In the Season of Makuru
NAIDOC Week 2026 — 50 Years of Deadly | 5–12 July
By Fardowsa Samatar, Marketing Coordinator, GFS Perth
Unlike the European calendar most of us grew up with, the Nyoongar people of Western Australia follow six seasons — each one a relationship with Country, not just a point on a calendar.
Right now, we are in Makuru— the season of fertility, where flowers emerge, and rain returns to the land. And it is in this season, fittingly, that NAIDOC Week 2026 falls.
Today, nearly 140 years later, the circumstances may have changed, but the need remains surprisingly familiar. We live in an age of smartphones, social media and instant communication.
Yet research consistently tells us that many people feel increasingly disconnected from one another. Loneliness and social isolation affect people of all ages and backgrounds. Communities are often busier, but not necessarily more connected.
In some ways, we have come full circle.
50 Years of Deadly
For five decades, NAIDOC Week has been a celebration, a protest, and a statement of survival. This year’s theme marks a milestone — not just of time passed, but of everything that was built to get here. As the National NAIDOC Committee describes it, the theme is a tribute to “the Elders who stood firm, the organisers who made space, the artists who turned resistance into expression, and the communities who keep showing up, year after year.” (naidoc.org.au)
At GFS Perth, we have been doing the quiet, consistent work of building connections for nearly 140 years. And the older we get, the more clearly we understand something that First Nations people have known since long before us: that community is not something you create quickly. It is something you tend, across seasons and generations, like a garden.
A Place Connected to the Land
Friendship Central, GFS Perth’s new community hub, sits on Whadjuk Noongar Country — a landscape that has nourished communities for thousands of years, long before any building stood here.
When we think about what Friendship Central is becoming, we think about that. The Friendly Fig Café will embrace this connection by celebrating the seasons, local produce, and the stories that make the Swan Valley unique. From the surrounding gardens and food forest to the people who help care for them, the café will be deeply connected to the land and the community around it.
What This Week Means to Us
NAIDOC Week is a moment for GFS Perth to listen more than we speak. To sit with the understanding that the land we are building on carries a story that began thousands of years before ours — and that our responsibility is not only to acknowledge that, but to let it shape how we operate, who we welcome, and how we care for this place.
Throughout its history, GFS has always sought to be a community hub that is genuinely, consistently committed to connection, with the land, with each other, and with the stories that brought us all here. We hope in time to mirror the foundations of NAIDOC week where communities show up for one another despite the hardship, because connection has always been worth showing up for.
Want to follow the journey?
Visit us — Come and see Friendship Central taking shape.
Join us — Volunteer, become a member, or join our Makers community.
Partner with us — Become a Founding Partner and help build something that lasts.
