Discover Sydney’s Indigenous history through these experiences

“People don’t notice it’s a saltwater environment,” she said of Sydney Harbour. “You have whales coming into it, sharks coming into it, and no-one knows their stories. No-one knows the big foreshore trees that are still growing here and the native vegetation. So I bring that alive and say this is the other side of the Sydney identity and, if you are willing, you can learn about it now.”

On the 90-minute walking tour, you’ll learn the significance of harbour reserves around The Rocks – the first part of Sydney to be settled – as well as Campbells Cove and Dawes Point. There are half a dozen guides rigorously trained by Aunty Margret to impart cultural knowledge on Dreamtime Southern X tours, and the Dunghutti-Jerrinjha Elder herself will personally host about four tours a week. “I’m very passionate about sharing the level of knowledge that I have,” she said.

A self-guided Aboriginal Heritage walk in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, about a 30-minute drive from central Sydney, is a lovely way to get a sense of what life was like here tens of thousands of years ago. You’ll spot rock art and engravings by the Aboriginal people who have long called this rugged bushland home, and view ochre hand-prints adorning the walls at Red Hands Cave.

For a truly immersive experience in the park, however, book a tour with Guringai man Laurie Bimson of Guringai Aboriginal Tours. Mr Bimson runs three- to four-hour Basin Track Aboriginal Site Tours in the park a couple of times a month.

After a traditional Welcome to Country, you’ll be introduced to the boomerangs, woomerahs and clubs his ancestors used for hunting. And yes, you’ll get to try throwing a boomerang as well. Then Mr Bimson will take you to culturally significant sites in Ku-ring-gai Chase National Park, such as an area long used as an educational space. 

Here, he’ll show you a series of lithographs and explain the colourful stories behind them. One section of lithographs is the “punishment section”. Mr Bimson explains how one rock engraving shows “a little boy’s been naughty, and he’s thrown a rock at his best friend, and it shows what punishment he’s got. And there’s another man who’s been eating too much food and he hasn’t shared, and it shows what punishment he’s got too.” 

At the Royal Botanic Garden, right on the harbour in the city centre, there are a few ways you can learn more about the Indigenous inhabitants of Sydney. On the one-hour Aboriginal Bush Tucker Tour, you’ll find out about local bush foods and how they were traditionally used – and you get to taste them, too. The one-hour Aboriginal Harbour Heritage Tour shows you how to view the harbour foreshore through the eyes of the Gadigal people, the Traditional Owners of the land, while the 90-minute Aboriginal Cultural Sunset Tour provides a unique perspective on the nocturnal animals that live in the area as they emerge in the Cadi Jam Ora (First Encounters Garden) for the evening.

Occupying the headland between the waterfront dining district of Barangaroo and the Walsh Bay arts precinct, Barangaroo Reserve is home to about 75,000 native Australian trees and shrubs. On one of Barangaroo’s Aboriginal Cultural Tours, you’ll hear from an Aboriginal guide about how the Gadigal people used these plants in their daily lives for food and cultural practices.

At Glebe’s Lillipad Café, Yidinji woman Nyoka Hrabinsky and her husband Laszio worked with local Elders to incorporate Indigenous flavours into their distinctive, tempting menu. Come for breakfast and you can have cinnamon myrtle and wattleseed with your morning muesli or a Davidson plum-infused drizzle with bacon and eggs. A lunchtime, try the kangaroo burger flavoured with wattleseed, pepperleaf and saltbush, accompanied with finger-lime mayonnaise and bush tomato relish.

In Redfern, a few minutes’ drive from Glebe, look for the colourful laneway mural and the Redfern Street shopfront of The Tin Humpy. Yvette Lever, a Bundjalung woman from northern New South Wales, uses her training at cult Sydney food destination Grounds of Alexandria to create delicious pastries such as lemon myrtle meringue tarts as well as savoury dishes infused with native Australian herbs. All served up, of course, with excellent Grounds of Alexandria coffee.

One of Australia’s leading performing arts companies, Bangarra has been creating powerful dance performances telling the stories of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples since 1989. The company, which is based in the Walsh Bay arts precinct near The Rocks and Barangaroo, is gearing up to present its largest stage production ever. Wudjang: Not the Past, an “epic-scale contemporary corroboree”, is the story of one man’s journey to give a proper resting place to the bones of an Indigenous ancestor. It plays at the Roslyn Packer Theatre at Walsh Bay from January 17 to February 12, 2022.

Sydney has been home to Aboriginal people for more than 40,000 years, with an estimated 1500 men, women and children living in the area around the coast and the hinterland when the British first arrived in 1878. People of the Eora nation live around what is now central Sydney and Sydney Harbour, while the Dharug people have long lived in the greater Sydney basin. 

The word Eora (which is pronounced ‘yura’) means “from this place”, or “here”, and only came to be used as a name for the original inhabitants of Sydney after they came into contact with European settlers and were asked how they identified themselves. 

There are around 29 clan groups in the Eora nation, including the Gadigal people, the Traditional Owners of the inner city, whose lands stretch from Darling Harbour all the way to South Head in the eastern suburbs. The Wangal people live along the Balmain peninsula and west along the Parramatta River, while the Burramattagal people lend their name to Sydney’s second major settlement at Parramatta. 

The Dharug nation consists of 15 clans, whose land extends as far north as the Hawkesbury River, south to Georges River and west to the Blue Mountains. Further south, the Dharawal people live along the coast of the Illawarra, and to the north the Kuring-gai, or Guringai, people call the area around the Hawkesbury River their home.

The largest one-day festival of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures in the country, Yabun Festival takes over Victoria Park, bordering Sydney University, on January 26 each year. Expect a heady mix of Indigenous music and a bustling marketplace with food stalls alongside a great selection of clothes and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. 

The Overseas Passenger Terminal at Circular Quay plays host to this incredible showcase of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander creativity. There’s an ethical marketplace where you can browse works from remote Aboriginal art centres across the country. Alongside traditional artworks, you’ll find jewellery, fashion, homewares, textiles and collectible design objects. There’ll also be bush food stalls, as well as panel discussions, performances and sculptural installations. 

A social enterprise empowering Indigenous business owners, Blak Markets are usually held eight times a year at venues around Sydney, including La Perouse’s Bare Island in the city’s south. At these colourful markets, you’ll find Indigenous arts and crafts, bush foods featuring native Australian ingredients, beauty products heroing native botanicals and much more. You can also take in live music and dance performances and art workshops.