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#BecauseOfHerWeCan: Trailblazing Indigenous Australian women celebrated on Twitter

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Shannon Connellan

on July 12, 2018

#BecauseOfHerWeCan: Trailblazing Indigenous Australian women celebrated on Twitter

Natarsha Bamblett leads last year's NAIDOC March in Melbourne, Australia. She was dubbed Miss NAIDOC in 2017, and was the first signing for Richmond's first-ever team in the VFLW (Victorian Women's Football League). Credit: Darrian Traynor/Getty Images

Editor's note: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander readers who choose not to look at images of the deceased should not continue reading as such images are included in the following story.

Incredible, groundbreaking Indigenous Australian women are having their stories brought to the front, with the Twitter hashtag #BecauseOfHerWeCan.

Black rights activists, politicians, poets, nurses, barristers, artists, and the first Aboriginal person (male or female) to play test cricket for Australia, women living and passed are being acknowledged on the social network.

The phrase "Because of her, we can," also serves as the theme of this year's NAIDOC Week, running July 8-15, a celebration of indigenous culture steered by the National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee.

The committee formed with the emergence of Aboriginal groups in the 1920s, seeking to increase awareness in the wider community of the status and treatment of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

This year's festival, with events happening all over Australia, focuses on the particular power of women, especially those who have blazed a trail for others during times of discrimination, sexism, racism, and oppression.

"As pillars of our society, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women have played — and continue to play — active and significant roles at the community, local, state and national levels," Shannan Dodson, Member of the National NAIDOC Committee, told Mashable.

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"As leaders, trailblazers, politicians, activists and social change advocates, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women fought and continue to fight, for justice, equal rights, our rights to country, for law and justice, access to education, employment and to maintain and celebrate our culture, language, music and art.

"They are our mothers, our elders, our grandmothers, our aunties, our sisters and our daughters. Sadly, Indigenous women’s role in our cultural, social and political survival has often been invisible, unsung or diminished.

"The hashtag #BecauseOfHerWeCan demonstrates the women and girls in our communities who hold our families together, fight hard without praise and are showing Australia the tireless work our women contribute to this nation sometimes quietly but determinedly."

Here are just a few of the incredible, strong, powerful women being celebrated on Twitter:

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It's not the first hashtag that's promoted inclusion and diversity in Australia, with previous instances like #IndigenousDads, #MarriageEquality, #BringThemHere, and #IllRideWithYou generating conversation around the country's underrepresented social issues.

"Twitter is proud to provide a platform where Indigenous women and girls in our communities can share their stories, make connections, and affect change," Kara Hinesley, head of public policy and government affairs, Australia and New Zealand at Twitter, told Mashable.

Google also got in on the NAIDOC action, launching a special Doodle to mark the week's beginning from guest artist Cheryl Moggs, a Bigambul woman from Goondiwindi. The Doodle celebrates Colleen Shirley Perry Smith, better known as "Mum Shirl," a prominent social worker and humanitarian and activist committed to the justice and welfare of Aboriginal Australians.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

Google also launched a feature on Google Assistant which lets you ask, "Share some inspirational indigenous voices." You'll hear some voices of prominent Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander women sharing their stories.

Check out more incredible stories on NAIDOC's website, even if you're not in Australia for the festivities.

Topics Activism Social Good Social Media X/Twitter

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Shannon Connellan

UK Editor

Shannon Connellan is Mashable's UK Editor based in London, formerly Mashable's Australia Editor, but emotionally, she lives in the Creel House. A Tomatometer-approved critic, Shannon writes about entertainment, tech, social good, science, culture, and Australian horror.