Free NAIDOC Week author talk and kids’ activities at Hornsby Library

Award-winning historian Stephen Gapps will bring the Frontier Wars into a Hornsby Library meeting room on 8 July, giving North Shore residents a rare chance to hear the story behind the books that reshaped Sydney’s understanding of its own past.

The talk and a children’s song-and-story session the next morning are the centrepiece of Hornsby Shire Council’s free NAIDOC Week program. Both events run under the 2026 national theme “50 Years of Deadly” and are open to the public at no cost.

Gapps won a NSW Premier’s History Award in 2011 for The Sydney Wars and has since published Gudyarra and Uprising, works that brought the Australian Frontier Wars into mainstream historical discussion. His author event begins at 6:30pm on Wednesday 8 July at Hornsby Library, 28-44 George Street, Hornsby.

The following morning, Thursday 9 July, the library will host a drop-in session of interactive stories and songs designed for young children and their families. No bookings are required.

For North Shore families looking for an easy entry point into Indigenous culture, the two events offer complementary paths. The children’s session suits anyone who values a no-fuss morning; simply turn up. The evening talk reaches residents who want historical depth without a ticket price or a long commute into the city.

NAIDOC Week runs from Sunday 5 July to Sunday 12 July this year. The library events fall on the Wednesday and Thursday of that week. The author talk details are listed on Hornsby Shire Council’s website; no online registration is needed for the children’s morning.

Hornsby Shire Libraries have made NAIDOC programming a regular fixture, hosting author talks and family sessions each July to build local understanding of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Gapps’s appearance continues that effort, putting a seminal historian in front of a community audience on George Street.