You don’t need to journey to the Outback to experience Indigenous culture this spring. There are plenty of ways to immerse in a rich Aboriginal heritage stretching back tens of thousands of years in Sydney, from a Dreamtime walking tour and bush tucker tastings to an immersive Sydney Harbour cruise and powerful works of art and dance. Here’s how to connect with the world’s oldest continuous living culture in the heart of Australia’s biggest city. 

See another side to Sydney’s identity

Be moved by the generous spirit of Dunghutti-Jerrinjah Elder Margret Campbell as she shares her vast knowledge of Aboriginal culture with you on Dreamtime Southern X’s acclaimed The Rocks Aboriginal Dreaming Tour (Illi Langi). 

Learn of the deep connection Sydney’s first inhabitants have with the saltwater harbour and its shoreline as Margret or one of her well-trained guides takes you around the historic harbourside precinct of The Rocks – the birthplace of modern Sydney. 

After an ochre-daubing ceremony outside Cadmans Cottage, one of the oldest surviving colonial buildings in the country, your guide will take you to significant Aboriginal sites all across The Rocks. Feel the weight of history as you stand in Hickson Road Reserve, in the shadow of Sydney Harbour Bridge, listening to your guide recount the Gadigal people’s reactions to the British sailors landing in the cove before you. 

You’ll also hear Dreamtime creation stories along the way and learn just how attuned Sydney’s first peoples were to the seasonal flowerings of plants lining the harbour shore, not just as a sustainable food source but also as a fundamental part of each individual’s cultural identity. 

Ascend to a new level of understanding

Just as Dreamtime Southern X’s guides tell the story of pre-colonial Sydney by rooting you firmly in the terrain of The Rocks, an Aboriginal storyteller recounts tales of the Gadigal people from a vantage point high up on the steel arches of Sydney Harbour Bridge during BridgeClimb Sydney’s Burrawa Indigenous Experience. 

After taking part in a traditional ochre ceremony, you’ll ascend the bridge’s iconic arches and learn of these land’s Traditional Custodians while taking in spectacular views of the harbour. Make indelible memories as you learn of the Gadigal men and women whose names are preserved at nearby locales such as Bennelong Point and Barangaroo. Your First Nations storyteller may even point out the Dawes Point neighbourhood bordering The Rocks and tell of how Cammeraygal woman Patyegarang taught First Fleet botanist William Dawes her language, in what’s considered to be the first recorded cultural exchange in Australia. 

Immerse in a hands-on tour

A short (if hilly) walk from The Rocks, the six-hectare headland of Barangaroo Reserve is home to around 75,000 native Australian trees and shrubs, many of which hold significance to the Gadigal people. Take an in-depth Aboriginal Cultural Tour of the harbourside reserve during the springtime bloomings to discover how some of these native plants are used as tools, weapons and medicine as well as food.

You’ll also hear stories of notable Aboriginal people with connections to this headland overlooking Sydney Harbour Bridge. Step back in time to the initial wave of European colonisation as you hear of the feats of Cammeraygal woman Barangaroo, wife of Bennelong (a go-between and interpreter for the first governor of the British colony) and a key Aboriginal community leader, for whom the adjacent dining and entertainment precinct was named. 

View the harbour with a new perspective

Gain an understanding of the spiritual significance of Sydney Harbour to its Traditional Custodians on a fascinating Tribal Warrior Cultural Cruise. Board Tribal Warrior’s Mari Nawi (the “big canoe”) at Circular Quay for a two-hour harbour cruise with a difference as you hear Dreamtime stories of the Eora clan’s Gadigal, Guringai, Wangal, Cammeraygal and Wallumedegal peoples and enjoy a performance of traditional dances and music.

Unravel layers of meaning as your guides point out sites and landmarks that hold deep significance for the harbour’s first inhabitants, engage in enlightening discussions and step ashore on Sydney Harbour’s Clark Island to learn about traditional fishing methods and food-gathering practices.

Treat yourself to intriguing bush foods 

Take the Tribal Warrior Cultural Cruise and you’ll arrive back at Circular Quay just in time for lunch at the Sydney Opera House’s Midden by Mark Olive restaurant. Here the powerful flavours of Australian indigenous ingredients weave their distinctive way through an innovative menu by celebrity chef and Bunjalung man Mark Olive. 

Savour Sydney rock oysters with a delicate desert raisin and wattleseed vinaigrette and finger lime (a native citrus fruit), then be dazzled by an Indigenous Australian grazing plate featuring smoked kangaroo, emu and crocodile paired with quandong paste and cheeses from regional NSW dairies. Just be sure to save room for a delightfully different dessert, such as Mark Olive’s bush pavlova or the Geraldton-wax pannacotta.

You could also enjoy the lunch experience at Midden after first heading over to the neighbouring Royal Botanic Garden and enjoying one of this leading scientific institution’s Aboriginal Experiences. Join a First Nations guide on a Aboriginal Bush Tucker Tour of the botanic garden’s Cadi Jam Ora – First Encounters Garden from 11am Thursday to Saturday and you’ll be ready for lunch by the end of the one-hour tour. 

Or join the Royal Botanic Garden’s early-afternoon Aboriginal Harbour Heritage Tour to learn of the Gadigal people’s lives and traditions before devouring sweet and savoury treats with distinctive bush seasonings at Midden’s Native High Tea Experience.

Coming to Sydney in early spring? Make a beeline for the Blak Markets as they return to The Rocks’ Dawes Point for one day only on Sunday, 14 September 2025. Come early for the Welcome to Country and smoking ceremony, then browse market stalls offering bush tucker and native Australian herbs and spices, as well as authentic artworks, hand-crafted homewares, jewellery and clothes. 

Surrender to the power of storytelling

You can also connect with Sydney’s Traditional Custodians as well as other Australian Indigenous communities through artworks, performances and tours at some of the city’s leading arts institutions. 

One of the highlights of Sydney’s spring 2025 arts calendar is the Art Gallery of New South Wales’s Yolŋu power: the art of Yirrkala exhibition, which traces the evolution of one of Australia’s most internationally acclaimed arts communities, Yirrkala, in Northern Territory’s northeast Arnhem Land from the 1940s to today.

You can catch this extraordinary exhibition before it closes on 6 October 2025. Families can pick up or download a free children’s trail to help develop creative thinking and visual literacy while exploring the exhibition, before treating themselves to a snack or lunch featuring native ingredients by Indigenous-owned business Indigiearth at the Naala Badu kiosk. 

Kids aged seven to 12 years old will also love Bangarra Dance Theatre’s The Bogong’s Song: a call to Country, which runs from 8–18 October 2025 at Bangarra’s Studio Theatre in the Walsh Bay Arts Precinct. Co-written by Thiithaarr Warra (Guugu Yimithirr), Kaanju and Ayapathu woman Chenoa Deemal and Bidjara woman Yolande Brown, who also directs and choreographs the show, The Bogong’s Song invites you to experience a connection to Country through storytelling, shadow puppetry, dance and song. 

Keep an eye out for the next major production by this company of professional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander dancers at the Sydney Opera House, or indulge in an exclusive behind-the-scenes tour of Bangarra’s studio throughout the year.

And at the Australian Museum, grown-ups and children alike can gain a better understanding of Australia’s First Nations peoples on a Waranara Tour on Wednesdays and Saturdays all year round. Learn about the knowledge systems that have sustained countless generations on this 45-minute tour of the Garrigarrang: Sea Country space, uncovering the significance of the many Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural objects in the museum’s collections. 

Then let the kids go on a journey through Country as they trace the life cycle of an eel in the immersive Burra learning space, located next to the museum’s family-friendly Billabong Waterhole café.