Aboriginal Experiences

The Royal Botanic Garden Sydney will immerse you in the rich Aboriginal culture of the traditional owners of the Sydney city area, the Gadigal and help you see the Garden in a new and exciting way.

Discover the history of Warrane (the Cadigal name for Sydney Cove – Circular Quay) and learn about the ways the plants in the Garden are used by the Cadigal people.

Take a guided tour and taste Aboriginal bush foods!

There will be plenty of opportunities to ask questions when you take a guided tour. Depending on what’s in season, you’ll also be able to taste some Australian bush foods. Tours depart from the Information Centre at the Garden Shop every Wednesday, Friday and Saturday at 10 am. Click here to learn more and book your place.

Walk the Cadigal storyline

If you'd like to learn about the history of this place at your own pace, walk the 50 metre storyline at Cadi Jam Ora: First Encounters + First Farm.

Below is our range of tours, educational programs, events, stories and Aboriginal staff at the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney, the Blue Mountains Mount Tomah and the Australian Botanic Garden Mount Annan.

Cadi Jam Ora: First Encounters and First Farm

Visit Cadi Jam Ora to walk the 50-metre timeline spanning the Dreamtime to present day and learn about the Cadigal people of the Eora nation, the traditional custodians of the land the we stand on.

The Domain's First People

Learn more about the Cadigal people – the traditional owners of the Sydney city area – and their lives on the shores of Warrane (Sydney) before the First Fleet arrived in 1788.

Celebrate NAIDOC Week in the Garden

NAIDOC Week is held in July each year in celebration of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander history, culture and achievements. Visit this page in June 2018 to learn more about special events celebrating NAIDOC Week in the Garden.

Tours

Aboriginal Art Class

Experience the world's oldest living culture through Aboriginal Art

Aboriginal Bush Food Experience

Learn how to make Aboriginal bush food infused recipes!

Aboriginal Heritage Tour

Join your Aboriginal tour guide to learn about the Cadigal people – the traditional owners of the Sydney city area. Depending on the season you'll forage and eat Australian Bush Foods as you walk and talk.

Aboriginal Weaving Workshop

Join Wiradjuri woman, Aunty Shirley, to learn about traditional weaving techniques

Educational program across the Gardens

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Connection and Country - Stage 1

Students will learn about the local Aboriginal people of the area, the Cadigal people. Your students will be guided by Aboriginal Education Officers through cultural perspectives of traditional customs, connections to land, beliefs, stories and dance of significance to Aboriginal people.

Contact - First Encounters - Stage 2

Explore the impacts of British colonisation on the local Aboriginal people. Investigate the plants used by the Gadigal for food, medicine, tools and weapons. Get a hands on experience using artefacts and stories to gain insight into the convict experience.

Aboriginal People and Plants - Stages 2 & 3

Your students will investigate a wide variety of local native plants which were integral in the life of the first Australians. In this lesson, Aboriginal Education Officers will provide a personal perspective of how indigenous people of the Sydney area used plants for food, medicine, tools and weapons, giving students a unique opportunity to meet and interact with members of our indigenous communities.

First Contact - Stage 4

Explore the impacts of British colonialism on the first Australians, particularly the traditional owners of the Sydney city area, the Cadigal people. Students will discover how Aboriginal people used the land and plants prior to first contact and then investigate the plants and seeds brought by the First Fleet and their uses and value at Farm Cove.

Purposeful Plants - Stage 4

Investigate a range of native plants and the adaptations they have that allow them to survive in the Australian environment. Aboriginal educators will provide an Indigenous perspective on living with, and from, the native bushland and explain the different uses of these plants as foods, medicines and raw materials for tools and weapons.

Food in Australia - Stage 5

The many different cultural groups who have settled in Australia have led to our food becoming a fusion of ingredients and flavours. Students will engage with Food in Australia by investigating, preparing and tasting Aboriginal bush foods and discovering how the diet began to evolve when the first settlers farmed food on this land.

People, Plants and Places

Explore the ways that Aboriginal people used plants for food, tools and medicine. Students will love the discovery walk and bush tucker tasting with an Aboriginal Education Officer.

Deliver Aboriginal Education Better

Learn how the Royal Botanic Gardens can support schools with implementing Aboriginal culture and perspectives, from classroom level to whole school activities.

Meet our staff

Joshua Brown

Josh Brown is the Aboriginal Education Coordinator for all sites within the Botanic Gardens & Centennial Parklands and leads the Aboriginal Education & Community team. Originally from Worimi country of the Forster-Tuncurry area, Josh has many years’ experience in education with qualifications in Secondary Teaching, Health and Physical Education.

Josh and the team work closely with surrounding Aboriginal organisations, NGO’s, local and state government organisations and staff to further inspire and educate visitors to the Gardens about the various aspects of Aboriginal culture and heritage, native plants and their traditional uses.

Kalkani Choolburra

Kalkani Choolburra is the Aboriginal Community Programs Coordinator for the Royal Botanic Gardens & Centennial Parklands. Originally from the Girramay, Kalkadoon, Kuku Yalanji, Yidinji, Pita Pita & Bwgcolman Peoples of Cape York & the Gulf of Carpentaria, Kalkani has found her passion in developing & delivering Indigenous programs for the Royal Botanic Gardens.

Kalkani leads the Aboriginal tourism for the Gardens, working in partnership with marketing and tourism organisations, along with media and communications personnel. This aims to highlight the Gardens significant cultural heritage to local and international guests, businesses and media through cultural tours, broadcasts and digital media communications.

Latest stories

Our Standing Up Alive exhibit runs until the 13 May and celebrates the thriving Aboriginal culture around the Blue Mountains

Genetics and Aboriginal knowledge have come together to solve a rainforest tree mystery.

New research from the Garden’s Evolutionary Ecology team combines cultural and scientific knowledge to reveal plant stories from the past

They certainly make a solid ‘thunk’ when they land.

We would like to acknowledge the Cadigal people of the Eora Nation within Sydney and pay our respect to Elders past, present and future.

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