This year, NAIDOC week marks a powerful milestone, 50 years of honouring and elevating Indigenous Voices, Culture and Resilience.
The 2025 theme: “The next Generation – Strength, Vision & legacy”
We remember with pride and thanksgiving all Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who have served and now serve in the Australian Defence Force. We particularly remember NORFORCE ( North-West Mobile Force ), recruiting mainly from remote communities, members who serve across the Top End and who provide a rick heritage of service.
Prayer for the Next Generation
This prayer has been written by Mikenzie Ling, proud Aboriginal Christianwoman of the Wiradjuri nation from Narromine (NSW), for NAIDOC Week 2025. Mikenzie's prayer is a heartfelt prayer for the next generation of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people and reflects the deep echoes of prayers of our Elders, and current Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian community, for children and young people who are being raised up now and into the future.
Creator God,
From the first hovering, you have dwelt in this place.
Since the empty deep was spoken in to light, and there was evening and there was morning, you were present.
As darkest nights have slipped into soft dawns, and as proud dancing has seeped gently from mourning, you have been here with us. You have been good.
Creator God,
Where could we go from your Spirit? We know your presence all too well.
Your faithfulness has stayed near, sustaining us like gum leaves sweeping the dust before our feet.
Our delight is in you, and we rejoice in the lore you have passed into our hands.
We have have been made as trees planted by the stream - come fire, flood and famine, still we are unyielding green, fruit unfailing in the seasons, and your grace lingering as quiet inner strength.
Creator God,
Your appointed the First Peoples of these lands, marking and entrusting your creation into our care.
May we continue to encounter you here, as our Old Ones have down all our generations, meeting you in Country and perceiving you through the wonder of our created kin.
Our legacy reaches far into the past and it envisions the future, without fear. In you Lord, we laugh a the days to come.
Creator God,
As we look to the next generation, we pray they would be strengthened by the groundwork of their Elders and rise to honour the shared vision of our communities.
As they carry the torch and now shape the future, Lord let them be guided by the wisdom you have passed down through our ancestors, and continue to build a legacy of unity, respect and self-determination.
Creator God,
In loving-kindness you have dwelt and still dwell, in this place.
Bind us ever closer as we now walk forward together, honouring where we have come from and looking boldly to the next generation.
Amen.
