Experience Aboriginal culture in Sydney

By Georgia Rickard

Australia’s Aboriginal population might be the world’s most ancient living culture, but it’s flourishing right in the middle of Sydney. These experiences offer authentic, meaningful ways to connect with some of Sydney’s friendliest locals, and gain genuine insights into Aboriginal ways of life at the same time.

Visit the First Australians galleries

Learn about the beliefs and lifestyles of the world’s oldest living culture in the country’s oldest museum, with a personalised guided tour of the First Australians galleries at the Australian Museum in the heart of Sydney. In one of the finest collections of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artefacts, the museum houses more than 40,000 Indigenous Australian weapons, body ornaments, tools, bark paintings, toys and contemporary art and sculpture from all across the country. Highlights include ancient grindstones more than 32,000 years old, ancient bark drawings, modern dot paintings and carved emu eggs, as well as crocodile masks made from turtle shells, feathered headdresses and pearl-shell ornaments that are still worn for rituals and ceremonial dances in the Torres Strait Islands. There are also intricately woven baskets, art made from ghost fishing nets, exquisite shell jewellery, drums, canoes and ingenious tools for hunting and fishing.

Trace ancient footsteps in a new suburb

The Barangaroo waterfront precinct is located on some of the most expensive real estate in the world, virtually underneath Sydney Harbour Bridge. The reserve is a vibrant cultural experience in a powerful, beautiful setting – and all within sight of Sydney Harbour Bridge. Take the 90-minute Aboriginal Cultural Tour to explore stories of local Aboriginal history, told to the theme of the city’s changing landscape. The guides are also highly knowledgeable about Barangaroo Reserve’s extensive native plant collection; you’ll finish the experience with new respect for the traditional Aboriginal approach to food and medicine.

Shop Sydney's most beautiful cultural markets

Sydney’s Blak Markets aren’t just a place to shop for Aboriginal products. Each event is a unique full-scale production, featuring song, dance, bush tucker foods, craft stalls, smoking ceremonies and entertainers, with profits returned to local Aboriginal communities. The market also trains and employs young Aboriginal people in coffee shops, retail, food preparation and supervision. The event is hosted up to eight times a year, and the location often changes.

Experience culture with coastal views

Tim Ella (a well-known local personality) of the Dharawal-Yuin people, along with Grant Hyde, started Kadoo Tours at Watsons Bay in Sydney Harbour National Park and La Perouse in the Kamay Botany Bay National Park. The immersive two-hour tours begin with a traditional ochre ceremony and Welcome to Country. They also provide visitors with the chance to try bush tucker and learn about the traditional uses of plants and animals for food, medicine and ceremony. Tim will share his personal history and tell some Dreaming stories as he guides you along the coastline and through native bushland.

Forage in Sydney's Royal Botanic Garden

The 90-minute Aboriginal Heritage Tour through Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden is located just behind the Sydney Opera House. It explores the garden’s rich Aboriginal heritage through the many uses of the plants that grow here. Forage for and taste Australian bush foods as you walk and talk, and identify plants used for medicines and shelter. Collect seasonal fruits, berries and seeds in a traditional coolamon (a shallow dish made of bark), learn traditional methods of cooking and how to incorporate the bush foods into your own meals at home, as well as tasting some recipes inspired by bush foods. The Royal Botanic Garden also holds Aboriginal art classes where you can discover how to use the plants and other elements of the garden – sticks, ochre, grasses and bark, as well as paints and natural brushes – to create the ultimate souvenir, a unique piece of art to take home with you.

Discover the valleys and caves of the Blue Mountains

Jump on a train at Sydney’s Central Station and within 90 minutes you’ll be stepping into the Blue Mountains for an experience sometimes described as emotional, meditative or deeply moving. Aboriginal guide Evan Yanna Muru’s full-day walkabout tour takes hikers through valleys and caves and past sacred cultural sites deep into the rainforest. It asks them to slow down and reconsider the natural world using ancient Aboriginal knowledge, which in many ways translates to modern-day wisdom. The Blue Mountains are World Heritage-listed for their outstanding beauty and biodiversity, so you’ll enjoy this area regardless of what you choose to do here, but this special exercise adds an extra level of poignancy.

Climb high and see Sydney through Aboriginal eyes

Climb Sydney’s famous Harbour Bridge with the Indigenous-led Burrawa BridgeClimb, and see the city from a whole new perspective, both figuratively and literally. On this very special three-hour tour, you will be guided by a local Aboriginal storyteller, who will transport you back in time with their rich storytelling and show you Sydney and its history through Aboriginal eyes. As you journey along the upper arch of the bridge towards the summit, 134 metres (440 feet) above the sea, you’ll be met with breathtaking 360-degree views, uncovering the fascinating stories, secrets, and origins of familiar places and local Gadigal people.