The world’s oldest living culture is flourishing right in the middle of Sydney. These Sydney Indigenous experiences offer authentic, meaningful ways to connect with the city’s Indigenous people, and gain genuine insights into First Nations experiences. Here’s where to find some unique insights into Sydney’s rich Indigenous culture.
Here are the Sydney Indigenous experiences you must have
Visit the Blak Markets
Sydney’s Blak Markets aren’t just a place to shop for Indigenous 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 Indigenous communities. The market also trains and employs young First Nations people in coffee shops, retail, food preparation and supervision.
When and where: Bare Island, La Perouse, in Sydney’s southeast and four times a year at Tallawoladah Lawn in the Rocks overlooking Sydney Harbour. Go to Blak Markets for more information.
Visit the First Australian galleries
Learn about 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. Highlights of this include grindstones more than 32,000 years old, intricately woven baskets, art made from ghost fishing nets, exquisite shell jewellery, drums, canoes and ingenious tools for hunting and fishing. There are also 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 worn for rituals and ceremonial dances in the Torres Strait Islands.
Read more: The best things to do in Sydney this July
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.
Where: 1 William Street, Sydney
More information here
Experience the Aboriginal Heritage Tour
One of the best Sydney Indigenous experiences, the 90-minute Aboriginal Heritage Tour through Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden 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.
When: Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday (excluding public holidays), 1pm-2pm
Where: The Royal Botanic Garden, Mrs Macquaries Road, Sydney
Book here
Take a guided walking tour
Join the leisurely 90-minute walking tour of Sydney’s famous foreshore with Dreamtime Southern X on The Rocks Aboriginal Dreaming Tour and see how the harbour landscape reverberates with spiritual significance and continues to influence modern Indigenous culture. Guides share stories that offer glimpses of what Australia was like before colonisation. Listen to the creation stories that shaped Sydney, learn how the Eora people reacted to the coming of the Europeans and how the Saltwater people practised seasonal food sustainability. Discover the ongoing connection to country and the true meaning behind the colours of the Aboriginal flag, taste bush tucker plucked from trees growing on city streets, and visit sacred sites hidden in the heart of the city’s most popular tourist precinct. This Sydney Indigenous tour will give you a new perspective on the harbour city.
When: Daily 10:30am, 1:30pm
Where: The Rocks, Sydney
Visit Barangaroo
Barangaroo was named after a powerful Cammeraygal leader of the Eora Nation at the time of European colonisation. The 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. Take the 90-minute Indigenous Cultural Tour to explore stories of local 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 knowledge of the First Nations peoples’ approach to food and medicine.
When: Monday-Saturday, 10:30am
Where: The Cutaway, Barangaroo Reserve
Book here
Midden at the Opera House
At Midden, chef Mark Olive’s Opera House restaurant, a menu focused on native produce takes centre stage. Think: damper with eucalyptus whipped butter, smoked blue gum barramundi with lemon myrtle chilli, and a Bush Pavlova with native fruit coulis and roasted wattleseed cream.
We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures; and to Elders past and present and emerging.
