Aboriginal ceremony sending Australia Day joy up in smoke

When the sun rises over Bondi Beach on Australia Day this month it won’t just be surfers and early morning joggers enjoying the dawn.

Another group will be breathing in fumes from burning eucalyptus leaves as part of an ancient Aboriginal smoking ceremony believed to have spiritual and physical cleansing properties, as well as being a way to connect with ancestors.

The local council’s decision to stage its first Aboriginal morning reflection ceremony on Bondi Beach on January 26 this year reflects the growing unease about a public holiday which marks the anniversary of Britain invading a land that had been occupied by aboriginal people for at least 60,000 years.

Australia Day protests have been growing in the country’s major cities

WILLIAM WEST/GETTY IMAGES

Indigenous elders will discuss the persecution that followed the arrival of the English 235 years