Indigenous encounter

Yesterday morning as we walked through Edinburgh, we were quite surprised to see an Aboriginal man in full ceremonial decoration step out of a University building surrounded by a media pack.

Intrigued as to what he was doing in Scotland, we hung around and watched as he performed a traditional smoking ceremony, burning gum leaves and wafting the smoke around and over a covered box and the surrounding people. It smelled like home. It was a weird feeling.

It turns out that he and other members of his tribe, the Ngarrindjeri from the Coorong in South Australia, were in Scotland to retrieve the remains of ancestors taken for study.

It was very moving to observe and in some ways take part in this important step in healing for our indigenous people.

You can read some news reports about the ceremony here and here.