Woggan-ma-gule – An Aboriginal ceremony for Australia Day
Young boys waiting for their turn at Woggan-ma-gule ('meeting of the waters') in the Botanic Gardens, Sydney.
Most of the time girls and women dance separately from boys and men.
The didgeridoo ensemble calms the spirits and clears the minds of the performers in preparation of the ceremony.
Ceremonial music and song awakens, cleanses and honours the spirits and past inhabitants.
Painted patterns represent Aboriginal clans. Each pattern is individual and identifies its group like a business card.
Two young girls await their turn during the dance.
A girl concentrates on the right moves during the ceremony.
Aboriginal skin colour can vary greatly and does not make any individual 'more Aboriginal' than another.
The 'Dream Time' dance tells about the long grass, waterlily and goanna dreamtime.
The ceremony celebrates the lifecycle of the animals and creek bed too.
The Doonooch dancers of the Monero peoples used to live from the Snowy Mountains up north to Nowra in New South Wales.
Uncle Bobby McLeod reads a poem he wrote.
After the dance children pose for photographs.
Many young dancers were excited about the many photographers interested in taking pictures.
A proud Indigenous girl in front of the Aboriginal flag.
Black stands for the Aboriginal people, red for the mother earth and yellow for the sun.
Each year Aboriginal people perform an opening ceremony near the Botanic Gardens in Sydney. The ceremony maintains age-old custodial traditions.