In plain sight
Aboriginal heritage that surrounds us
In plain sight
Aboriginal heritage that surrounds us
Learn how to find your own food.
Curious travellers can discover the wealth of Indigenous knowledge and heritage hidden in plain sight by taking part in tours that reveal the captivating stories, history, and cultures of Australia’s Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.
Dreamtime Southern X's Aunty Margret Campbell shares her culture in the shadow of the Sydney Harbour Bridge.
Dreamtime Southern X
The cobblestone streets of The Rocks district, in the shadow of the Sydney Harbour Bridge, is noted for its colonial history, but taking part in a Dreamtime Southern X tour winds the clock back by tens of thousands more years.
Our Aboriginal guide, Mandy, shows us where you can still glimpse part of the original beach that was a gathering place for the Gadigal people prior to white settlement, and a painting that depicts the cultural living sites, consisting of piles of shells and bones that used to tower over the area that is now occupied by the Royal Botanic Gardens. Those sites played a key role in protecting species from being overharvested — by seeing what was at the top, the next group to visit the area would know to avoid what had been eaten most recently, to give the stocks time to replenish.
The tour opens our eyes to the Aboriginal heritage that infuses this area, a point reinforced when Mandy points out the mortar used to build the colonial buildings. Clearly visible between the bricks are the crushed remains of shells — failing to understand or care about the cultural and environmental significance of the cultural living sites, the settlers demolished them to use for building materials.
The Rocks Aboriginal Dreaming Tour (Illi Langi)
Duration: 1.5 hours | Price: Adult from $69
Learn about the Aboriginal culture of the Gadigal people on a guided tour in the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.
Learn about the lives of the Gadigal people on a guided tour in the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.
Royal Botanic Garden Sydney
The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney is highly valued as an oasis of green within the bustling city of Sydney/Warrane, but it is also home to an abundance of Aboriginal heritage. The gardens were once a rich resource for the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation, and The Aboriginal Harbour Heritage Tour provides a glimpse into the ways Aboriginal peoples were able to utilise the plants for food, medicine, and shelter.
Our Aboriginal guide walks us through the historic landscape, and hands us leaves from blanket plants. It’s impossible to resist stroking the furry underside of the leaves. They are so soft it’s obvious why the Gadigal people used them as bandaids and toilet paper. The leaves of strong-smelling lemon myrtle tree, on the other hand, were prized for their use as a tea to settle an upset stomach, and the bright yellow wattle flowers could be soaked in water to make a type of cordial.
We are given mat rushes to tear into the strips that would have been used to weave everything from baskets and ropes, to fish traps. Our guide peels a small piece off the outer layer of a paperbark tree to demonstrate how it could be used to wrap food and even babies. With its layer of natural antiseptic powder, paperbark also makes a great bandage.
The Aboriginal Harbour Heritage Tour Duration: 1 hour | Price: Adult from $59
Aboriginal peoples use mat rushes to weave everything from rope to baskets.
When you know where to look, scar trees are a common sight throughout Australia.
Koorie Heritage Trust
Just learning the meaning of the Wurundjeri name for the Yarra River that runs through the city of Melbourne/Narrm evokes images of a time long before European settlement. Birrarung, means ‘River of mist and shadows’, and if you walk its banks with an Indigenous guide from the Koorie Heritage Trust, you’ll soon learn where to look for more evidence of the Aboriginal peoples’ clever and sustainable culture.
Whilst few river red gums still flank the original route of the river, but those that do wear scars created generations ago by Wurundjeri people who knew how to use them to craft tools, weapons, even canoes, without killing the tree. Instead, they would carve the shape required into the bark. Over time, they would push small rocks further into the cuts. Eventually, the rocks were able to be pushed past the bark and into the wood, allowing a hand to slide behind it to extract the required material, leaving the tree scarred but unhurt.
Aboriginal Walking Tour — Birrarung Wilam (River Camp) Walk Duration: 1 hour | Price: Adult from $33
The importance of caring for Country is a key take away from the botanic gardens tour.
The importance of caring for Country is a key take away from the botanic gardens tour.
Den harvests sweet-tasting lomandra stems.
Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne
As we wander through the gorgeous landscape of the Royal Botanic Gardens Melbourne, our Aboriginal guide Den, pulls out some strappy foliage from a lomandra plant, wipes the dirt off the end, and hands it around for us to taste. I obediently chomp on the white stem and am rewarded by its sweet taste, a mix of celery and sweet peas. But its use goes beyond a tasty treat. The plant’s seeds can be ground down into a wheat-like flour to make a bread.
When Den takes visitors through the garden's beautiful landscape, he doesn’t want them to just see stunning examples of plants both native and introduced, but to gain an understanding of the ways Aboriginal peoples were able to use the land in a sustainable way to obtain food, shelter and medicine.
But his key message is the philosophy that Aboriginal peoples live by — that you should only take what you need, and must care and protect nature and Country as the mother of all life.
Aboriginal Heritage Walk Duration: 1.5 hours | Price: Adult from $40
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