Experiencing Aboriginal Culture in Sydney
Sydney offers authentic ways to connect with Australia’s Aboriginal heritage without leaving the city. The area has been home to the Gadigal people and neighbouring clans for over 60,000 years, and their culture remains vibrant today through museums, cultural sites, guided tours and community events.
This guide covers the best Aboriginal museums, cultural sites and experiences across Sydney, plus essential background on the traditional owners of this land.
Related: Discover the best Aboriginal Tours and Experiences in Sydney
Best Aboriginal Museums & Galleries in Sydney
Australian Museum
The Australian Museum houses the Garrigarrang: Sea Country exhibition, a permanent display exploring the cultures of Australia’s coastal Aboriginal peoples. The collection includes over 300 rare artefacts, many displayed publicly for the first time, with stories told in the voices of NSW Indigenous communities.
Waranara Tours – Join First Nations guides for a 45-minute tour of the collection every Wednesday at 11:30am and 1pm. Tours explore traditional knowledge systems and sustainable practices used for countless generations.
Where: Corner of College Street and William Street, opposite Hyde Park
When: 10am-5pm daily (closed 25 December)
Entry: Free (tours included with entry) l More: Australian Museum website
Art Gallery of NSW – Yiribana Gallery
The Yiribana Gallery showcases the largest permanent collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art in Australia. Located in the new building’s entrance pavilion, the gallery features bark paintings, sculptures, weaving, contemporary art and photography. The collection includes both traditional and modern works, with free guided tours offered daily.
The name Yiribana means ‘this way’ in the Eora language, acknowledging the Gallery’s location on Gadigal Country.
Where: Art Gallery Road, The Domain
When: Free guided tours at 11am daily
Entry: Free l More: Art Gallery of NSW
Royal Botanic Gardens Aboriginal Experiences
The Royal Botanic Gardens offers two distinct Aboriginal tours led by First Nations guides, both exploring the Cadi Jam Ora gardens and harbour foreshore.
Aboriginal Heritage Tour – Walk along Sydney Harbour learning about Gadigal lifestyle, traditions and connection to Country. Your guide shares stories of how the land was used before European settlement.
Aboriginal Bush Tucker Tour – Discover Indigenous bush foods and their traditional uses. Sample native foods during this hands-on tour exploring plants currently popular in modern Australian cuisine.
When: Thursday-Saturday, Heritage Tour 1-2pm, Bush Tucker Tour 11am-12pm
Where: Both tours start from the Gardens Gift Shop
Cost: $35 adult, $27 concession, $22 child (7-15 years), free under 7
Bookings: Essential – Royal Botanic Gardens
Aboriginal Cultural Sites in Sydney
Jibbon Head Aboriginal Rock Art at Bundeena
One of Sydney’s most accessible Aboriginal rock art sites, Jibbon Head features engravings created by the Dharawal people over 1,000 years ago. The carvings depict whales, stingrays, kangaroos and spiritual figures, viewed from an elevated boardwalk with interpretive signage.
The site is easily reached by public transport – catch the train to Cronulla, then the ferry to Bundeena. The 5km return walk takes about 3 hours at a comfortable pace.
Self-guided walk: Follow the track from Bundeena to Marley Head. The engravings are well-signposted along the coastal path. Best viewed in late afternoon light or after rain.
When: Accessible daily
Where: Jibbon Beach, Bundeena (Royal National Park)
Access: Train to Cronulla, private ferry to Bundeena
Entry: Free (Royal National Park entry fees may apply if driving)
Berry Island Reserve
Located less than 20 minutes from the city centre and easily reached by public transport, Berry Island Reserve features Aboriginal rock engravings along the Gadyan Track.
The site includes boomerangs, sharks, fish and whales carved by the Cammeraigal people, who used this area as a campsite. Interpretive signs explain the engravings and their cultural significance.
Redfern
For much of the 20th century, Redfern was the centre of Aboriginal life in Sydney. As Sydney industrialised, Redfern became a hub for Aboriginal internal migrants coming from rural areas to work in factories, railways and shipyards.
In the 1970s, Australia’s Black Power movement emerged here. Aboriginal legal services, health services, housing collectives and theatres were established – many the first of their kind in Australia. While gentrification has changed the suburb dramatically, Redfern retains cultural significance through public art, including the 40,000 Years Mural at Redfern Station.
Barangaroo Reserve
Barangaroo offers Aboriginal cultural tours exploring the native history of Warrane (Sydney Harbour). Led by Aboriginal educators, these tours cover the six-hectare headland featuring 75,000 native Australian trees and shrubs – the only public space in Sydney with such extensive native flora.
Tours run Monday to Saturday at 10:30am from The Cutaway Barangaroo.
Aboriginal Cultural Events in Sydney
Several Aboriginal cultural events are held throughout the year and open to the public. Attending these celebrations offers insight into both Aboriginal Australia and Sydney’s cultural life.
NAIDOC Week
NAIDOC (National Aboriginal and Islanders Day Observance Committee) celebrates Aboriginal history, culture and achievement through a week of events starting the first Sunday of July. Sydney hosts numerous activities including performances, exhibitions, workshops and talks throughout the week.
Check the City of Sydney NAIDOC Week program for the current year’s events.
Invasion Day / Yabun Festival
Held on January 26th – a date many Australians consider their national day but which many Aboriginal people and supporters recognise as the beginning of British invasion. While some events on this day are solemn in nature, the Yabun Festival in Victoria Park offers family-friendly music and cultural celebrations, making it one of the most important events on Invasion Day in Sydney.
Blak Markets
Blak Markets offers a unique opportunity to buy authentic Aboriginal art, crafts and bush foods directly from First Nations artists and small business owners. Held quarterly at various Sydney locations, the markets feature over 20 stalls selling original artworks, handcrafted homewares, jewellery, fashion, textiles and native plants.
Beyond shopping, the markets celebrate culture through Welcome to Country ceremonies, smoking ceremonies, traditional dance performances, live music and free weaving workshops. All profits go directly back to Aboriginal communities.
When: Quarterly events (check website for dates)
Where: Primarily Bare Island, La Perouse; occasionally The Rocks
Entry: Usually $2.50 per person at Bare Island (children under 5 free)
National Indigenous Art Fair
The National Indigenous Art Fair brings together Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists from remote community-owned art centres across Australia for a two-day cultural celebration on Sydney Harbour. Buy original artworks, textiles, fashion and homewares directly from artists, with 100% of sales returning to the art centres and communities.
The fair includes bush tucker cooking demonstrations by celebrity chefs, weaving workshops, traditional dance performances, live music and children’s activities. Set against Sydney Harbour’s waterfront at the Overseas Passenger Terminal, it’s both a marketplace and cultural festival.
When: Usually early July (coinciding with NAIDOC Week)
Where: Overseas Passenger Terminal, The Rocks
Entry: Free
Questions About Aboriginal Sydney
Aboriginal people have called this land home for over 60,000 years. Here’s what you need to know about Sydney’s traditional owners.
Before the arrival of the British, Sydney was home to anywhere from 4,000 to 8,000 indigenous people, probably organised into 29 separate clan groups. Standing above these clan groups were three great language groups, the Dharug, Kuringgai and Dharawal. The British came to refer to these people as the Eora, from a local word meaning “here” or “from this place”.
As you move throughout Sydney you might pass through the territories of different groups, but by looking at local signage and doing a little of your own research you can generally establish where you are in Aboriginal Sydney.
In truth, there is no specific Aboriginal name that covers the whole of Sydney, but a myriad of names were given to places of significance throughout the area.
Bennelong Point, where the Sydney Opera House now sits, was known as Dubbagullee while Sydney Cove was called Warrane.
Some traditional names have survived into the modern era, though often in heavily modified forms, including Woolloomooloo, Coogee and Bondi. Some councils have begun to re-use Aboriginal names, replacing European ones or simply placing them alongside one another, such as Dawes Point (Ta-Ra). A more comprehensive list of Aboriginal place names in Sydney can be found here.
The most well known Aboriginal person of the early colonial period was probably Bennelong. Abducted under the orders of Captain Phillip, Bennelong came to act as a kind of conduit between the colonists and Sydney’s indigenous people, adopting aspects of English culture and encouraging other Aboriginal people to do the same, albeit with little success.
Bennelong is today closely associated with the place where he lived, now called Bennelong Point, and the site of the world-famous Sydney Opera House.
But while Bennelong took a more conciliatory approach to the invaders, Pemulwuy did not, and although long marginalised in the history books he’s recently began to re-enter the public imagination as one of the first great leaders of the Aboriginal resistance to colonisation.
From 1790 til his death in 1802 Pemulwuy lead a guerrilla war against the burgeoning colony at Sydney, that at times seriously threatened its existence. After being killed, his skull taken as a trophy to London, and despite extensive lobbying, it has yet to be returned.
According to the 2016 census, just over 70,000 people living in Sydney declared themselves to be Indigenous, making up 1.5% of the population, which is slightly under the national average. The highest concentration of Aboriginal people (4.8%) live in the outer western suburb of Penrith, with similar numbers (4.5%) in the south-western suburb of Campbelltown.
Aboriginal people have also been prominent in coastal La Perouse almost continuously from before colonisation, but for most of the 20th Century, the real centre of Aboriginal life in Sydney was Redfern.
As Sydney industrialised, and particularly in the post-war periods, Redfern became a hub for Aboriginal internal migrants, coming from rural areas to work in the factories, railways and shipyards of the inner city.
Inspired by the developments in the United States to a very similar marginalisation, Australia’s very own Black Power movement began in the 1970s and was largely centred on Redfern. Institutions like Aboriginal legal services, health services, housing collectives and theatres were formed, many of which were the first of their kind. Redfern came to be compared to a kind of Sydney Harlem.
By the 1980s however, things had taken a turn for the worse. Deindustrialisation was leading to increasing unemployment and social ills such as crime and drug abuse began to rise, and Redfern gained a national reputation for violence and poverty. In 2004 riots flared up in Redfern after the death of Aboriginal teenager fleeing from police.
Using law and order as a justification, the government worked with property developers in an urban renewal project designed to gentrify Redfern, at the time surrounded by some of the most valuable real estate in the country.
Fifteen years later, and that process is all but complete, with the Aboriginal population of the mostly pushed out. In many ways, Redfern is now indistinguishable from the rich and trendy suburbs that surround it, with only the vestiges of its cultural heyday. Redfern, however, retains its status as a cultural centre with many important sights and experiences to be beheld. Find out more about Redfern here.
Want more?
If you want to learn more before you visit, this website by the Sydney City Council called Barani: Indigenous History of Sydney City is a great starting point.
Hi,
I would like to bring my American friend to la parouse to throw a boomerang! What details do I need to make this happen? Thank you and happy new year
Hi Julia
You can still do this at La Perouse … Sydney Aboriginal tours run a tour called Catch and Cook that includes dreamtime stories and a bushtucker tour as well as the boomerang lesson. I will be featuring them in an upcoming post so keep your eyes peeled if you are not travelling for a few more weeks.
Well thought out site, sir! Thankyou so much for your work!