Key facts
- Spirit ancestors govern and determine Aboriginal ritual activity, imparting a specific meaning to every step of a dance, every verse of a song and each pattern in a painting.
- A network of language centres across Australia is working to document Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages.
- Visitors to Australia have the opportunity to learn about Aboriginal spirituality, the Dreamtime, tradition, ceremonies, bush foods,medicines and contemporary stories.
Full story
Aboriginal Australians are custodians to one of the world’s oldest continuous cultures predating the Roman Empire and the building of the Pyramids. And they’re eager to share their insights into this ancient land through art, story-telling, dance and music.
Experience this ancient, fascinating and wonderful culture through cultural tours in places such as Uluru or by immersing yourself by staying in an Indigenous community, such as at Iga Warta in the Northern Flinders Ranges. You can experience Aboriginal culture in places as unlikely as Melbourne’s Botanic Gardens, along our coast or even on Sydney Harbour. And it’s in our cities too that you’ll find there are also great modern-day examples of contemporary Aboriginal Australia – such as the Sydney-based Bangarra Dance Theatre and Perth’s Black Swan Theatre.
Whether it’s rock art dating back 40,000 years, artworks of our modern day Western Desert artists working in cultural performances at festivals or as part of a tourism offering such as Tjapukai, near Cairns, where you can immerse yourself in a wealth of Aboriginal art and culture right across Australia.
Aboriginal culture is the oldest surviving unbroken string of cultural information in the world, the significance of which was summed up by art critic, Robert Hughes, when he said, ‘Aboriginal art is the most important art movement today ’. It’s little wonder so many Aboriginal artists are now represented in major public and private collections, both in Australia and internationally. Aboriginal people maintain and record their culture through Dreamtime stories depicted in rock art, corroborees, secret rituals and totemic carvings. Be it an ironwood carved burial pole, a barrage of white, dabbed dots and circles on canvas or deep ochre cave paintings depicting man’s very beginnings of life in Australia, these artworks are timeless.
Learn about the culture of Torres Strait Islanders, Australia’s other indigenous culture. Whether based on the more than 100 islands between Australia and Papua New Guinea, which are their home, or on our mainland, they too, are proud to share their rich culture with you.
You can experience traditional customs and traditional ways of life. Or, watch as they demonstrate amazing spear and boomerang throwing techniques, then try it yourself. Learn how to play the didgeridoo, watch a corroboree and learn how to do dot painting. Learn about Aboriginal history and culture by attending a cultural festival. Discover modern Aboriginal culture in Australian cities as well as the Outback – at galleries, cultural centres and contemporary dance performances.
Uniquely Australian
- Discover the Dampier Rock Art Precinct, on the The Burrup Peninsula on the north western coast of Australia, one of the world’s largest and most important collections of petroglyphs - ancient rock carvings dating back as far as the last ice age. This collection of standing stones may be the largest in the world and as important as Stonehenge; it has been listed as one of the 100 most endangered heritage sites on earth by the World Monuments Fund.
- Learn about Mungo Man and Mungo Woman at Mungo National Park, one of the world’s most significant anthropological sites. It has some of the oldest remains of human occupation in the world.
Explore it with local Aboriginal guides who can explain all the significant sites and cultural areas.
- Watch a rainforest corroboree by the Pamagirri dancers set to the haunting sounds of their didgeridoo and clapsticks in a World Heritage rainforest setting at Rainforestation Nature Park.
- Visit the Tiwi people of Bathurst and Melville Islands, north of Darwin, for a day of Aboriginal culture and hands-on activities.
- Have an Aboriginal experience in the midst of the World Heritage Daintree Rainforest. Go on an Aboriginal guided rainforest walk or create your own masterpiece in an Aboriginal art and cultural workshop. The spa at Daintree Eco Lodge specialises in Aboriginal massage techniques and spa experiences at a waterfall which is a powerful healing site for Aboriginal women.
- See some of Australia’s finest accessible Aboriginal rock art, which can be easily reached from Jowalbinna Bush Camp at Laura, north of Cairns.
- See traditional ochre bark painting on Bathurst Island, fabric printing in East Arnhem Land, fibre weaving and jewellery in places such as Nguiu and Nhulunbuy, musical instruments such as didjeridoos, clapsticks and cast metal sculptures at Maningrida, extensive pre-history rock paintings and artefacts of stone and wood at Mt Borradaile in Arnhem Land.