Woolworths consulted its Indigenous advisory board before scrapping Australia Day merchandise

The supermarket spoke to its Indigenous advisory board about its decision 18 months before news broke that a steep decline in sales had prompted it to end the practice.

Woolworths ad for Australia Day specials after announcing they will no longer sell the holiday-themed merchandise.

Woolworths consulted its Indigenous advisory board before ending its annual practice of stocking Australia-themed items such as bucket hats, balloons and thongs ahead of Australia Day.

The Australian has been told Woolworths went to its Indigenous advisory board as a courtesy because it was aware its decision to not offer the Australia Day merchandise for sale this year would likely erupt into a media storm. The first discussions took place about 18 months ago, before Woolworths would have needed to place orders with Chinese manufacturers for the merchandise.

“It was a commercial decision, that is what they told the advisory board,” one source familiar with events told The Australian.

“They were talking to the board out of respect.”

Woolworths had been selling bucket hats, bunting, balloons and temporary tattoos featuring the Australian flag or “I heart Australia” each January. On Wednesday, Woolworths chief executive Brad Banducci said the decision was made more than 12 months ago “on the basis of steeply declining sales”.

Woolworths stores have withdrawn the sale of Australia Day merchandise.

Woolworths appointed an eight-member Indigenous advisory board, headed by Adam Goodes, in response to a public relations disaster in 2021. The supermarket was then joined to a liquor retailing arm and tried to open a Dan Murphy’s “megastore” close to three dry Aboriginal communities in Darwin. A furious backlash forced Woolworths to back out and to acknowledged it had not listened to Indigenous communities. It said it would do so in future.

During the debate over an Indigenous voice to parliament last year, Woolworths was prompted to pull public address announcements about the Uluru Statement from the Heart from its Big W stores. It said it did this because of feedback from customers and staff.

Large contingents of pro-Palestine activists are expected at Invasion Day rallies around Australia on Friday. The alliance of pro-Palestinian groups and a cohort of the Indigenous rights movement has deeply concerned some Aboriginal leaders including Olympic gold medallist and former Senator Nova Peris. This month Ms Peris said she was disgusted that the Aboriginal flag was being “misappropriated” in support of Palestine.

Indigenous author Chelsea Watego, who is the Qeensland University of Technology Carumba Institute executive director, said she would carry both the Aboriginal and Palestinian flags with pride at a rally in Brisbane Friday.

“(I)t is not, as Nova Peris claims ‘cultural misappropriation’, it is an act of solidarity with the Palestinian people who will also be standing with us as Blackfullas,” Professor Watego said.

“The day for me, is a day of both mourning and celebration – mourning for the lives and land that have been lost in the nation-building project that is ‘Australia’, while also celebrating our power and pride as a people comprising of many different nations.

“Over the past 20 years or so I have seen the power of the Black sovereign movement in changing the consciousness of a people.

“I remember when my children were babies and there were perhaps just a few hundred people walking through the city to converge on to Musgrave Park. In recent years, some 10,000 people or more turn out to stand with us in the heat, refusing to celebrate the violence of settler colonialism.”

Independent Senator Lidia Thorpe said on Wednesday that she expected thousands would attend a “Day of Mourning” dawn service in Melbourne on Friday.

The dawn services have been held on Australia Day at Kings Doman since 2019.

“To me, it’s heartening to see that millions of people around this country, not just First Peoples, now recognise January 26 as a Day of Mourning, commemoration and reflection, knowing it’s not a day to celebrate,” Senator Thorpe said.

“This is truth-telling in action, and if you’ve ever been to a First Nations event on January 26, you would have seen the healing power it can have, and the way it can unite us.”