The Duchess of Sussex takes part in the Scar Tree Walk in Melbourne, Victoria (Image: PA)
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have taken part in a traditional Aboriginal walking tour in Melbourne, exploring thousands of years of Indigenous history along the banks of the city’s historic river.
Harry and Meghan joined the Scar Tree Walk on Thursday morning, a guided experience connecting traditional and contemporary Aboriginal cultures with the histories of the local Kulin Peoples. Dressed appropriately for a walk Down Under, Meghan wore a sand-coloured overcoat, with jeans and Harry a loose-fitting blue shirt. Both wore what appeared to be casual footware.
A scar tree — also known as a canoe tree or shield tree — is created when bark is removed by Aboriginal Australians for use in making canoes, shelters, weapons, tools, traps and containers.
Some are also created as a form of artistic and spiritual expression, marking places of significance such as burial sites and providing a link to 60,000 years of continuous culture.
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The walk is led by local Indigenous guides and begins at the Koorie Heritage Trust in Melbourne’s Federation Square, reports the Express and Star. Koorie is the term for Indigenous people from Victoria and parts of New South Wales.
From there, the route follows the Birrarung — known today as the Yarra River — winding through Birrarung Wilam, a river camp area featuring Aboriginal art pieces and contemporary installations.
The walk continues over William Barak Bridge, named after an elder of the Wurundjeri-willam clan, crossing Batman Avenue to reach a traditional Kulin Nation meeting place thousands of years old.
That meeting place is now the site of the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The walk concludes at the Scar Trees, a protected cultural heritage site in Yarra Park, where the continuation of local Aboriginal culture is explained to visitors.
The reception the pair have received in Australia has been mixed (Image: PA)
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex are together again on the third day of their Australian tour, with engagements planned across both Melbourne and Sydney.
The pair will travel to Sydney, where they will join members of the Invictus community for an event on Sydney Harbour.
The reception in the city may prove frosty. When the Sussexes arrived in Australia on Tuesday, Sydney residents were quick to dismiss the couple as irrelevant.
One local said: “They are very much about self-promotion. They are probably my least favourite royals, let’s put it that way.”
On Wednesday, Harry attended the Australian War Memorial and an Invictus Australia event without Meghan, opening up about his mental health struggles and the role therapy has played in his life.
“I knew that I had stuff from the past that I needed to deal with,” he said.
Addressing veterans at the Invictus event, he told the room: “your courage does not end when the uniform comes off.”
‘ The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties ’
‘ Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.express.co.uk ’
