Hawthorn Football Club would like to acknowledge 2021 NAIDOC Week which is celebrated across Australia from July 4-11. 

Held annually, NAIDOC Week celebrates the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

This year, the 2021 NAIDOC Week theme is 'Heal Country!' which recognises the significance of the land and calls for stronger measures to recognise, protect and maintain all aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and heritage.

Country is personified in the language and song of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, it is inherent to the culture's identity, spiritually, physically, emotionally, socially, and culturally.

It is more than a place.

Country is family, kin, law, lore, ceremony, traditions, and language. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples it has been this way since the dawn of time.

Healing Country means hearing those pleas to provide greater management, involvement, and empowerment by Indigenous peoples over country.