To know Australia is to discover Aboriginal culture. Australian Aboriginal culture is the oldest continuous culture in the world. Tribal groups had their own languages, traditions, and customs, many of which still exist today.
Introduce your students to a 40,000-year-old culture, and see what parallels exist between Australian aborigines and the indigenous people of their home country.
Aboriginal Culture is featured in all of the following educational excursions:
Aboriginal Culture Discovery
6 Days / 5 Nights
Introducing Australia's Indigenous People & Culture
Trips starting from: $995 per student
Agriculture and Agronomy
10 Days / 9 Nights
Agriculture in the Australian Tropics
Trips starting from: $2195 per student
Australian Flora and Fauna - For Adults
7 Days / 6 Nights
The Unique World of Australia's Plants and Animals
Trips starting from: $2525 per person
9 Days / 8 Nights
Australia's Wild Country and Characters
Trips starting from: $1865 per student
Australia-New Zealand Adventure
14 days/13 nights
The Best of New Zealand and Australia!
Trips starting from: from $3435 AUD
Australian Tropical Biology
14 Days / 13 Nights
Marine and Terrestrial Biology in the Tropics
Trips starting from: $2745 per student
12 Days / 11 Nights
An Outdoor Adventurer's Paradise
Trips starting from: $2485 per student
Best of Australia
11 days/10 nights
Unforgettable Sydney, Gold Coast, Reef, Outback and Rainforest
Trips starting from: $2295 per student
Ecosystems at Risk: Reefs and Rainforests
6 Days / 5 Nights
Geography Studies at The Earth's Biodiversity Hot Spots
Trips starting from: $1195 per student
Outback Reef and Rainforest
7 Days / 6 Nights
Australia's Lands of Legend
Trips starting from: $1225 per student
Sustainability and Service
8 Days / 7 Nights
An Adventure That "Green" Dreams Are Made Of
Trips starting from: $1695 per student
Through Small World Journeys’ relationships with members of the Yidinji, Tjapukai, Jirrbal and Kuku Yalanji clans, we can match the cultural learning objectives of any student group. Contact us learn more about how your students can benefit from one of our Educational Adventures.
Any of the following can be combined into your custom education tour in Australia:
Rainforest Walk with Aboriginal Elder
Meet with and talk to members of one of Australia’s last remaining rainforest culture that has retained its language and traditions. By walking in the rainforest with an aboriginal elder, learn how aboriginal people found their food, made fire, found medicine and even soap from what the Daintree Rainforest had to offer. View important rock art, and understand the culture’s rites of passage and traditions.
Hand-Craft a Didgeridoo
The didgeridoo is an integral part of ceremonial and spiritual life, and perhaps the most meaningful symbols of aboriginal Australia. Under the instruction of an indigenous family, create your own didgeridoo and then learn how to properly play it. Then you take this unique souvenir of Australia home with you.
Traditional Hunting and Tracking
Let two brothers of the Kuku Yalanji tribe help your students find mud crabs, mussels, and other “bush tucker” (food) among the mangroves. Then learn how to throw spears to catch seafood the traditional way, and cook up what you’ve caught.
Witness a dance performance at an aboriginal culture park. Held in an outdoor theatre set in a natural forest amphitheatre, watch a live performance celebrating traditional Tjapukai corroborees and song.
Boomerang Throwing and Painting
Yes, they actually come back to you! Understand the significance of the boomerang and how they were cleverly used for hunting. Learn proper throwing technique and what makes them return. Listen to the Aboriginal story telling, and then create the story through your art on the boomerang.
Aboriginal-Guided River Kayaking
Paddle down a tropical rainforest river with an Aboriginal guide to the cultural story places of the Jirrbal Aboriginal people and understand how sites have “storylines” – memories and meanings. With your guide stop to observe significant plants–trees and plants and vines all have a special name and use– learn how they looked to nature for cues on how and when to conduct their daily activities.
Weaving of the “jawun” (dilly bag) is unique to the rainforest Aboriginal people of North Queensland, and woven objects were used for both every day and ceremonial uses. The knowledge of how to make the distinctive bicornal basket styles has been passed down through ancestors, and you meet two of the few remaining Jirrbal basket weavers. Under these Aboriginal ladies guidance, you try your hand at some simple weaving– using the traditional twisting lawyercane vine–to make a bracelet to take home.
You are taught about the traditional uses of Aboriginal rainforest shelters and the essential skill of how to make them. You are then given a team challenge to re-create an exact replica of one built by your indigenous guide. The winning team receives a reward, but everyone enjoys an accomplishment.
Interested, But Don’t Know Where to Start?
Even if you don’t see your group’s interest above, chances are we can make it happen. Our trips are hand-crafted for those who cannot find exactly what they want from the inflexible set itineraries of large tour operators.
Call or email to see what we can offer your group!