be a beacon of hope and light for all the world to see. “See how your king comes to you; he is victorious, he is triumphant, humble and riding on a donkey, on a colt, the foal of a donkey… he will proclaim peace for the nations” (Zechariah 9:9b, 10b).
If our vision as Australian Christians can be realised, then our country will be a place of hope, joy and peace.
Again, Pope John Paul reminds us all how this vision can be fulfilled for First Nations peoples: “The Church herself in Australia will not be fully the Church that Jesus wants her to be until you have made your contribution to her life and until that contribution has been joyfully received by others.”
Christian people seek to be people of hope and joy. Remember always the simple joy of the little child. Remember Jesus Christ bears the same yoke, guiding us to opening our hearts, rejoicing in the gift of the ancient cultures and traditions that have shaped our land and country for more than 60,000 years. Our country will become a nation of hope and light in the world that is in desperate need of peace.
Bishop Michael Morrisssey
Bishop of Geraldton
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A page that shares NATSICC's points of view on various important topics, including the Environment, the Indigenous Voice to Parliament and more