Smoking ceremony

[2][3] In contemporary culture, elements of smoking ceremonies have been incorporated into Welcome to Country performances and other spiritual events held for the general public.

[6] Some Indigenous groups in Central Australia perform circumcision or subincision on boys as they come of age to welcome them into adulthood, marking the beginning of their involvement with men's business.

[8] Smoking leaves of the emu bush serves a dual purpose of cleansing one's spirit to connect them to their country and sterilising instruments used in the circumcision itself.

[1] Smoking ceremonies are conducted in a deceased person's space to aid their spirit in moving on from the material world[5] and purify or cleanse a location.

[1] The ceremony takes precedence over all other events and may involve smoking a deceased person's house, room or car to allow their spirit to return to country.

[5] Depending on the Indigenous Nation, smoking may be accompanied by sweeping of branches across a location, which is said to weaken the connection between the dead and living world and may have replaced the practice of burning the clothes and belongings of the deceased.

[10] Individuals light a fire when entering another group's country, signalling their entry to the people who live there, and acting as a call for help when necessary.

[11] During their 2018 royal visit of Australia, Fiji, Tonga and New Zealand, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex participated in a smoking ceremony to commemorate the unveiling of the Queens Commonwealth Canopy in K’Gari National Park.

[12] Butchulla elders performed the ceremony as a Welcome to Country, highlighting the focus on Indigenous forests encouraged by the Queen's Commonwealth Canopy program.

[16] Upon election to the Victorian Legislative Assembly in 2017, Senator Lidia Thorpe was inducted into her position wearing a traditional bosom fur cloth representing her ancestry as a Djab Wurrung Gunnai Gunditjmara woman.

While the oils are known to cause skin sensitization in people with allergies, fumigation does not carry the same risks to community members due to the decreased absorption and changes in chemistry that occur upon burning the leaves.