“We are here today to connect the yesterdays with today and tomorrow,” said Jeffrey Newchurch, chair of the Kaurna National Cultural Heritage Association, who was impressed to see so many young people taking part in the ceremony, including 300+ students from neighbouring Adelaide Botanic High School.

Young Kaurna young people were also chosen to lead the smoking ceremony to symbolise leadership into a new era.

“It’s about our young people shaping our position, which was (for) a long time not afforded to Kaurna, to come back on country, to work together with the state government,” he said.

After a performance by Kuma Karro Dance Group, featuring Jack Buckskin on didgeridoo, Kaurna representative Allan Sumner led the smoking ceremony.

“Smoking has been done for many thousands of years around the world by many cultures as a cleansing ceremony. As the smoke goes over the country, we believe that it purifies the country,” he said.

“The site itself comes with years of history, years of grief. We have lost many people on this site, many people have passed away on this site.

“But now something new is starting to appear in this place. Something that’s good for Kaurna people and our community as a whole.”

From the banks of Karrawirra Parri (River of the Reg Gum forest; River Torrens) to the waterholes of Kainka wirra (Eucalypt forest, Adelaide Botanic Garden), the Country within and around Lot Fourteen has been important to the Kaurna people for more than 50,000 years. The areas around Lot Fourteen were a place for the Kaurna to practice culture and continued to provide refuge for many years after the arrival of the British settlers.

The new centre would create sustainable career pathways in arts and culture as more Aboriginal people would be encouraged to participate as artists, administrators and business owners.

The ceremony concluded with Mr Sumner taking the smoke throughout Lot Fourteen, accompanied by VIPs and other participants in the ceremony.

Renewal SA, which is developing Lot Fourteen on behalf of the state government, is in a growing partnership with the Kaurna to embed culture within the neighbourhood, to manage heritage values and to ensure that it provides economic opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples.