Indigenous Cultural Adventures is a company based in Orange in Central New South Wales, and has been established with the blessing and approval of local Wiradjuri Elders. Local Indigenous man Gerald Power founded the company in September 2016, with a vision is to share the heritage and cultural knowledge of the region’s Wiradjuri nation with both visitors and residents alike. The Wiradjuri nation
has been deeply rooted in the Orange region and its surrounding districts for over 50,000 years. Through Indigenous Cultural Adventures, tour guests will be encouraged to explore the rich and vibrant culture of the Wiradjuri nation, while visiting ceremonial sites and other sites of cultural significance in the region. Starting with a Welcome to Country ceremony, the tours include a visit to the sacred Mount Canobolas pinnacle. Once the site of a traditional Bora (or Ceremonial) ground for male initiation ceremonies, this is a place held in great reverence by the local Indigenous Australian people - with some of the stories about Old Man Canobolas and Young Man Canobolas having been handed down from generation to generation. All cultural tours are hosted and guided by four local Wiradjuri Elders, and small groups of visitors will be taken off the beaten-path to see the site of Yuranigh’s burial site. Yuranigh was the renowned guide for Sir Thomas Mitchell, who explored and surveyed the Orange region in 1851. The site features a cluster of carved trees to signify the burial ground of a very important person. Guests on Gerald’s tours will also be introduced to the Wiradjuri culture through its food, and be introduced to traditional native ingredients that grow wild in the region which have sustained people living here for thousands of years. There are excellent foraging opportunities for bush tucka at the cultural site of the Borenore Caves, which will be a highlight of the tours. Gerald intends to immerse his guests in the foraging experience, sharing his knowledge of the nutritional and medicinal qualities of local native ingredients. The Borenore Caves themselves are highly culturally significant, as they are the traditional birthing grounds for Wiradjuri women from the surrounding districts.
“We wish to take the public on a journey about the First Nation People, and it’s about sharing our culture and heritage through experience of our country and the food that we have consumed and survived on for 50,000 years,” explains Gerald Power, Owner and Founder of Indigenous Cultural Adventures and Bush Tucka.
“We are giving our tours and food a 21st century twist though, as we believe it’s vital to acknowledge and identify that Australia is now a truly multicultural nation. Our Elders believe that it’s time to embrace the knowledge of the past, share it and move forwards into a great future together. This is the ethos of our cultural tours that we’d like to share with our guests, and to take people on a journey of knowledge and better understanding.”
At the end of each tour, guests will settle down with Gerald around a campfire to share a meal created from foraged native ingredients, watch the sunset and the stars, and listen to a few yarns about Wiradjuri stories and songlines. Indigenous Cultural Adventures and Bush Tucka will make its first debut at the Taste Orange @ Barangaroo food and wine festival, being held at Nawi Cove, Barangaroo Reserve in Sydney on Sunday 20 November. Gerald will be serving up kangaroo sliders and pies and other bush tucka to festival attendees, as well as introducing them to his cultural tours in the Orange region.
