Explore Sydney’s most fascinating Indigenous experiences

From a bush tucker tour to scaling the Sydney Harbour Bridge, seeing Sydney through an Indigenous lens offers insights into the world’s oldest continuous living culture.

The Rocks area on the southern shore of Sydney Harbour is known for its gracious sandstone buildings – yet, step closer and you’ll uncover dark secrets: tiny shards of shells dug from ancient Aboriginal middens still protruding from the mortar. To the colonisers, these middens were nothing more than a base for producing a lime slurry to bind the sandstone blocks; to the Gadigal people – one of the 29 clan groups of the Eora Nation making up what is now greater Sydney – they were shell monuments, accumulated over thousands of years and relied upon as markers.

Exploring Sydney though an Indigenous lens not only exposes the hidden history of the Gadigal people at the time of the First Fleet’s arrival in 1788 but offers insights into the world’s oldest continuous living culture. Deeply spiritual, and comprised of hundreds of different nation groups, each with their own language, lores and traditions, Australia’s Indigenous culture is grounded in a complex kinship system that has sustained and cared for this land for an estimated 65,000 years.

By joining an Indigenous experience – from bush tucker walks to scaling the Sydney Harbour Bridge, contemporary dance performances to markets dedicated to First Nations products – you will see how every corner of Sydney continues to pulse with spiritual significance. You just need to know where to look.

1. Best food experience: Aboriginal Bush Tucker tour

A native nut that burns like a candle, a whistling leaf that repels snakes and a grass with seed pods that can be ground to make flour. These are just some of the wonders uncovered on a one-hour Aboriginal Bush Tucker tour of Sydney’s Royal Botanic Garden.

Established in 1816, the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney is the oldest botanic gardens in Australia, with the sprawling fig trees and formal gardens to prove it. But a little digging will uncover a layered garden within a garden: Cadi Jam Ora: First Encounters Garden. This free-flowing space, outlined by curved storyboards, offers insights into the complex relationships the Gadigal people had with the native plants of the area as well as the hugely destructive period of the first contact between Aboriginal and European societies.

Led by a First Nations guide, the tour takes you through various sections of the Botanic Gardens, making stops to taste berries and fruits while pointing out the cultural significance and healing properties of the plants. Held every Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the tour concludes with a snack of damper (Australian bush bread) and finger lime jam. Don’t leave without buying a jar of the tart jam from the on-site Botanic Garden Shop.

2. Best native garden experience: Barangaroo Aboriginal Cultural tour

Minutes beyond the waterfront dining and residential precinct of Barangaroo is Barangaroo Reserve, a peaceful six-hectare parkland planted with more than 75,000 native Australian trees on a recreated harbour headland facing the Harbour Bridge. Named after Barangaroo, a Cammeraygal woman from the north shore of the harbour who was an influential figure during the early days of European colonisation, the area was traditionally used for fishing and hunting.

A 90-minute Aboriginal Cultural Tour (10:30 daily, Monday to Saturday) reveals stories about the legendary fisherwomen of the Eora nation, who took to the waters of Warrane (Sydney Harbour) in bark canoes catching fish using crescent-shaped shell hooks known as bara. Made from turban shells, the bara’s iridescent glow would have acted as a lure.

The tour will immerse you in Aboriginal history and traditions, with a team of Aboriginal educators demonstrating how some plants were used for fire and others for making soap, and how indicator plants, such as the Gymea lily, would herald the arrival of migrating whales. A highlight is a demonstration of tools traditionally used by women – a dilly bag for gathering food; a possum pelt-lined baby’s cradle; and a sturdy digging stick for collecting honey, yams or, occasionally, hitting an unwanted suitor over the head.

Tip: After the tour, a dip in Marrinawi Cove is just the ticket on a hot day.

3. Best for city views: Burrawa Indigenous BridgeClimb

Sydney Harbour Bridge connects two Aboriginal nations – Gadigal land with Cammeraygal – and there is no better place to appreciate the watery boundary than from the top of this legendary landmark.

A three-hour Burrawa BridgeClimb with an Indigenous storyteller introduces other landmarks: Me-Mel (Goat Island), meaning “eye of the eel” in the creation story of the Eora Nation; Mattewanye (Fort Denison), a rocky outcrop where the fisherwomen would rest and relax; and Barangaroo, the symbol of Gadigal resistance.

The Burrawa Climb, meaning “above” or “upwards”, starts with a small ochre ceremony to symbolise unity. Take in the dazzling views as you scale the tallest steel arch bridge in the world while listening to stories about Bennelong, a senior man of the Eora nation at the time of European arrival, and his second wife Barangaroo. Gaze at the water below, where the women once fished and then look across to Bennelong Point where a 6m-high monument, called “bara” – the Gadigal word for fishhook – stands in their honour. From an eagle-eye vantage, the sculpture looks delicate enough to hold in the palm of your hand.

And as if you need another reason, a A$10-$20 donation per climber is made to charity partner Tribal Warrior, an Aboriginal-led not-for-profit that works to create employment opportunities and cultural engagement for young members of its Redfern community.

The Burrawa Indigenous Experience operates every Wednesday and Saturday at 09:15 and 13:45.

4. Best for authentic souvenirs: Blak Markets

You can lose track of time wandering through the Blak Markets in The Rocks. From artwork to clothing, natural remedies to skin care, the authentic products draw on tens of thousands of years of culture. Held four times a year on the Tallawoladah Lawn in front of the Museum of Contemporary Art, the markets are an opportunity to purchase from 100% Indigenous-owned-and-operated businesses, with profits going back into building First Nations’ communities. A few hours will pass in a blink.

The two-day market kicks off with a traditional Welcome to Country and Smoking Ceremony, while music and dance performances, alongside free weaving workshops and children’s storytelling sessions, lend a festival air to the iconic harbourfront location. Meeting the makers is a delightful bonus.

Established by Indigenous charity First Hand Solutions, Blak Markets is also held on Bidjigal Country at Bare Island, a heritage-listed islet in the eastern Sydney suburb of La Perouse, where the initiative began 10 years ago. If you can’t visit in person, see the Blak Markets website for links to individual stall holders for online purchases.

Tip: A highlight of the annual calendar is the National Indigenous Art Fair at Sydney’s Overseas Passenger Terminal (29-30 June 2024) featuring more than 50 stall holders from remote art centres and the Blak Markets.

5. Best for exhibitions and events: The Australian Museum

Visit the Australian Museum‘s thought-provoking permanent exhibition Bayala Nura: Yarning Country, for an introduction to the diversity of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Displays include spears and shields, dilly bags and baskets from around the country and a shell-shaped installation in honour of the Eora fisherwomen. As babies, these future knowledge-holders had their little finger bound at the second joint of their left hand, causing the tip to drop off and return to the sea. Don’t miss the drawing of a proud fisherwoman, showing her shortened little left finger.

Signage exposes stories about brave warriors such as Pemulwuy, who led a resistance campaign for 12 years in response to the invasion of his country. To read this is to feel pain, but also pride in Indigenous Australians, whose resilience has ensured that their traditional culture continues flourish.

In an adjoining gallery is Garrigarrang: Sea Country, a permanent exhibition celebrating the cultures of Australia’s saltwater people – skilled mariners who have a close relationship with ocean. The new kid on the museum block is Burra (meaning eel), an interactive learning and play space that traces the eel’s migration.

Lunch options include the rooftop restaurant No. 1 William or the family-friendly Billabong Waterhole, which serves up finger-sized Vegemite sandwiches alongside an array of wraps and baguettes. General admission to the museum is free. Tours of the objects led by a First Nations guide are available at an additional charge.

6. Best for live performance: Bangarra Dance Theatre

Bangarra Dance Theatre is a contemporary Aboriginal dance company with ancient connections. Supported by dynamic design and ground-breaking choreography, it creates a force that ignites the stage. Meaning “to make fire” in the Wiradjuri language, Bangarra dancers are all professionally trained artists with proud Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds.

Head to the Opera House in winter (June-July) for premiers such as Yuldea, the story about the Anangu people being displaced from their lands, or visit the company’s studio theatre in the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct to see emerging works such as Waru – Journey of the Small Turtle, Bangarra’s first dedicated work for children.

For special occasions a personally curated, behind-the scenes tour of the theatre can be booked through Cultural Attractions Australia. The signature experience includes an Acknowledgment of Country and welcome Smoking Ceremony, canapés and cocktails, performance tickets at Sydney Opera House (June-July only) or exclusive access to Bangarra rehearsal room (rest of year).

Whether performing at Sydney’s famous Opera House, an intimate studio theatre or touring across Australia, the company’s mission is to promote cultural awareness and understanding through telling the stories of their Elders.

7. Best for storytelling: The Rocks Aboriginal Dreaming tour

Goosebumps. It’s that feeling on the skin when something jolts your very spirit. It might be the sound of clap sticks, a voice explaining that Country and all of its plants, animals, rivers and rocks are our families, or perhaps a Dreaming story handed down for thousands of years by those who have walked this path before. A 90-minute The Rocks Aboriginal Dreaming tour with Dreamtime Southern X will make you feel things, not just see them.

Developed by well-respected Elder Aunty Margret Campbell – a Dunghutti/Jerrinjah woman – Dreamtime Southern X is led by Aboriginal guides who have permission to share her cultural knowledge. The tour begins with an introduction to some of the plants used for food, medicine and ceremony, before visiting the heritage-listed rock cutting known as the Argyle Cut, which tunnels through The Rocks to learn about ochre, a healing mineral that was traditionally used for body paint and rock art.

The tour continues past the area’s sandstone buildings, where you can see and touch the shell-encrusted mortar and learn how ancient middens were used to let other family groups know what food could be found in the area, and how, sometimes, humans were buried here. The overriding message of the tour is that the ancient traditions still continue to influence modern Aboriginal culture.

Tours operate daily at 10:30 and 13:30 and depart from Cadman’s Cottage in The Rocks.

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