by For many first-time British visitors to Melbourne, the city immediately feels familiar. It’s all as you imagine: Aesop’s hand wash, avocado on toast (big news – giant pretzels have edged out sourdough as a brunch staple), third-wave coffee culture, and a predominantly white population. Except, of course, that Australia only recently became a predominantly white country, and places like Melbourne weren’t always cities.
In recent years there has been much debate about exactly who owns this land, and a movement to recognize the status of First Nations and Torres Island.
The optics suggest a change. In Sydney, the first gallery you come across at the shiny Modern Sydney Project is dedicated to the masterpieces and up-and-coming work of First Nations artists. In Melbourne – the country’s most liberal urban hub – tens of thousands march through the streets wearing Aboriginal flags on Australia Day on January 26, with most Gen Z and Millennial locals rebranding as Invasion Day. Emotions can run high from time to time.
This year, a statue of Captain Cook was demolished in the city and the plinth was defaced. The incident came just three months after a referendum failed to give the green light to a planned advisory body that would have given Indigenous Australians a permanent voice in parliament, although many on both sides agree it was a bogus proposal and campaign. there.
Many travelers only imagine the Red Centre, Uluru and the Outback when they think of First Nations culture, but five original clans, who make up the Kulin Nation, lived in Naarm (Melbourne) and the city is newly- a modern day full of surprises and the First National. culture. These days, many restaurants and hotels acknowledge through plaques and their websites that they operate on land belonging to a particular named tribe, and that the state’s sovereignty has – controversially – never been surrendered.
Eating
If you do nothing else in Melbourne, go and eat things that are almost impossible to find on other continents. Many of the ingredients have been Aboriginal staples for centuries. At the highest level, you’ll find Attica (00 61 3 9530 0111; attica.com.au) in Melbourne. Head chef Ben Shewry took it over in 2015 and it’s constantly changing, always surprising. Currently, you’ll find a menu with barbecue saltwater crocodile ribs (“The chef recommends it with your fingers,” says the waiter as he arrives), wattle dhal, liver toast, and green ants on your sundae.
Attica is a four-hour, blow-the-budget AU$260 experience. For a casual but no less unusual taste of First Nations grub, head to the Great Esso (00 61 3 9121 0510; mabumabu.com.au) in Federation Square – founded by national treasure Nornie Bero, Torres Strait Islands who is identical to Nigella and the founder of Mabu Mabu cafe and grocery store. This is a bubbly, bright pink restaurant on the Wurundjeri People’s land that serves charred liver and wild boar with native grass lemon and pig’s blood. An evening here is as much fun as it is educational and will set you back around AU$80 each with cocktails. (When you go, stop next door to the Koorie Heritage Trust, a wonderful free-to-enter institution that showcases the work of modern First Nation artists.)
In the 1970s, the Builders Arms Hotel (00 61 3 9417 7700; buildersarmshotel.com.au), now a swanky gastro pub with restaurateur Andrew McConnell, was the only hip place in Fitzroy that served Aboriginal customers. McConnell and his team are proud of the building’s place in the area’s history, and work with the Yalinguth organization to keep the stories of the Builders Arms’ past alive, with a view to creating an inclusive future.
Pawa (pawacatering.com.au) is the city’s latest First Nations culinary opening at the Arts Centre, serving lilly pilly croissants, strawberry gummy brownies and kangaroo meat pies as well as cocktails made using from the kitchen’s own distilled Taka Gin.
Shopping
Australian Vogue always celebrating the work of First Nations designers, but it’s often hard to find. Graphic printed T-shirts by Gammin Threads are on sale at the aforementioned Big Esso, which sells sweatshirts for AU$99; The pop art jewelery by Haus of Dizzy can be found in various shops around town.
Head to Ngali (00 61 3 9686 4550; ngali.com.au), which translates as “we”, in the Docklands, for a super-slick store full of patterned silk dresses (AU$395) curated by Wiradjuri founder, Denni Francisco , then head to Brunswick to Clothing The Gaps (00 61 413 344 590; clothingthegaps.com.au ). The shop is so boldly painted in the black, red and yellow of the Aboriginal flag (as are the clothes inside), that it is almost an art installation in itself.
When you enter, an assistant greets you and asks if you’ve been in before. No? “Okay, so almost all sportswear is ‘friendly’, but that ‘Sovereign’ clothing rack over there is ‘mob only’.” (This means it is for members of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities only.)
Culture
One of the most exciting experiences you’ll have in Melbourne is a First Nations guided tour of the Botanic Gardens. In Melbourne, stay at the United Places (from AU$650 per night, 00 61 3 9866 6467; unitedplaces.com.au) a boutique hotel with a breakfast basket delivered to your room each morning), overlooking the gardens. It’s one of the most modern and luxurious hotels in the city, with a magazine-style polished-concrete interior and beyond, with Scott Pickett’s open-fire grill restaurant downstairs.
After breakfast, sign up for a tour of the Botany ($40), where a guide will tell you the history of the tribes that once lived around Naarm and disappeared some time before the tower blocks, and show you plants that used to be there from day to day. essentials – from spells that tasted like snow peas, plants that served as bandages, and soft leaves that had preceded Andrex for centuries.
Head to Bunjilaka Bunjilaka Melbourne Museum and Cultural Center (00 61 13 11 02; museumsvictoria.com.au/bunjilaka), which has a permanent interactive exhibition about Koorie culture, open every day ($15). As well as a comprehensive exhibition of artefacts, and some great stories, there are seasonal exhibitions – until 21 April you can see Unfinished Business, a series of photographic portraits of people with disabilities across the country.
You’ll already be at the Great Esso for lunch, and you’ve visited its neighbour, the Koorie Heritage Trust (00 61 8662 6313; koorieheritagetrust.com.au), but make sure you book one of the regular walks guides Birrarung Wilam (River Camp). ($33) organized by the latter, introducing sacred sites along the river and the surrounding neighborhoods, showing what the city was like when it was completely Kulin Nation.
You absolutely must make time in Melbourne for a 90-minute drive north and an overnight stay at The Mitchelton Vineyard (00 61 3 5736 2222; mitchelton.com.au; from $644 per night), the most luxe lodge such close to the city. Everything is dreamy, from the scenery to the cellar door tasting, pool and restaurant.
But the main reason you have to visit it is that it is home to the largest commercial gallery of First Nations art in the country. It was almost destroyed by a flood in 2022, and many masterpieces were lost, but it is now back up and running with a new exhibition, constantly changing and selling. This is no glorified gift shop – the collection of connoisseur actor and comedian Steve Martin includes an almost minimalistic monochrome work by Bill Whiskey Tjapaltjarri and goes for tens of thousands of dollars.
Basics
Mark C. O’Flaherty was a guest of Visit Victoria and Visit Melbourne.
