Wominjeka means ‘welcome’ in the language of the Traditional Owners of the Melbourne area, the Boon Wurrung and Wurundjeri peoples of the Kulin Nation.

Wominjeka featured a Smoking Ceremony to bless FCAC’s new theatre and exhibition spaces, as well as a performance by Australian music legend and ARIA award-winner Bart Willoughby (of Coloured Stone, Yothu Yindi and Goanna fame). Aunty Carolyn Briggs, Senior Boon Wurrung Elder, led the Ceremony which included possum skin drumming – something which hasn’t occurred on the site for almost 150 years. Briggs is the founding Director of the Boon Wurrung Foundation – an organisation dedicated to maintaining, fostering and developing Boon Wurrung Indigenous culture and practices – which took up residence at FCAC in 2011.