Smoking Ceremony, Aboriginal Dreaming and Welcome to Country

Smoking Ceremony, Aboriginal Dreaming and Welcome To Country are all significant and important parts of aboriginal culture and being.

Smoking Ceremonies

Smoking ceremonies have been performed by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people for thousands of years to cleanse people and places of bad spirits and to treat sickness. These ceremonies encourage good health and wellbeing through connection to culture and the health benefits of traditional Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander medicine.

They are regarded as an important part of connecting people to the country and keeping them safe from the dangerous powers of the spiritual beings residing in the land and waters.

The practice of smoking to cleanse a house or person is used in many cultures around the world, and often involves burning herbs, special wood and bark, such white sage among aboriginal Americans. There is some evidence that traditional use of burning white sage can significantly reduce harmful bacteria present in the air.

Similarly, in Aboriginal Australian medical practices, emu bush (Eremophila longifolia) is highly prized for use in smoking, and scientific research has supported its use as an anti-bacterial, antifungal and antioxidant substance. The leaves of the emu bush are placed on hot embers to produce wet steamy smoke, which kills bacterial or fungal pathogens. This can be of benefit for someone who is sick, to prevent spread of sickness, and for use in childbirth.

There are many different plants used in smoking ceremonies and for medicine. The type of leaf used for smoking varies by region and availability, but can include peppermint, cauliflower bush, eucalyptus and sandalwood. Smoking ceremonies are used for burial, celebration, healing and cleansing, and are also a gesture of goodwill, bringing people together; performing the ceremony for another is a gift and a blessing.

Smoking ceremonies can also be a way of connecting with country by speaking to and acknowledging the ancestors or ‘Old People’.

Welcome To Country

Welcome to Country is delivered by Traditional Owners, or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples who have been given permission from Traditional Owners, to welcome visitors to their Country.

Incorporating Welcome to Country into meetings, gatherings, and events shows respect by upholding Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural protocols.

Protocols for welcoming visitors to country have always been a part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Crossing into another group’s Country required a request for permission to enter.

When permission is granted the people of that part of country welcomes the visitors, offering them safe passage and protection of their spiritual being while in this part of country. Visitors have to respect the protocols and rules of the land owner group while on their Country.

Today, while these protocols have been adapted to contemporary circumstances, the essential elements remain: welcoming visitors and respect for Country.

First Nations Education advise on organising a Welcome to Country by a Traditional Owner in your area.

Welcome to Country occurs at the beginning of a formal event and can take many forms including singing, dancing, smoking ceremonies, and/or a speech.

Protocols for welcoming visitors to Country have always been a part of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures. Boundaries were clear, and crossing into another group’s Country required a request for permission to enter.

When permission was granted the hosting group would welcome the visitors, offering them safe passage and protection of their spiritual being during the journey. Visitors had to respect the protocols and rules of the land owner group while on their Country.

Today, while these protocols have been adapted to contemporary circumstances, the essential elements remain: welcoming visitors and respect for Country.

Welcome to Country occurs at the beginning of a formal event and can take many forms modt commonly with a speech however, can incorporate singing, dancing and smoking ceremonies.

The Dreaming

The Dreaming tells of the journey and the actions of Ancestral Beings who created the natural world. Ancestral Beings are supernatural and creator beings who travelled across the unshaped world in both human and non-human form, shaping the landscape, creating people and laying down laws of social and religious behaviour.

The Dreaming is infinite and links the past to the present and determines the future. If life on earth is to continue, these rules, almost lost to the world, need to be followed.

Dreaming is an English word commonly used by Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people alike to describe Aboriginal cosmology and the genesis of the world. The Dreaming encompasses the ancestral narratives about the supernatural and ancestral beings, and their epic deeds of creation.

Each narrative is known as a 'Dreaming'. The entire Australian continent is covered in an intricate web of Dreamings or ancestral tracks.

'In the beginning' the land was a flat, featureless, barren plain.

No animals or plants lived on it, and no birds flew over it. However, during The Dreaming ancestral beings, the forerunners of all living species, began stirring and finally emerged from the land, the sea and the sky to begin a series of odysseys which carried them throughout the length and breadth of Australia.

The Rainbow Serpent is one of the Dreamtime creators. Dreamtime stories can vary between tribes, however the Rainbow Serpent is one of the few common to all.

The Rainbow Serpent lay sleeping under the ground. When it was time, she pushed herself up, with all the animals in her belly waiting to be born. Calling to the animals to come from their sleep she threw the land out, making mountains and hills and spilled water over the land, making rivers and lakes. She made the fire and the sun and all the colours. The creation of the topography of the Australian landscape we see today.

The landscape was also shaped by ceremonies performed by these ancestral beings as they recalled their wanderings and feats in dance and song. The remnants of these ceremonies (decorations, feathers, dried blood, stone chips, etc.) turned into rocks, trees and plants which may still be seen. For example, blood from wounds incurred in battles became deposits of red ochre, and parts of bodies hewn off became trees or rock outcrops. The places where these major events left their imprints on the landscape are typically described as 'sacred sites' or 'sites of significance.

Not only does it connect Aboriginal tribes, it also unites people of all different cultures and walks of life throughout the world.

Book cultural Smoking Ceremony, Aboriginal Dreaming stories and Welcome To Country any time, any place.

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First Nations Education acknowledges Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and recognises the continuing connection to lands, waters and communities. We pay our respect to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures; and to Elders past and present.

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