The Awakening

The Awakening is a traditional Aboriginal ritual that holds the spirituality for the 5 Lands Walk. It is a dawn ceremony usually held one week before the 5 Lands Walk at Kincumba Mountain, which is of significant cultural and spiritual value to the local Aboriginal community. It has also been held at dawn on the beaches of the 5 Lands.

Sharing food is a tradition in almost all cultures on Earth, including in Aboriginal culture. So those who attend the Awakening bring some food to share after the ceremony

"We look to the “Morning Star, the first light, and remember Baiyami and Gyian the Whale’s journey from the Mirrabooka (the Milky Way) to spread the kinship system among all living things - as Baiyami descended upon the empty land he crushed the mountain of Yango and suddenly a light appeared in the eastern sky, it was the birth of the Morning Star” (Darkinjung Elder Gavi Duncan)

"The Awakening reminds us of what is required to be reconciled to one another and to Mother Earth" (The Reverend Dr. Jonathon Inkpin).

The ceremony will take place at the important women's site at the summit of Kincumba Mountain. Just turn up on the morning at the kiosk building. You can find it by following Kincumber St, Kincumber, past Kincumber High and Holy Cross schools, and proceed past the turning bay through the gate into Kincumba Mountain Reserve. Then follow the narrow, sealed road up the hill for about 2 km. The kiosk is the on your left; it's the only building up there.