First Knowledges: Ceremony

First Knowledges: CeremonyThe First Knowledges series offers an introduction to Indigenous knowledges in vital areas and their application to the present day and the future. Exploring practices such as songlines, architecture, design, land management, plants, astronomy, law, innovation and health, this series brings together two very different ways of understanding the world: one ancient and ongoing, the other modern. The ninth book focuses on ceremonies. We perform ceremonies

The First Knowledges series offers an introduction to Indigenous knowledges in vital areas and their application to the present day and the future. Exploring practices such as songlines, architecture, design, land management, plants, astronomy, law, innovation and health, this series brings together two very different ways of understanding the world: one ancient and ongoing, the other modern. The ninth book focuses on ceremonies.

We perform ceremonies every day. Some are personal, some highly organised and others are repeated for generations. For First Nations Australians, ceremonies create the backbone of cultural practice.

Ceremony: All Yesterdays for Today tells how Indigenous ceremonies link people today to those of the past in a continuum of inherited stories, places and memories – from rites of passage to smoking ceremonies and Welcomes to Country, and many others.

The authors focus on examples from their lives, including personal ceremonies from Quandamooka waterways and lands, community-centred ceremonies held by Warlpiri people in the Tanami desert, stories told to them by Elders and experiences of performing at Opening ceremonies for national events. Stories of ceremony are vast and diverse and many ceremonies are of a secret scared nature and cannot be told to those not initiated or intimately connected to the people, as the authors acknowledge. Rather, this book highlights the importance of ceremony across time and place on both a personal as well as national level that recognises and celebrates Australia’s First Nations history and culture.