10 Deadly Facts About First Nations Cultures – NAIDOC Week 2026
10 Deadly Facts about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture for NAIDOC Week 2026.
10 Deadly Facts About First Nations Cultures – NAIDOC Week 2026
For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, deadly doesn’t mean dangerous. It means excellent. Brilliant. Something to be truly proud of.
This year’s NAIDOC Week theme – 50 Years of Deadly – is a celebration of five decades of NAIDOC, and everything that has been built, fought for, and kept alive across those years. But the cultures being celebrated stretch back far longer than 50 years – back further than any of us can imagine!
These ten facts show what “deadly” looks like – engineering achievements that predate the pyramids, astronomical knowledge passed down across 2,300 generations, languages as diverse and complex as any on Earth… and more!
This has always been a deadly Country. NAIDOC Week is our chance to celebrate our Country’s long and deadly history. Here’s a snapshot of ten deadly facts – scroll down to lean more about each one.
1. 65,000 years
Aboriginal People are the oldest continuous culture on Earth!
2. Medicine
First Nations bush medicine is informing modern science! Researchers at Macquarie University are now working directly with Yaegl Elders in northern NSW to document traditional bush remedies and identify the active compounds behind them.
3. Engineering
The Ngemba people are the world’s oldest known engineers – innovative fish traps demonstrate an advanced knowledge of river hydrology and fish ecology
4. Aquaculture
The Gunditjmara people’s aquaculture system to trap, store and harvest kooyang (short-finned eel) is older than the pyramids – and is UNESCO listed
5. Language
Before British colonisation, over 250 languages and 800 dialects were spoken in Australia. Today 123 Indigenous languages are spoken, with only 14 still learned as a first language.
6. Communication
Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people also use signed languages in ceremonies and during hunting.
7. Fire Management
One of Australia’s most powerful tools against climate change.
8. Mungo Man
The 40,000-year-old remains of Mungo Man and Lady Mungo are some of the oldest remains of modern humans ever discovered outside of Africa. Lady Mungo is the oldest known cremation ritual in human history.
9 & 10. Ancient Tools
The world’s earliest evidence of tools – axes, grinding stones and hatchets.
1. The oldest continuous culture on Earth
Aboriginal people are known to have occupied mainland Australia for at least 65,000 years – a fact that is widely accepted as predating the modern human settlement of Europe and the Americas. That’s 2,300 generations of precious knowledge about the land, water and sky – been passed down from each generation to the next!
2. First Nations bush medicine is informing modern science
Long before pharmacies existed, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples had developed a sophisticated system of plant-based medicine. The Bundjalung people of northern NSW used tea tree leaves which they call kallara – to treat coughs, colds and infected wounds by breathing in heated vapours or applying warm leaf pastes. Western science has since confirmed that tea tree oil activates white blood cells, backing up what Bundjalung people have known for generations.
The soap tree was used to treat headaches, fever, toothache, snake bite and wounds – and studies have since shown its leaf extracts inhibit the growth of a wide range of bacterial species.
Researchers at Macquarie University are now working directly with Yaegl Elders in northern NSW to document traditional bush remedies and identify the active compounds behind them – with some plants already showing promising results for treating diabetes and bacterial infections.
3. The world’s oldest known engineers – Brewarrina Fish Traps (Baiame’s Ngunnhu)
The Ngemba people of Brewarrina used their advanced knowledge of river hydrology and fish ecology to trap and catch large numbers of fresh water fish. The unusual and innovative fish traps, known as Ngunnhu, are still visible in the Darling River. The intricate design of the dry-stone rock weirs and pens allowed large numbers of fish to be herded and caught, particularly during spring migrations. The design also allowed the fish traps to resist damage during both high and low river flows. The National Heritage listed Baiame’s Ngunnhu site was one of the great inter-tribal meeting places in Eastern Australia for many nations of First Nations peoples. Archaeologists estimate the Ngunnhu to be over 40,000 years old — making it one of the oldest human constructions on the planet — and it continues to have a strong social, cultural and spiritual association for First Nations people, who still use the traps to fish traditionally today.
Learn more: Australian Government DCCEEW | Brewarrina Shire Council
4. A UNESCO-listed aquaculture system older than the pyramids
The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, located in the traditional Country of the Gunditjmara people in south-eastern Australia, contains one of the world’s most extensive and oldest aquaculture systems. The Budj Bim lava flows provide the basis for a complex system of channels, weirs and dams developed by the Gunditjmara to trap, store and harvest kooyang (short-finned eel). The highly productive aquaculture system provided an economic and social base for Gunditjmara society for six millennia.
5. 250 languages and 800 dialects – all before colonisation
Before British colonisation, over 250 languages and 800 dialects were spoken in Australia. Colonisation and government policies suppressed the speaking of these languages, resulting in most becoming endangered or lost. A national survey conducted from 2018–2019 found that 123 Indigenous languages are spoken in Australia today. 109 of these are considered endangered, and all are under threat.
Today, only 14 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages are still being learned as a first language. Of these, 12 are traditional languages that existed long before the arrival of the British. The remaining two are new languages that have arisen since colonisation. These languages weren’t ‘lost’ or forgotten… their decline was driven by deliberately crafted policies and systemic oppression.
6. Aboriginal sign languages are part of everyday cultural life – not only for deaf people
As well as spoken languages, there are also signed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages. These aren’t used by deaf people alone but are part of wider cultural life, used in ceremonies and during hunting.
7. Ancient fire knowledge is helping save Australia from catastrophic bushfires
For tens of thousands of years, First Nations peoples have used carefully controlled “cool burns” to care for the land — burning small patches during cooler months to stop dangerous fuel building up. After colonisation interrupted this practice, communities in WA’s Kimberley region have been bringing it back.
Before this, massive wildfires – each destroying more than 40,000 hectares – were happening almost every year. In the decade since communities returned to traditional fire management, only one fire of that scale has occurred. A major CSIRO study confirmed what Traditional Owners have always known: this ancient practice works, and it’s now recognised as one of Australia’s most powerful tools against climate change.
8. The oldest cremation ritual in human history
The 40,000-year-old remains of Mungo Man were discovered in 1974 on the southern sector of the eroding Lake Mungo shoreline. In 1968, geologist Jim Bowler uncovered the partial remains of Lady Mungo in a dry lake bed in NSW. The complete skeleton of Mungo Man ws discovered just 300 metres from Lady Mungo, and after many decades of attempts to accurately date the remains, both Lady Mungo and Mungo Man were dated to 40,000 years old. Lady Mungo and Mungo Man are some of the oldest remains of modern humans ever discovered outside of Africa. Lady Mungo is the oldest known cremation in the world. Mungo Man is the world’s oldest example of using ochre in a burial ritual.
9. The world’s oldest known axe found in Australia
In 2016, Professor Sue O’Connor and her team found a fragment of a hafted stone axe in a large rock shelter in Winjana Gorge National Park. Dating of the charcoal sediments around the fragments revealed that they are between 45,000 and 49,000 years old, making this the discovery of the world’s oldest known axe!
10. The world’s earliest evidence of seed grinding, pigment processing and ground-edge hatchets – all from Australia
10,000 artefacts including 1,500 stone tools, a grinding stone and ground ochres recently discovered in the Madjedbebe rock shelter in Mirrarr Country, in Northern Arnhem Land, provide evidence that Aboriginal peoples have been living here for many thousands of years. Archaeologists have dated these artefacts to be at least 65,000 years old. Microfossils and artefact residue found on grinding stones reveal that Aboriginal people also collected and processed plant foods. Madjedbebe is the earliest evidence of seed grinding, pigment processing and use of edge-ground hatchets in the world.
Celebrating NAIDOC Week 2026: 50 Years of Deadly
We hope you enjoyed these deadly facts and learned something new! How do you plan to Celebrate NAIDOC Week? Visit our Get Involved: NAIDOC 2026 page to explore the meany ways you can celebrate this extraordinary country and the deadly peoples that have cared for it for tens of thousands of years.
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