Aboriginal cultural attractions

Yiribana Gallery

The Yiribana Gallery in the Art Gallery of New South Wales showcases works from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists. Communities around Australia are represented and the diversity of Indigenous culture is celebrated with a range of mediums, from traditional paintings on bark to contemporary sculpture and installation.

Bangarra Dance Theatre embraces, celebrates and respects Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and their culture. Each year, Bangarra performs its unique blend of contemporary and traditional dance to audiences throughout Australia and around the world.

The Belvoir Street Theatre regularly stages plays written by or featuring Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander playwrights and actors.

Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative is one of Australia's longest running Aboriginal owned and operated art galleries, which focuses on art from NSW.

The Museum of Contemporary Art has a dedicated curator for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander programs. The gallery features regular exhibitions by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists.

Gadigal Place

Gadigal Place is a gallery dedicated to the original people of the Port Jackson region, on whose land the Museum of Sydney stands. It explores the traditional lives and colonial contact experiences of the Gadigal, while acknowledging the continuing culture of Aboriginal Sydney. The gallery is an important attraction for visitors wishing to learn about the pre and post-contact Aboriginal experience in Sydney.

Edge of the Trees

‘Edge of the Trees’ by Fiona Foley and Janet Laurence is a public artwork located on the museum forecourt where the first Government House once stood. It evokes the natural and cultural histories of the place where Aboriginal peoples peered from the tree-line at bedraggled convicts coming ashore off the First Fleet.

The installation’s 29 pillars represent the clans of the Sydney region and are engraved with the names of people, places and native flora now long gone. Shell, bone and feathers are embedded in the sandstone, wood and metal poles to evoke Indigenous ways of life prior to 1788. Walk through the installation to hear a soundscape of Aboriginal voices.

The Powerhouse Museum has regular exhibitions featuring objects relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island peoples.

The Cadi Jam Ora Garden in the Royal Botanic Garden interprets the relationships of the Gadigal people in Sydney. It showcases plants native to the region and demonstrates how they were used for food and medicine. There are regular guided tours of the gardens, focusing on Aboriginal culture.

The State Library of NSW has the best collection of Australian and Pacific Islands reference material in the world. The Australian Indigenous Service provides assistance to clients, both Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal, to research Indigenous local, cultural or family histories.

Cadi Eora birrung: Under the Sydney Stars is an exhibition at the Sydney Observatory explaining how the constellations in the southern sky were created from an Aboriginal perspective.

The Sydney Opera House regularly holds productions and events that relate to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island themes or issues, including the annual Homeground Festival.

Macleay Museum

The Macleay Museum has a significant collection of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander material with strong representation from Western Australia, Queensland and NSW communities. It also houses material from the wider Pacific region and significant natural history specimens.

Koori Collection

The Koori Collection comprises over 1,250 fiction and non-fiction items on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and particular subjects such as politics, art, sport, and history. Visitors are encouraged to visit the Waterloo Library and browse through the collection. All material in the Koori Collection can be borrowed and members can search our online catalogue for items of interest.