A Field of Gifts
Sign up to receive the Aboriginal Sunday 2027 Church Resource Toolkit and journey with us towards deep listening, reciprocity and justice.
More than 85 years ago, Aboriginal Christian leader William Cooper called on churches across Australia to set aside the Sunday before January 26 to pray, stand in solidarity, and seek justice for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. His vision planted a seed that continues to grow through what is now known as Aboriginal Sunday. Each year, this invitation calls the Australian Church to remember our shared history, listen to First Nations Christian leaders, and recommit to justice, truth-telling and healing.
On Sunday 24 January 2027, we’re inviting your church to take another step with us.
What if Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are not only people the Church is called to stand alongside, but also people through whom God wants to teach, shape and bless the whole Church?
Our theme, A Field of Gifts, invites us to recognise and receive the gifts of wisdom, faith, culture, leadership, connection, care for Country and community that God has nurtured among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples across countless generations.
This is an invitation to move beyond symbolic gestures and charity towards deeper respect and reciprocity. To listen deeply, build genuine relationships, and make space for First Nations Christian voices to challenge, shape and transform how we worship, understand our faith and walk together.
Receive the Aboriginal Sunday 2027 Toolkit
Our free Church Resource Toolkit will help your church engage with Aboriginal Sunday in a meaningful and thoughtful way. With a flexible collection of resources to draw from and adapt to your church’s context, tradition and style, you can shape an entire service or weave individual elements into your existing program.
The toolkit includes:
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An Acknowledgement of Country video
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A hymn medley video, lyrics and chord chart
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A sermon video message and discussion question
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A creative activity and colouring-in sheet
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A bush food communion guide
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Bible readings, prayers and a benediction
Together, let’s step into this field of gifts, discover what God might be inviting us to receive and learn, and grow towards a Church where every part of the Body of Christ is honoured and able to share its gifts.
If you are not a church leader but would like to approach your minister or church leadership to encourage them to engage with Aboriginal Sunday 2027, we have developed this template letter to equip you in inviting them to host an Aboriginal Sunday service.
What is Aboriginal Sunday?
On 26 January 1938, Aboriginal leaders, including William Cooper, gathered for a Day of Mourning to protest 150 years of mistreatment, dispossession and violence since British colonisation. They called for equality for Aboriginal peoples, including full citizenship, equal rights, and the same laws and opportunities afforded to white Australians.
Australian churches were subsequently invited to set aside the Sunday before 26 January as Aboriginal Sunday (previously known as Aborigines’ Day), a day for Christians to stand in solidarity with Aboriginal peoples and recognise the injustices they faced.
The first Aboriginal Sunday is thought to have taken place in 1941, although the idea was referenced earlier in a letter from William Cooper to John McEwen, Minister for the Interior, dated 19 January 1938, and in The Herald newspaper (Melbourne) on 18 January 1939.
Today, Common Grace continues William Cooper’s vision by encouraging churches to reclaim Aboriginal Sunday. Each year, we provide free church resources developed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian leaders to help congregations and faith communities stand in solidarity with First Nations peoples and pursue justice, truth-telling and healing on the Sunday before 26 January.
Support Aboriginal Sunday
As we are led by our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Christian Leaders into this season, would you donate to support the work of Common Grace as we pursue justice for the flourishing of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and communities?
About our 2027 Aboriginal Sunday graphic
Our Aboriginal Sunday graphic for 2027 features Safina Stewart’s artwork of the outline of Australia, depicting songlines across these lands. Songlines are remarkable connections and cultural routes that have lasted for thousands of years, between Aboriginal communities across the vast and diverse continent of Australia. They are ancient pathways following the tracks of the ancestors, sung and danced in language to help custodians follow lore, and strengthen relationship between country, culture and cosmology. Many songlines and cultural practices have since been disrupted through acts of genocide. Safina’s artwork reflects the reclaiming of pride, song and culture, celebrating the hopeful pathways and connections between communities. The heart and songlines represent a way that is opening up to finding home and hope for healing, flourishing connections as we journey together.