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First Knowledges Ceremony: All Our Yesterdays for Today
What do you need to know to prosper as a people for 65,000 years or more? The First Knowledges series provides a deep understanding of the expertise, wisdom and ingenuity of Indigenous Australians.
We perform ceremonies every day. Some are personal, some highly organised and others are repeated for generations. For First Nations Australians, ceremonies create the backbone of cultural practice.
All Yesterdays for Today tells how Indigenous ceremonies link people today to those of the past in a continuum of inherited stories, places and memories - from rites of passage to smoking ceremonies and Welcomes to Country, and many others.
The authors focus on examples from their lives, including personal ceremonies from Quandamooka waterways and lands, community-centred ceremonies held by Warlpiri people in the Tanami desert, stories told to them by Elders and experiences of performing at Opening ceremonies for national events. Stories of ceremony are vast and diverse and many ceremonies are of a secret scared nature and cannot be told to those not initiated or intimately connected to the people, as the authors acknowledge. Rather, this book highlights the importance of ceremony across time and place on both a personal as well as national level that recognises and celebrates Australia's First Nations history and culture.
'Ceremonies can take many forms; in First Nations cultures it is the sense of intergenerational observance that connects us to our families, our Countries and our histories. Ceremonies are a way of connecting all our yesterdays to today.'
- Wesley Enoch
We perform ceremonies every day. Some are personal, some highly organised and others are repeated for generations. For First Nations Australians, ceremonies create the backbone of cultural practice.
All Yesterdays for Today tells how Indigenous ceremonies link people today to those of the past in a continuum of inherited stories, places and memories - from rites of passage to smoking ceremonies and Welcomes to Country, and many others.
The authors focus on examples from their lives, including personal ceremonies from Quandamooka waterways and lands, community-centred ceremonies held by Warlpiri people in the Tanami desert, stories told to them by Elders and experiences of performing at Opening ceremonies for national events. Stories of ceremony are vast and diverse and many ceremonies are of a secret scared nature and cannot be told to those not initiated or intimately connected to the people, as the authors acknowledge. Rather, this book highlights the importance of ceremony across time and place on both a personal as well as national level that recognises and celebrates Australia's First Nations history and culture.
'Ceremonies can take many forms; in First Nations cultures it is the sense of intergenerational observance that connects us to our families, our Countries and our histories. Ceremonies are a way of connecting all our yesterdays to today.'
- Wesley Enoch
- GenresNonfiction
225 pages, Kindle Edition
Published May 8, 2025
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21 people want to read
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October 6, 2025
"When I asked an Elder what the major difference was between our storytelling and the Western form of theatre, they said, ‘In our ceremony there is no audience, everyone is a waiting participant who could get involved at any moment.’ I translate this through the idea that everyone was an active participant in the making of First Nations ceremonies and had prior knowledge of the ceremony being enacted through long-term cultural engagement." - Wesley Enoch, First Knowledges Ceremony
This is an excellent series, and this is one of my favourite outings in the series. Enoch and Curran make a good team, coming at the topic from very different perspectives. As an artist, Enoch writes with an easy, engaging style. Curran has a more academic inflection, packing a wealth of detail in. Both are engaged with the idea of how ceremonies adapt, change and function in connection. Enoch looks at both how First Nations enact ceremony, and how they have responded to ceremonies such as ANZAC and Australia Day. Curran explains a myriad of different, and evolving, uses of ceremony in communities, especially the Warlpiri. Together it makes for a book which lingers long after the slim volume has been consumed.
This is an excellent series, and this is one of my favourite outings in the series. Enoch and Curran make a good team, coming at the topic from very different perspectives. As an artist, Enoch writes with an easy, engaging style. Curran has a more academic inflection, packing a wealth of detail in. Both are engaged with the idea of how ceremonies adapt, change and function in connection. Enoch looks at both how First Nations enact ceremony, and how they have responded to ceremonies such as ANZAC and Australia Day. Curran explains a myriad of different, and evolving, uses of ceremony in communities, especially the Warlpiri. Together it makes for a book which lingers long after the slim volume has been consumed.
Displaying 1 of 1 review