Your essential guide to First Nations events in Australia – and how to include a Discover Aboriginal Experiences adventure
Use this guide to explore key First Nations events across Australia alongside recommended DAE adventures to pair with each journey.
Your essential guide to First Nations events in Australia – and how to include a Discover Aboriginal Experiences adventure
Discover Aboriginal Experiences (DAE) features more than 200 Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander guided tours across Australia, offering meaningful ways to connect with Country, culture, and community year-round. Timing a journey around a festival or event - from national art markets and cultural gatherings to music performances and light shows - delivers an unforgettable layer to any Australian visit. Use this guide to explore key First Nations events across Australia alongside recommended DAE adventures to pair with each journey.
JANUARY
Putalina Festival (16 January 2027): In the southeast of Tasmania, Oyster Cove / putalina is a significant Indigenous historic site, home to an ex-convict government settlement that once housed – by forced residency – an Aboriginal community previously incarcerated at Wybalenna on Flinders Island. The festival makes a sad place one of celebration via music, cultural performances and workshops.
While you’re here: Lace up your hiking shoes for the stunning four-day wukalina Walk.
Yabun Festival (26 January 2027): This Sydney event is the largest single-day gathering that recognises Indigenous Australian culture. Artists from across the country come to showcase their skills, resulting in a jam-packed day of education and entertainment.
While you’re here: Head to Circular Quay to scale Sydney Harbour Bridge with a First Nations guide on the Burrawa Aboriginal Climb Experience.
FEBRUARY
Adelaide Festival (26 Feb – 14 March 2027): Inclusivity, creativity, sustainability and trust are the fundamental principles of this major cultural celebration in Adelaide, which has a dedicated curation of First Nations performances, whether theatre, music or dance.
While you’re here: Explore Adelaide’s Botanic Garden with an Aboriginal guide via Bookabee Australia.
Perth Festival (5 – 28 Feb 2027): This not-for-profit spotlights the oldest living cultures in the world by championing rich Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander traditions and contemporary arts practice.
While you’re here: Discover bush tucker and ancient stories in Kings Park with In Culture Tours.
MARCH
Ten Days on the Island (12 – 21 March 2027): Take a deep dive into Tasmanian cultural identity through transformative art experiences that are as innovative as they are educational. This biennial event is the only one of its kind to unite the state, with a strong focus on Aboriginal heritage.
While you’re here: Lace up your hiking shoes for the stunning four-day wukalina Walk.
APRIL
Heritage Festival (10 April – 9 May 2027): This event in Canberra and surrounds is dedicated to empowering younger Indigenous generations, inspiring them to become Custodians of culture and tradition through storytelling and performance art.
While you’re here: Head 200 kilometres south to Narooma on the coast for a two-night Yuin Retreat with Ngaran Ngaran Culture Awareness.
Parrtjima – A Festival of Light (9 – 18 April 2027): For 10 nights the MacDonnell Ranges outside Alice Springs are set aglow with illuminated Aboriginal artworks, light shows and a program of performances, interactive workshops, music and talks. Boorloo Heritage Festival (1 – 30 April 2027): A month-long homage to Perth's Noongar, colonial and multicultural history and heritage via walks, talks, exhibitions and performances.
While you’re here: Venture just north of Perth to take a deep dive into bush tucker on a Dale Tilbrook Experiences outing.
Uluru Festival (23 – 25 April 2027): This epic festival includes Inma (traditional songs and dances from the region) as well as demonstrations of Aboriginal painting, wood sculpting and bush plants and medicines. Indigenous creatives from around Australia descend to be part of the action.
While you’re here: Sit down to a memorable meal inspired by native produce at Voyages Tourism Australia’s Tali Wiru dining experience.
Shine on Gimuy (30 April – 9 May 2027): This immersive First Nations and Bama-led Cairns festival is a riotous union of Indigenous storytelling, innovative arts, music, performances and showcase of cultural practices.
While you’re here: Forage for mud crabs, learn how to throw a spear and wander the rainforest with a Kuku Yalanji guide from Walkabout Cultural Adventures.
MAY
National Reconciliation Week (27 May – 3 June 2027): This week celebrates two important milestones: the 1967 Referendum and the Mabo High Court decision, which are both significant in the reconciliation journey, with events and workshops across the country. Yirramboi Festival (6 – 16 May 2027): This international arts festival held in Melbourne is designed to challenge perceptions of culture, race, truth, identity and unity through forward-thinking Indigenous performances and workshops.
While you’re here: Stop past the Koorie Heritage Trust to view the exceptional art collection or take a guided tour along the Yarra River.
Taste of Kakadu (22 May 2027): A food experience unlike any other, this event provides visitors to Kakadu National Park with the opportunity to sample the unique flavours of the region and learn about Indigenous cooking practices.
While you’re here: Join an eye-opening Yellow Water cruise with Kakadu Tourism to learn about flora and fauna through an Indigenous lens.
JUNE
Cooktown Discovery Festival (18 – 20 June 2027): Located north of Cairns, Cooktown is a breathtakingly beautiful, and still unspoilt, pocket of the Cape York Peninsula. European and Indigenous cultures met here back in 1770 – it’s on these grounds that the Cooktown Discovery Festival takes place, sharing the settlement story through music, dance and food. Participate in art classes, watch reconciliation re-enactments, browse the village markets, learn about Indigenous culture on a cruise, or just watch the event’s culminating street parade. Barunga Festival (4 – 6 June 2027): Held southeast of Katherine in the Northern Territory, this event is all about sharing traditional culture with the community. It encourages people from every background to engage in traditional dance, spear throwing, weaving and cooking, in order to learn more about Australia’s First Nations people.
While you’re here: Soak up the sounds of epic Nitmiluk Gorge on a cultural cruise with Nitmiluk Tours.
Laura Quinkan Dance Festival (4 – 6 June 2027): Despite its name, the fete – Queensland’s longest-running Indigenous event – is about much more than dance. Around 1,000 performers from some 20 different Aboriginal communities gather to celebrate culture through music, storytelling, art, dance and workshops – there’s also a didgeridoo competition, yarning circles and a marketplace.
While you’re here: Gaze in awe at one of the world’s most significant collections of ancient rock art on an adventure with Jarramali Rock Art Tours.
JULY
NAIDOC Week (6 - 13 July 2027): This week-long, Australia-wide event celebrates the cultures, histories, and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. Cairns Indigenous Art Fair (8 – 11 July 2027): Celebrating the diversity of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures through colours, designs and artforms – from paintings to pottery and dance to song – the fair offers an ethical art marketplace, attracting national and international collectors and curators.
While you’re here: Channel your inner artist in a guided dot-painting workshop at Janbal Gallery.
National Indigenous Art Fair (2 – 4 July 2027): Indigenous creatives from communities around Australia tell their stories through both traditional works (like dot painting) and contemporary interpretations. This is your chance to meet the makers and purchase art, ethically, while in Sydney.
While you’re here: Get a taste for native flora and Indigenous history on an Aboriginal-guided walk around the Royal Botanic Garden Sydney.
Garma Festival (30 July – 2 August 2027): Hosted by the Yothu Yindi Foundation, Garma is a four-day gathering that aims to address and improve social equity for Indigenous peoples. Held at a remote ceremonial meeting ground in north-east Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory, guests can learn about Aboriginal Australia and the rich Arnhem Land Yolngu culture through talks, dance, arts and song, and camp under the stars at the end of each day. AUGUST
Shinju Matsuri – Festival of the Pearl (27 Aug – 12 Sept 2027): From art awards and parades to foodie events and live music, this enormous festival consumes Broome, revealing the city’s growing multicultural community.
While you’re here: Travel up to Cygnet Bay on the Dampier Peninsula and learn from guide Terry Hunter about his Aboriginal culture and the local pearling trade his family has been part of for four generations on a tour with Borrgoron Coast to Creek Tours.
SEPTEMBER
Kwarta Tuma Festival: Singers and musicians from Alice Springs and Central Australia are celebrated at this vibrant event, showcasing just how multicultural the region really is. Desert Mob: One of the oldest Aboriginal arts festivals unites everything from studio visits and curator talks to workshops and musical performances held across Alice Springs. Winds of Zenadth Cultural Festival (14 – 17 September 2027): Held on Thursday Island, the Winds of Zenadth Cultural Festival is a four-day explosion of Torres Strait Islander culture. Expect vibrant dance, rhythmic drumming, and powerful storytelling that bring the region’s rich seafaring history to life. Quandamooka Festival: Set on the beautiful island of Minjerribah / North Stradbroke Island, this event celebrates the rich traditions of the Quandamooka People. Expect traditional dance, music, art, bush tucker, and cultural workshops led by Traditional Owners.
While you’re here: Let Aboriginal guide Elisha Kissick show you her ancestral island on a guided Yura Tours adventure.
Kimberley Blak Pride Festival: The Kimberley region’s SBLGBTIQA+ community unites in Broome with friends and family during this epic celebration of culture.
While you’re here: See Broome and its surrounds through a First Nations lens with Kimberley Cultural Adventures.
OCTOBER
Tarnanthi Festival: Held every two years, this is a wonderous celebration of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, hosted at the Art Gallery of South Australia as well as independent galleries across Adelaide and the rest of South Australia.
While you’re here: Make the pilgrimage north to the Ikara-Flinders Ranges National Park where you can explore First Nations culture through Disocovery Resort - Wilpena Pound Cultural Experiences.
EverNow: Celebrating the Noongar season of birth and renewal (kambarang), this Perth festival includes exhibitions, interactive installations and the mesmerising Song Circle, a showcase of Indigenous song and dance.
While you’re here: Drive south to the Margaret River region of Western Australia to hear a haunting digeridoo performance inside a sacred cave with Koomal Dreaming.
DanceRites (2028): It’s fitting that one of Sydney’s most significant Aboriginal locations (Bennelong Point, aka the Opera House forecourt) hosts a competition to showcase emerging Indigenous performers, held every two years.
While you’re here: Discover the stories behind Indigenous art and artefacts on a guided tour of collections at the Australian Museum.
NOVEMBER
Giiyong Festival (2007): Held on the South Coast of NSW in the town of Eden, the biennial Giiyong Festival celebrates traditional and contemporary Aboriginal culture through dance, art, music, film, theatre, food, sport, workshops and cultural tours.
While you’re here: Journey north to Narooma for a multi-day Yuin Retreat with Ngaran Ngaran Culture Awareness.