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The Best Native Cultural Experiences
- Umbarra Aboriginal Cultural Centre (NSW): This center in Wallaga Lake, near Narooma, offers boomerang- and spear-throwing instruction, painting with natural ochers, discussions on Aboriginal culture, and guided walking tours of Aboriginal sacred sites.
- Tjapukai Aboriginal Cultural Park (QLD): This multimillion-dollar center near Cairnes showcases the history of the Tjapukai people -- with their Dreamtime creation history and their often-harrowing experiences since the white man arrived -- using film, superb theatrical work, and dance performance. Its Aboriginal art-and-crafts gift shop is one of the country's best.
- Aboriginal Art & Culture Centre (NT): You'll taste bush food, see a dance, throw boomerangs and spears, and learn about Aboriginal family values in one half-day tour of this Aborigine-owned center in Alice Springs. Be sure to hang around for the 1-hour didgeridoo lesson at the end.
- Anangu Tours (NT): The Anangu are the owners of Ayers Rock or, in their native tongue, Uluru. Join them for walks around the Rock as you learn about the poisonous "snake men" who fought battles here, pick bush food off the trees, throw spears, visit rock paintings, and watch the sun set over the monolith. Their Cultural Centre, near the base of the Rock, has displays about the Aboriginal Dreamtime.
- Manyallaluk -- The Dreaming Place (NT): This Aboriginal community near Katherine welcomes visitors and teaches them to paint, weave, throw boomerangs, and perform other tasks of daily life -- a low-key day and the chance to chat one-on-one with Aboriginal people in their bush home.
- Mangarrayi People (NT): Mike Keighley of Far Out Adventures (tel. 0427/152 288; www.farout.com.au) takes tours to beautiful Elsey Station (a ranch) near Katherine, where you visit with the children of the local Mangarrayi people. Sample bush tucker, learn a little bush medicine, and swim in a natural "spa-pool" in the Roper River.
- Kings Park Indigenous Heritage Tour (WA): Greg Nannup's descriptions of the traditional use of the park, as well as local Aboriginal myths and beliefs, add another dimension to one's understanding and enjoyment of Kings Park in Perth. His telling of the "Creation" story is superb.
Note: This information was accurate when it was published, but can change without
notice. Please be sure to confirm all rates and details directly with the companies in question before
planning your trip.
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