Michael Long Reaches 26,000 Across The Long Walk Programs
michael long has put The Long Walk back on the ground after 19 years, and the numbers now show how wide that effort has spread. More than 26,000 students, teachers and community members took part in its programs over the past year, with activity running across Victoria, New South Wales, Queensland, South Australia and the Northern Territory.
That reach matters because The Long Walk is doing more than staging a once-a-year moment around football. Its work now runs through school and community workshops, cultural events and sport-specific programs, with elders embedded throughout to keep the connection to culture intact.
Naarm drew more than 20,000
More than 20,000 people attended the Naarm festival and walk to the ‘G, the largest single-event attendance to date for the program. The 2025 Dreamtime events around the football game drew more than 40,000 attendees, putting The Long Walk inside a larger match-day footprint rather than beside it.
Ganbu Gulin connected more than 160 First Nations students across eight schools, while cultural workshops were delivered at 34 sites around Australia. The Marngrook Kids program also continued to reach more than 600 students across early learning, which gives the initiative a pipeline that starts well before the game-day crowd arrives.
Victoria to the Northern Territory
The spread across five states and territories shows the project is not confined to one city or one annual march. It has become a national education and community platform, with the biggest public turnout at Naarm and the most direct classroom work coming through school-based programs.
Michael Long's line about taking on “The Long Walk 19 years later to fight for Indigenous rights to be heard” fits the scale of what followed. The walk still carries its symbolic weight, but the stronger business of the program is in the 26,000-plus people it reached, the 34 sites it touched and the schools it kept in the loop.
What the 26,000 means
The practical takeaway for schools, communities and event organisers is that The Long Walk is operating like a year-round engagement engine, not a one-day tribute. With more than 40,000 people drawn to Dreamtime-related events and more than 20,000 at Naarm alone, the audience is already there; the question is how much more of it gets pulled into the workshops, classrooms and cultural programs next.
