8 ways to connect with First Nations cultures and communities

Sydney Film Festival kicks off on Wednesday 4 June wand features 10 First Nations films. that span drama, documentary, and short film formats. This year’s lineup showcases bold new voices and celebrated storytellers, with films exploring identity, resilience, Country, and culture, offering audiences a deeper understanding of First Nations perspectives from across Australia and around the world.

You can also watch First Nations films free by using your City of Sydney Library membership at Beamafilm.

Dreamtime Southern runs walking tours through the Rocks and coach tours further afield, both focusing on living Dreamtime cultural trails. Tribal Warrior is a Redfern organisation offering different themed cruises, including cultural tours.

The Sydney Culture Walks app allows you to take self-guided walks. The Barani Redfern and Barani Sydney Cove/Warrane walks offer great learning experiences about Aboriginal stories in our city.

Australia’s leading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performing arts company, Bangarra Dance Theatre, Australia’s leading Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander performing arts company, Bangarra Dance Theatre, presents Illume at the Sydney Opera House.

Experience this iridescent new theatrical experience, drawing together music, visual arts and dance to explore the ways light has captivated and sustained Indigenous cultural existence for millennia.

On until the 14 June

Join the library and access over 2,000 titles in our Koori collection. From bush medicine, bush tucker, astronomy, philosophy and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander languages, there’s something in the collection for everyone.

This year, Vivid Sydney is celebrating First Nations front and centre with a range of light installations, music and events.

Witness the Museum of Sydney forecourt transform into a light and sound experience for Symphony of the Dreaming, an immersion into the ancient songlines of NSW, or catch 3% at the Sydney Opera House for Vivid Live.

Aboriginal artist Judy Watson’s work represents a giant bara, or fishhook crafted and used by Gadigal women for thousands of generations.

Celebrating the First Peoples of Sydney, the traditional custodians of Gadigal Country, you can find the work on Tarpeian Precinct Lawn above Dubbagullee (Bennelong Point). Learn more about this stunning artwork on Sydney Harbour.

From there, you can find more First Nations public artworks.

At the Art Gallery of NSW’s North Building, you’ll find the Yiribana Gallery. The collection showcases First Nations art from across the continent in a range of practices and mediums.

To celebrate Reconciliation Week, Australian Museum are hosting a free after-hours event featuring tours, live music, workshops and performances.

The Seeing Sydney, Knowing Country exhibition is on display at the Museum of Sydney and explores the development of the NSW colony through a selection of significant historical maps, plans, sketches, artworks and objects.

Check out what’s on this National Reconciliation Week.

Enjoy a special performance from the Barayagal Choir and then join a workshop where you'll learn and sing the Voices for Reconciliation 2025 anthem, ‘Solid Rock’ by Shane Howard. We welcome people of all nationalities to attend and learn about First Nations culture, stories and songs.

Honour the legacy of Eddie Mabo and the landmark Mabo decision, which recognised the land rights of Australia's First Nations peoples, on Tuesday 3 June. The event features a keynote by Torres Strait Islander artist Alick Tipoti and a cultural dance performance by the Dhamuw Koedal group.