NAIDOC Week 2025 Bonus Episode: A next generation of strong young voices

Episode Description

In our NAIDOC Week 2025 bonus episode, proud Meuram man Joel Matysek, SNAICC Youth Voice Lead, sits down with host Mandy Taylor to yarn about how SNAICC is creating space for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples to share their ideas and shape the decisions, policies and programs that affect their lives, now and into the future.

As we celebrate NAIDOC Week 2025 and this year’s theme The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy, Joel tunes into the conversation from Gimuy Walubara Yidinji Country in Far North Queensland, with Mandy joining from Arrernte Country in Mparntwe. Joel reflects on how powerful the pillars of this year’s theme are—strength, vision and legacy—and how they speak to the next generation’s continued growth into strong leadership and building their own legacy.

Together, Joel and Mandy discuss what young people have already identified through Youth Voice; the need for genuine influence in decision-making, stronger support for cultural identity and advocacy skills, and more flexible, accessible ways to be involved and make sure young voices are heard. Joel shares how Youth Voice is building a national structure led by young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples—giving them the tools, skills and connections to be leaders, influence decisions, and drive long-term, generational change. They reflect on what young mob across the continent are telling SNAICC, and how those insights are already informing policies, programs and advocacy.

Keep the conversation going—follow and share this podcast episode to amplify the voices of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families, and communities.

Explore the stories, topics and issues discussed in this episode of Kids, Culture, Community – SNAICC Yarns through the resources below.

Links & Further Reading:

NAIDOC Week

NAIDOC Week has its roots back to the 1920s, when Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander advocates began raising awareness about the injustices and treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Today, NAIDOC Week is a national celebration held every July, recognising the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.

Find out more

NAIDOC Week 2025: The Next Generation – Strength, Vision & Legacy

NAIDOC Week 2025 marks a powerful milestone—50 years of honouring and elevating Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voices, culture and resilience. This year’s theme, The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy, celebrates both the achievements of the past and the promise of the future. It acknowledges the strength of young leaders, the vision of communities, and the enduring legacy of Elders and ancestors.

Find out more

NAIDOC Week Activities

There are NAIDOC Week events happening in every corner of the continent—from cultural festivals and art exhibitions to community yarning circles, school activities and flag-raising ceremonies. The official NAIDOC events page is your go-to place to find out what’s happening near you.

Find your local NAIDOC Week events

Friday in the Park – Cairns NAIDOC

Friday in the Park is a highlight of NAIDOC Week in Gimuy/Cairns, held after the annual NAIDOC March. Set in the heart of the city at Fogarty Park, the festival is a lively and powerful celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture and community. With music, dance, live performance, food and market stalls, the event is a gathering space for all ages to connect, reflect and celebrate.

Find out more

Cairns Indigenous Art Fair 2025

The Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (CIAF) will be held at the Cairns Convention Centre from 10–13 July 2025, celebrating the creativity and cultural strength of Queensland’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. CIAF is one of the nation’s premier showcases of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander visual art, performance, fashion and cultural practice. It features exhibitions, workshops, fashion performances, and a vibrant marketplace where artists and communities connect with collectors, curators and audiences.

Find out more

Youth Voice

Youth Voice is a space for young Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people to share their ideas on important matters while feeling safe, supported and respected in culture. SNAICC – National Voice for our Children is establishing a Youth Voice initiative to make sure that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people help shape our work on the policies and programs that impact their lives now and for generations to come.

Find out more

This artwork was created to visually represent Kids, Culture, Community – SNAICC Yarns, a podcast by SNAICC – National Voice for our Children, dedicated to amplifying the voices and experiences of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children, families, and communities.

At the heart of the artwork is a central motif drawn directly from the SNAICC Marulu design – a symbolic anchor that represents SNAICC’s identity, purpose, and vision. This central element grounds the piece, reflecting SNAICC’s leadership in advocating for the rights, wellbeing, and futures of our children.

Surrounding this are three figures, symbolising a community in conversation. These figures represent not only the act of yarning, but the diversity of voices – children, families, Elders, leaders, and community members – who will be heard through the podcast. The figures are encircled by layered soundwaves that ripple outward and inward, capturing both the expression of voice and the act of deep listening.

These soundwaves reflect how stories, knowledge, and lived experiences are shared, received, and echoed across communities – from grassroots voices to national conversations. The design intentionally shows sound as both something that travels outward to inform and inspire, and something that returns inward to strengthen identity, connection, and culture.

Content Warning: SNAICC advises Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that this episode of Kids, Culture, Community – SNAICC Yarns contains references to topics that may be triggering to the community. Your social and emotional safety is important. If this recording has brought up any concerns or issues for you, please contact 13YARN on 13 92 76

Mandy

Joel Matysek, welcome to this special bonus podcast for NAIDOC Week with SNAICC and, hey, happy NAIDOC Week!

Joel

Thanks, Mandy—happy NAIDOC Week to you as well. It’s good to be here.

Mandy

It is! I’m looking forward to a full week of activities. But first, I’d like to acknowledge the lands I’m on, which are the lands of the Arrernte people here in Mparntwe, Alice Springs. Whereabouts are you today?

Joel

Mandy, I’m on beautiful Gimuy Walubara Yidinji Country, up in Cairns in Far North Queensland—an amazing place to be.

Mandy

Beautiful. You’d be a lot warmer than me, but I’m also a lot warmer than anyone in Narrm or on the south or east coast, I reckon, as well.

So, what are your plans for NAIDOC Week?

Joel

Well, there’s a lot happening here in Cairns, and probably what I’m really looking forward to is heading—we have this thing here called Friday in the Park, where on the Friday, all the community gather for a day of just celebrating culture, really, and just with the theme, there’s going to be a real focus on a lot of young people that’ll be present on stage and dancing and sharing stories and acknowledging the contribution of some young people and even community members that have supported young people. So that’s one of them.

The other one we’re looking forward to is CIAF, which is the Cairns Indigenous Art Fair that’ll be happening towards the end of NAIDOC Week. And it’s just absolutely incredible, and such a beautiful celebration of Indigenous artwork up here in Cairns. And it’s very well attended—if anyone’s around Cairns, around Gimuy, then please come down. It’s absolutely amazing.

Mandy

Oh, you’re so right, Joel. It’s a beautiful art fair. And I tell you what—the last time I was there, my credit card got a flogging, but well worth it. Well worth it. And just seeing the beautiful creations as well, it was—yeah, a really stunning, really stunning event.

And also, you spoke about the young people getting involved in NAIDOC, which is just fantastic to see the young people platformed during such a significant week. And your position at SNAICC is all about youth voice. Tell us a bit about what you do.

Joel:

Well, yes, it’s Youth Voice! So, it’s about, really, the intention is about creating real opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people to have a voice in matters which are impacting their lives. And we think that’s important. We think everyone deserves to have a say in matters which are impacting their lives, and that includes young people. So, my gig, my job, is to set that kind of structure up and work with young people—and every… a lot of people that are involved in this—to set that up.

And so it’s… it’s a special… it’s a special piece of work, amplifying the voices of young people, and really looking forward to how this work continues to eventuate and evolves too, I think, as it continues to grow.

Mandy:

You’re right, it’s such an important piece of work. And SNAICC, of course, we’re the national voice for children—for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children. So having that actual platform and mechanism where young people are going to be able to inform us—people like me, people like you, people like Dan who’s sitting with me, the whole team—having that input of young voices with crusty old people like me is just going to be so important.

Joel:

Yeah, yeah—it’s going to be incredible. And then for those young people as well, to have some experience too in some advocacy and sharing their voices, and seeing how their voice is being listened to by SNAICC, and how it contributes to some tangible, practical outcomes as well.

I think that’s important for those young people as well. So, it’s—it’s, yeah, it’s a really special piece of work, and I’m very committed to getting this right as well.

Mandy:

You really hit the ground running on Youth Voice since you’ve started, Joel. Give us an idea of what you’ve done so far, and you’ve really covered some ground, literally and also in the work.

Joel:

Yes, we’ve covered a lot of ground, and we’ve done quite a bit—and there’s still some more stuff to go, obviously.

And so, the work pretty much started at the start of this year, was really when Youth Voice really kind of kicked off. And in that time, it was important to get the governance around this work set up, properly from the beginning. So, to do that, we set up a Youth Advisory Group, which we got about eight—we got about 10 young people that are on that now. And they’re young people that have experience of out-of-home care, child protection systems, and family wellbeing systems as well.

And they’re part of an Advisory Group that we have at SNAICC that are informing this work as it progresses as well. And we’ve got some other governance around it. But what’s really been important is that, at SNAICC, we’ve been going to communities around Australia—covering some ground—and hearing directly from young people themselves around what’s important to young people, what challenges they’re facing, what opportunities do they have to contribute to policies and programs that are impacting their lives, what’s working well, what can be improved—all those sorts of questions.

And also hearing from the community members themselves that are supporting those young people—and so what we’re doing, and what their ideas are for a SNAICC Youth Voice, and how this work can amplify what’s happening on the ground as well. And then our job is to kind of—or my job —to kind of collect all that information together and then go, well, hey, this is what communities are asking us to do around this work, and to build on that and give that information to SNAICC and say, hey, look, this is what communities are asking for. This is kind of the direction we’ve got, and let’s go!

Mandy:

What are some of those really big themes that young people have told you about so far, since you’ve been out and about?

Joel:

Well, there’s been a… there’s been a few, and we’re still going through—we’re still going through all that data now to kind of look at it, just to make sure we’ve got it right. But some of the stuff that’s come out from what young people are saying is that there are some structures where young people, on a community level, where they can participate—not everywhere, but in some areas—they can participate in what’s happening in their community. But sometimes they don’t really feel like their voice is kind of properly being heard. And I think some of the words that have been thrown up were around some of the structures that exist out there are a bit tokenistic in nature where they kind of get young people together to kind of say something, and then they kind of go like, “Oh yeah, this is cool,” but nothing kind of eventuates. Which is one of the things that kind of came out.

Another theme that has kind of been highlighted is that there’s a bit of an educational piece as well, I suppose, around how we can support young people to kind of understand advocacy, or support their understanding and grow their skills, I suppose, and their knowledge in areas of advocacy—and where the best places, I suppose, to share their messages can go. Like, where are those places that their messages can go that can start to pull some levers and get some practical outcomes for them as well.

Those are some of the big ones that have kind of come out so far. But yeah, we’re still going through it all which is important, that we go through that and make sure we’re hearing what those young people are saying. Make sure we’re getting it right as well.

Mandy:

Yeah, I’m really looking forward to seeing some of the results of what you’ve done so far, and some of what young people are saying. And as you’ve said, it’s so powerful—it really hits home when you’re hearing from the young people themselves. Like, their voice, their thoughts, their ideas—it really, really hits home.

Joel:

Yeah, it does. It just goes back to— yeah—like, everyone deserves a voice in matters which impact their lives. And that’s the same for young people. The same for young people. And they have good ideas—like, young people have ideas. Young people are really well-placed to know what’s going to work for young people. And so, it does and it really hits home, it does really hit home—because it’s their lives. So, it’s good!

Mandy:

You know, this year’s NAIDOC Week theme, I think, is really relevant to that work as well—it’s The Next Generation: Strength, Vision & Legacy. Does that tie with you? Does it resonate with you and the work that you’re doing in Youth Voice?

Joel:

It’s super relevant. And like SNAICC — National Voice for our Children, connects very well. And actually, over the coming weeks, keep an eye out on SNAICC’s social media, because you’ll hear directly from some of those members who are on our SNAICC Youth Voice Youth Advisory Group. And again, it’s acknowledging that these are some of the young mob that are providing advice to SNAICC on what this Youth Voice should look like, and what it should be, and all that sort of stuff as well.

But yeah, it resonates really well—like strength, vision and legacy—what strong pillars to have, and focusing on the next generation. And it just highlights that it continues too, as well. You know, the next generation—it continues. And the strength, vision and legacy—it continues. And that focus on supporting our young people to continue to grow and to continue to build their own legacy—it’s such a powerful theme this year, and one that resonates really well with the work we’re doing.

But also one that I think gives a lot of hope as well—like, with the focus on young people and supporting young people in this next generation that’s coming through and highlighting their strengths as this week will go on, and we’ll hear some incredible stories from young people all over… all over the continent—and focusing on those too.

Mandy:

That’s it. All those stories that come out, some of them are just really inspiring. But as you said, they really give you hope for change, for the future.

And also something that you said previously, Joel, about this sort of work, and that young people have been feeding back—okay, that they’re asked to come, and they’re asked to talk, but then that’s it. Nothing happens. But if we’re going to make change for the next generation, we’ve got to see that work through.

Joel:

Yeah, we’ve got to see it through. And that’s—that’s everyone. You know, like a lot of people, when they’re invited to go to places or share a story, people want to see that what they’ve shared is going to go somewhere. That’s for everyone—that’s the same for young people as well. When they’re going to places and sharing their concerns and, importantly, also their ideas for solutions and their ideas for progress that those ideas, it’s a responsibility on the listener. On where they’ve been invited — it’s a responsibility on where they’ve been invited to for that person to progress what those young people are saying, just like anyone. So yeah, it’s, it’s yeah, we’re looking forward to this. Really looking forward to it.

Mandy:

Yeah, I think it’s going to be really impactful. Not only hearing the voices, but having them influence our work and what we do. You know, we do so much about policy and—you know—all that really, really critical work, but it can be quite dry.

But actually having—and being driven by—the priorities and voices of young people themselves, it’s going to bring such a strong, strong element to the work that we do and the change that we want to see.

Joel:

Yeah, you’re absolutely right, Mandy, and we’re such a strong organisation now. And this is—this is just adding to that strength as well of what SNAICC does. It’s adding to that strength of having young people’s voices and young people guiding some more of that work that we’re doing as well. That’s already happening. It’s also around formalising some of that as well, I suppose, isn’t it? Because it’s just adding to the strength of what SNAICC does and what’s important to young people and just leaning more into that. And it’s—yeah—it’s just such an incredible space for SNAICC to be in and to be a part of this work and pioneering some of this work on that national level. It’s really cool. It’s really cool stuff.

Mandy:

It is. And like you said, we’ve got to make the commitment ourselves to make sure we take what the young people are giving us and treat it with the respect it deserves, but also make it happen.

Joel:

Yes, yes. It’s going to be a journey, and some of the stuff that will likely come out of this will require some strategy and some careful thinking and planning and supporting young people’s voices through that.

But you’re right—it’s a responsibility to carry the voices of young people and to push and advocate and get some stuff done. And also celebrate too—with, I’m sure, with some of these—the Youth Voice that’ll be coming through, they’ll be highlighting some really cool work that’s happening around the place as well. And also, an opportunity to highlight some really cool stuff that may be happening in some communities as well—that some of our community, maybe even some of our SNAICC members, are doing as well that’ll be coming out, and highlighting some of that stuff too, which is important. Which is really important stuff.

Mandy:

When you go out into community and you talk about Youth Voice and try and get people interested, do you find that young people are really keen?

Joel:

Yes. We hear—young people, what we’ve heard is—young people are really keen on this idea, this concept of setting up this structure on the national level where young people’s voices are actually getting through.

And I suppose, going back to an earlier question as well around what are the challenges—sometimes what we’ve heard from young people is the challenge in, like, the translating of what they’re saying. When a young person says something, and then it may kind of go through multiple layers until it gets to somebody who can maybe act or make a decision or some of that—so that by the time it maybe gets there, the message might kind of get watered down a little bit.

And so what the young people are particularly interested in and what they liked about the concept was this model. That as the model grows, it’ll be a model that will directly go to SNAICC as well, from what’s important to young people.

They’re really interested in it, and they’re really interested in having multiple ways where they can also engage with this structure. I mean, what we’ve heard from some of the young people is some of them may not necessarily just want to sit on some kind of council or an advisory group or commit to two-year terms or something like that, but they may just have something to say and they want to get that message out there.

So some of what’s come out from young people on the ground is also just ensuring that whatever kind of gets up, and whatever it does look like, that there’s other ways for young people to just kind of casually engage with it as well and enter and get their message and say what they want to say, and kind of step out of it as well.

But they’re really looking forward to it, like, we haven’t had one young person that’s kind of gone like, “What are you doing?” Everyone’s been very supportive and just really honing in on just ensuring that they’re the ones that have been really strong at saying some other models that they may have been a part of have been quite tokenistic in nature. So just ensuring that this one, this one isn’t that. Which it won’t be. Yeah. And young people like that.

Mandy:

Yeah, that sounds fantastic. And I’m really looking forward to having young people in some of those big rooms—where they’re talking to people like the secretaries of departments, where they’re talking to ministers—so they’re talking to people who have really got the power to make change. But they’re not only talking to them—I’m really hopeful that they’re going to be listened to.

Joel:

Yeah. 100%. And that’s where SNAICC will—that’s where SNAICC as an org is really well positioned to support these voices getting into those rooms, and also support—to the best that we can—and support those secretaries to kind of be like, “Hey, like, this is what our young people are saying. Like, this is directly from young people. What do we reckon? What do you reckon?”

Mandy:

That’s it! Be bold. Be brave.

Joel:

Yeah! Be bold. Be brave.

Mandy:

Joel, how can young people get involved with SNAICC Youth Voice?

Joel:

Well, if you’re a young person and you’re scrolling through Instagram or Facebook or something—LinkedIn, if you’re on that—and you see any of the SNAICC Youth or any of the SNAICC promotional stuff, one point is you can just reply to that, and in some way, it’ll find its way to the Youth Voice team.

Otherwise, you can send me an email, my team an email, at youth@SNAICC.org.au—that’ll come directly to my team, and then we’ll contact you.

Mandy:

We’ve also got that point of contact on the website too—you can just, you know, fill out that contact form, flick it through, and it’ll go straight to the Youth Voice team as well. So lots of different ways to get in touch and get involved and get on board.

Joel:

Yeah, plenty of ways—and it will find its way. I’ve even had some people reach out to me on LinkedIn, Mandy. And these are young people as well. So yeah—these are young people who are really interested in this. So we want to hear your voices. Your voice is important. Your voice matters. And we’ll do right by hearing your voice.

Mandy:

Hey Joel, thanks so much for your time—and hey, have a wonderful NAIDOC Week.

Joel:

Thanks, Mandy. You too.