Otis Hope Carey on NAIDOC Week and Children’s Day 2025 – SNAICC in the News

As Australia heads into next week to celebrate 50 years of NAIDOC and this year’s theme The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy, proud Gumbaynggirr and Bundjalung man Otis Hope Carey has shared his thoughts on his role as the 2025 National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day Ambassador and his hopes for his own children’s future.

In an interview with ABC Radio Gold Coast earlier this week, Otis reflected on the significance of both NAIDOC Week and Children’s Day, sharing personal insights into identity, fatherhood, art and the role of culture in shaping strong futures. A proud father of three, Otis spoke about how he passes on his love of art and culture to his children. He said he wants them to be proud of who they are and comfortable in their own skin. His five-year-old daughter, he added proudly, blows him away every time she paints.

Arrernte and Luritja woman Catherine Liddle, CEO of SNAICC – National Voice for our Children, said Otis is a strong advocate for this year’s Children’s Day theme: Little Footsteps, Big Future. She said that Otis is not only a powerful artist but also a storyteller, a father, and someone who shows our children what’s possible when you’re strong in culture and community.

This year’s NAIDOC Week marks a major milestone—half a century since the movement began as a fight for recognition and grew into a national celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander strength, resilience and leadership. Otis described NAIDOC as an amazing time—a week for everyone to come together and celebrate each other, our cultures and our connection to the elements we all live and breathe every day. Reflecting on his experience growing up with a Blak mother and white father, he spoke of the challenges of identity and, for that reason, he said, it’s so important for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander kids to feel proud of who they are.

Born in 1988 on Bundjalung Country in Grafton, Otis Hope Carey grew up in salt water—introduced to the ocean at just three days old and learning to surf on his dad’s boards by the age of three. Raised on Gumbaynggirr and Bundjalung Country, the ocean—Gaagal, a Gumbaynggirr totem—has always been a central part of his life. Known for his unique, expressive and unconventional surfing style, Otis made a name for himself on the international surf circuit. More recently, he has been a collaborator with Billabong, incorporating his art into the brand’s clothing and merchandise.

Otis began his journey as an artist less than a decade ago, holding his first solo exhibition, NGURAALMI, on Gadigal Country at China Heights Gallery in 2016. He says he’s still learning with every piece—each time he paints, he discovers something new about himself. His work, recognised for its distinctive oceanic forms and cultural symbolism, is described by Otis as a contemporary expression of Indigenous art, drawing from traditional symbolisms and reimagining them through his own lived experience. According to Billabong, Otis said that his art style is a broken-down form of traditional symbols and stories that aren’t giving all of it away but just enough for people to understand. You can find his work at China Heights.

National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day is held annually on 4 August and is our day dedicated to celebrating our children. The 2025 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Children’s Day theme Little Footsteps, Big Future honours the journeys our children take as they grow—each step guided by culture, community and connection to Country. Otis has a personal connection to this year’s flagship Children’s Day celebration at Kulai Preschool Aboriginal Corporation, the preschool he once attended as a child, and where his mother, Aunty Julie Carey, has served as Director since 1995.

You can find out more about Children’s Day here.

Calls to prioritise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children in Building Early Education Fund

As federal, state and territory education ministers met on Kaurna Yerta in Tarndanya/Adelaide last Friday, attention turned to how governments will implement the $1 billion Building Early Education Fund.

Announced by the Australian Government in December 2024, the Building Early Education Fund will invest $1 billion to build early childhood education and care centres—particularly in regions and outer suburbs—with the goal of increasing access to quality early learning in communities where it’s needed most.

SNAICC – National Voice for our Children has called for strong action to ensure Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are not left behind. SNAICC CEO Catherine Liddle has urged ministers to work in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled organisations to deliver culturally safe, high-quality early childhood education and care. She said this funding represents a significant opportunity to tackle long-standing access barriers—particularly in areas known as childcare deserts, where more than three children compete for every available place. These gaps, Catherine said, are often more severe for Aboriginal-led services and exist not just in remote areas, but across regional and urban communities too. Engaging the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled sector, she said, is critical to ensuring the investment delivers real outcomes for the children and families it’s intended to support.

SNAICC is calling on all education ministers to honour their Closing the Gap commitments by dedicating a significant share of the Fund to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled services, and by ensuring that communities are involved in planning new early learning centre locations. Catherine said these communities hold the knowledge, insight and lived experience to shape solutions that respond to their unique circumstances.

She also said that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community-controlled services often achieve stronger engagement and outcomes because of their holistic, culturally embedded approaches—offering wraparound supports that mainstream services rarely provide. This is backed by new findings from the Aurora Education Foundation’s Redefining Indigenous Success in Education (RISE) program, released this week. The landmark study, which spanned five years and 47 schools, found that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander students thrive when education is culturally grounded and community-led. It showed that intensive, holistic support—including tutoring, financial aid, cultural connection and family engagement—boosts student wellbeing, attendance, confidence and optimism.

Catherine also spoke about the broader social impact of early education, including its potential to help reduce the over-representation of Aboriginal children in the youth justice system. She said that while there is national momentum around addressing juvenile detention, it’s vital to act on the drivers that lead children into the system in the first place—such as unequal access to quality early learning. The evidence is clear: high-quality early childhood education improves school readiness, reduces developmental vulnerability and creates long-term benefits in health, education and employment.

For full coverage, find our media release and the relevant news stories linked below.