NIDR Gathering 2026: coming together with Indigenous leaders to build a disaster system that works for everyone
In early May, the sold-out NIDR Gathering 2026 brought more than 300 delegates from across Australia and the world to Gunaikurnai Country in Lakes Entrance, Victoria, to celebrate and prioritise Indigenous voices and leadership in disasters.
This nationally significant biennial event was Australia’s largest gathering of Indigenous people and organisations who play key roles in responding to major disasters. It was hosted by Monash University’s National Indigenous Disaster Resilience (NIDR) program in partnership with Jagun Alliance, Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust, Gunaikurnai Land and Waters Aboriginal Corporation (GLaWAC) and the East Gippsland Shire Council.
The NIDR Gathering 2026 was held on the beautiful grounds of GLaWAC, including keynotes and plenaries hosted at the beautiful new Wangun Amphitheatre. This new cultural performance space showcases and celebrates Gunaikurnai culture, and provides a culturally specific and safe meeting place for over six hundred Traditional Owners and various Gippsland Lakes communities.
Everyone was welcomed to the Amphitheatre with Uncle Wayne Thorpe, with a fire ceremony and dance performance by the Boorun Boys.
Boorun Boys performing at GLaWAC's Wangun Amphitheatre to open the NIDR Gathering 2026 - credit Gabrielle Connole Photography
Uncle Wayne Thorpe (left) and delegates at the NIDR Gathering 2026 - credit Gabrielle Connole Photography
The event created a valuable opportunity for delegates to hear and learn from communities who are not only impacted by disasters, but are actively building the resilience of their communities. Across three days, delegates heard from 45 Indigenous experts, sharing knowledge and stories of Indigenous excellence in emergency management, community recovery, disaster resilience and caring for Country.
Non-Indigenous emergency management and resilience leaders shared their expertise and were provided with meaningful opportunities to learn firsthand about what recovery looks like on the ground in communities, including East Gippsland – a community still in a state of recovery from successive recent bushfires and floods – and how this work can inform the arrangements and policies that benefit all Australians.
NIDR’s program lead A/Prof Bhiamie Williamson opened the event with an urgency commensurate with the lack of government accountability, knowledge and leadership that NIDR exists to overcome.
“Indigenous communities continue to be displaced, discriminated against, and evacuated inhumanely. Forty nine of the fifty most disaster-impacted areas in Australia have higher-than-average Indigenous populations."
"We must move beyond platitudes. It's finally time to recognise the leadership that Indigenous communities are already demonstrating, and honour the leadership by showing up."
A/Prof Bhiamie Williamson (NIDR) giving the opening address at the NIDR Gathering 2026 - credit Gabrielle Connole Photography
Prof Katie Stevenson, Dean of Monash Faculty of Arts, gave an opening plenary presentation that promoted the supportive role that research institutions can play when working in honest collaboration with Indigenous programs.
Prof Katie Stevenson (Monash University) at the NIDR Gathering 2026 - credit Gabrielle Connole Photography
The program created opportunities for delegates to experience many different kinds of knowledge sharing – an approach that intentionally expands the formal scope of usual conferences by prioritising connection, trust and collaboration, as is embedded within Indigenous culture when sharing knowledge with others. This included:
- inspiring keynotes from Dr Darren Ngaru King, Troy McDonald (GLaWAC) and Nikhila Madabhushi (Monash Art, Design and Architecture), and Coral Lever (First Nations Response)
- plenary presentations from a huge range of Indigenous and non-Indigenous resilience, land and emergency management sector experts
- workshops focused on youth leadership, Victoria’s cultural recovery pathway, Indigenous social and emotional wellbeing, First Nations legal rights in disasters, heat and energy insecurity, and a new National Indigenous Disaster Resilience Policy Framework
- collaborative sessions to discuss Indigenous disaster risk reduction approaches across the world, good fire for good future, how to harness Indigenous healing for recovery, Indigenous flood responses, and building an inclusive and safe Indigenous emergency management workforce for the future.
Nikhila Madabhushi (Monash Art, Design and Architecture) and Troy McDonald (GLaWAC) giving a keynote on Day 1 of the NIDR Gathering 2026 - credit Gabrielle Connole Photography
Young Mob Leading the Way workshop participants Hayley-Jade Martin, Jali Costello, Bonnie Dukakis (Koorie Youth Council), Harley Finn (Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation) and TysonEdwards (Parks Victoria) at the NIDR Gathering 2026 - credit Gabrielle Connole Photography
Young Mob Leading the Way workshop at the NIDR Gathering 2026 - credit Gabrielle Connole Photography
Another unique offering of the Gathering was the On-Country Activities on Day 2 – a range of Gunaikurnai-led cultural tours of Bung Yarnda (Lake Tyers, including a cultural burn), Gragin (Raymond Island), Buchan Munji (Buchan Caves Reserve), and Gippsland Lakes – all designed especially for Gathering delegates.
These grounding experiences elevated opportunities for reflection, connection and sharing on Day 3, as delegates reconvened feeling refreshed by a day on the land and waters of Gunaikurnai Country, and inspired by lessons from Elders and leaders.
On-Country Activities at the NIDR Gathering 2026
On-Country Activities at the NIDR Gathering 2026 - photo of emu egg carving courtesy of Tim Young (EMV)
The message across the entire program was clear: it is time for a stronger, fairer emergency management system that prioritises Indigenous knowledges of caring for Country, and appropriately funds the existing response and recovery programs taking place in Indigenous communities.
As Coral Lever, CEO and founder of First Nations Response in Redfern, said in her keynote:
“Community responds first. Community holds the frontline. We respond with lived experience, cultural knowledge and respect for our people. We use our deep-rooted networks to support communities experiencing disasters, floods, fires, cyclones, heatwaves to the heavy work of sorry business and frontline advocacy. Every time, the pattern is the same. Systems arrive weighed down by bureaucracy, red tape, and no funding.
“First Nations-led organisations need to be funded properly not in short cycles or pilot funding, but in long-term investment that builds real capacity, stability, and thriving communities.”
“Disasters don’t discriminate, systems do,” said Oliver Costello, Executive Director of Jagun Alliance, the leading event partner. “As we’ve heard in all these talks and workshops, fire and water create pathways. After we leave the Gathering, let’s remember that and be sure to come back together and use our energies to create new pathways.”
Delegate reflections on the NIDR Gathering 2026 show the powerful mindset-shift that can take place when meeting with Indigenous people on Country to discuss shared priorities for a future of disaster resilience. Through word of mouth and survey responses, delegates have described the Gathering as a space where people felt comfortable to speak honestly, share stories openly, and be deeply listened to with respect.
For example, as Gary Walker at Parks Victoria reflected: “[NIDR] have created such an inclusive and welcoming platform that allows Mobs and agencies to come together to share experiences and identify issues in the current systems that we need to address. Not only that, the conference shines a light on the success that mobs are creating off their own backs and leading their own self determination in their communities.”
Delegates entering the Welcome Reception at the GLaWAC Art Gallery for the NIDR Gathering 2026 - credit Gabrielle Connole Photography
The NIDR Gathering 2026 also garnered significant media attention. Highlights include an interview with Bhiamie Williamson on NITV News; an ABC Gippsland video featuring Bhiamie Williamson, Brandon Hood (Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust) and Liam Gallagher (Forest Fire Management Victoria); and an interview with Oliver Costello (Jagun Alliance) on ABC NSW Drive with Jess McGuire (skip to 34:55).
The event was sponsored and supported by NAB, Forest Fire Management Victoria, Fire to Flourish, Emergency Management Victoria, IAG, Australian Institute for Disaster Resilience, MacKillop Seasons, Gender and Disaster Australia, Natural Hazards Research Australia, HopgoodGanim Lawyers, Youth Affairs Council Victoria and Country Needs People.
Oliver Costello (Jagun Alliance), Bhiamie Williamson (NIDR), Troy McDonald (GLaWAC), Nick Ashburner (GLaWAC) and Brandon Hood (Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust) at the NIDR Gathering 2026 - credit Gabrielle Connole Photography
Photography was provided by Gabrielle Connole, and catering was supplied by Albert and Co.
Special thanks to Lake Tyers Aboriginal Trust, Jagun Alliance, Forest Fire Management Victoria and the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action of Victoria for curating and facilitating the Bung Yarnda (Lake Tyers) camping experience as part of the Gathering that welcomed guests to stay on Gunaikurnai sacred grounds.
Bung Yarnda (Lake Tyers) camp ground for the NIDR Gathering 2026 - credit Gabrielle Connole Photography
For session summaries or further reflections from the NIDR Gathering 2026, you can browse our LinkedIn or the hashtag #NIDRGathering2026, which captured key moments from the event.
To keep up to date with NIDR’s work, browse our webpage, follow us on LinkedIn or subscribe to our database.