National Reconciliation Week (NRW) 2026 is fast approaching, and across the country, choirs, communities, schools and workplaces are getting ready to go All In.
This year’s NRW theme, All In, is a clear call for every person in Australia to commit wholeheartedly to reconciliation every single day, not just for one week of the year, and not just when it’s easy or convenient. It reminds us that reconciliation is not a spectator sport.
From 27 May to 3 June, NRW invites all Australians to learn about our shared histories, cultures and achievements, and to recommit to the ongoing fight for First Nations justice. Marking the anniversaries of the 1967 Referendum and the High Court Mabo decision, it’s a week grounded in both truth-telling and hope – a time to reflect on how far we’ve come and how far we still need to go.
Learn more about National Reconciliation Week.
In 2026, choirs and singing groups across the continent are once again at the heart of NRW through Voices for Reconciliation, with Midnight Oil’s Beds Are Burning as the featured song.
Written and performed by Midnight Oil, Beds Are Burning is a powerful anthem that became a defining soundtrack of the land rights movement. Inspired by the Uluru–Kata Tjuta handback to the Anangu people in 1985, the song was written during the band’s 1986 Blackfella/Whitefella tour with Warumpi Band through Western Desert and Arnhem Land communities. Those journeys and relationships deeply informed the song’s driving message: that justice requires truth, land back, and real change; not just words.
Decades on, Beds Are Burning still hits a nerve. Its urgency, its insistence that “the time has come,” speaks directly to the work of reconciliation today. By choosing it as the 2026 Voices for Reconciliation song, Reconciliation Australia is inviting choirs to do more than sing a classic! It’s an invitation to add your voice to a long-running call for truth, land rights and justice.
Join Voices for Reconciliation 2026.
One of the easiest ways to show your support for NRW 2026 is to fill your spaces, physical and digital, with the All In message.
You can share, print and display #NRW2026 posters in your home, school, workplace or community centre and download and use the virtual meeting background in your online meetings and classrooms during NRW. You can even add NRW web banners and social tiles to your websites, newsletters and social media channels and get creative with colouring sheets, or print t-shirt files and wear All In proudly throughout the week.
NRW 2026 posters and resources page.
There are also NRW 2026 posters, colouring sheets, social tiles and general information about reconciliation and NRW available in 13 languages other than English. This means you can share the message of reconciliation in the languages your community uses every day, making NRW more inclusive and accessible for everyone.
Whether you’re leading a whole-school assembly, setting up a foyer display, or simply decorating your staffroom, these resources help bring the theme to life and spark important conversations.
Every year, it’s your events that bring National Reconciliation Week to life. Morning teas, film screenings, community walks, classroom activities, choir performances, panel discussions, yarning circles, every gathering is an opportunity to learn, connect and take action.
If you’re planning an NRW 2026 event, whether it’s your first or your fifteenth, there’s a dedicated NRW events guide to help you out. It offers ideas, practical tips and considerations to ensure your event is respectful, meaningful and grounded in genuine engagement with First Nations peoples and perspectives.
Once you’ve locked in your plans, you can add your public event to the online NRW calendar so others can join and help spread the word, browse the calendar to find events happening near you if you’d like to attend rather than host or if you’re part of a Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP) organisation, you’re encouraged to also register private internal events, so the breadth of NRW activity across the country can be recognised.
From choir performances of Beds Are Burning, to school assemblies featuring student-led Acknowledgements of Country, to community BBQs showcasing First Nations artists and speakers, every event is a chance to embody the All In theme in real, practical ways.
NRW is a powerful focal point, but reconciliation doesn’t begin on 27 May and end on 3 June. Going All In means carrying the commitments we make during this week into every other week of the year.
As we head into NRW 2026, the invitation is simple but profound: be All In. Raise your voice, host or attend an event, decorate your spaces, learn more, and, most importantly, carry that commitment with you long after the week is over.
Mar 26, 2026 7:40:22 AM