Blak Markets at La Perouse

La Perouse has one of the longest continuous Aboriginal community histories in Sydney, and the Blak Markets are held where that matters most: on the headland beside Bare Island, looking across Botany Bay. Four times a year, twenty-odd First Nations businesses set up for the day and the market comes with a festival attached.

A market and a programme, together

The stalls carry authentic Aboriginal artworks, jewellery, homewares and beauty products, and the word authentic is doing real work: this is a market where the maker or their community sells directly, which is not true of most places selling Aboriginal art in Sydney. Alongside the stalls runs a programme of music, traditional dance, weaving workshops and activities for children, so the market functions as a cultural day rather than a shopping trip with a soundtrack.

It is run as a collaboration between Randwick City Council and First Hand Solutions Aboriginal Corporation, which is why the programming is substantial rather than decorative and why the market has held its footing across years rather than appearing once.

Good to know before you go

Bring cash as well as cards, and bring time: five hours with a full programme running is not a market you walk through in twenty minutes. Parking around La Perouse fills on market days and on any sunny weekend, so arriving early is worth it twice over. Bare Island itself is worth the walk across the causeway while you are there, and the headland has some of the best views in Sydney. If you are buying art, ask the stallholder about the work: that conversation is much of the point of a market like this one.