Tiwi Island First Nations Cultural Tour
Our Tiwi Island Tour gives travellers to Australia a rare chance to become absorbed within a modern Aboriginal community located in the spectacular surrounds of Bathurst Island in the Northern Territory. By visiting the ancestral lands of the Tiwi people, you’ll be left with an incredible insight into the culture and traditions often overlooked by visitors to the region. This full-day excursion begins in Darwin and includes lunch and transportation.
Tour Details
Operates: Monday, Thursday & Friday (June – August) / Thursday & Friday (April – May & September – March)
Departs: 7:30am
Returns: 5:45pm
Available Fares
Adult from: $419
Child from: $295
Infant from: $0
Important Information
Child prices are available for children aged 2 – 15 years. Infants under the age of 2 years travel free on the lap of a parent.
Please ensure you bring sufficient cash on the day as there are no card or eftpos facilities on the island.
Tiwi Island First Nations Cultural Tour Itinerary
Your epic day among the Tiwi people begins by boarding the ferry in Darwin’s docks and sailing due north across the warm waters of the Beagle Gulf to Bathurst Island. Fictionalized as Mission Island in the Baz Luhrmann movie Australia, you’ll land after approximately 2.5 hours at the island’s largest settlement, Wurrumiyanga.
Here you’ll be met by a local guide, who will escort you through this town of 1500 people to important sites including the Roman Catholic Mission founded in 1910.
You’ll then have time to get to know some of the personalities that call Wurrumiyanga their home, spending time with the Tiwi ladies as they paint and weave, before being blessed by the community in the traditional Smoking Ceremony.
Lunch is equally memorable, since you’ll be served billy tea which has been boiled in a billy can over an open fire. It comes with damper bread, cooked in the ashes of the fire on a stick, just as the earliest European settlers would have enjoyed it.
Be sure not to eat too much though, as your tour of this thriving community doesn’t end until after you’ve explored the incredible handicrafts available for sale at the arts and crafts centre, such as screen-printed fabrics and authentic dot paintings.
While your day with the people of Bathurst Island must end, it ends with a flourish, with the magnificent vistas of Darwin which come into view with the ferry journey back to mainland Australia.
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