Thousands of people filled the lawns of King Edward Park on Wednesday night for the second annual Ngarrama.
The free Australia Day-eve event grew considerably from its inaugural iteration in 2022, with a smoking ceremony, Welcome to Country, dance, music, storytelling, and knowledge sharing all featured across the evening.
Ngarrama translates to 'to sit, listen and know' and offered people an opportunity to learn and celebrate First Nations culture in an effort to engage in meaningful reconciliation.
It was organised by the University of Newcastle in collaboration with Awabakal and the City of Newcastle.
Tracey Nelson attended both last year and on Wednesday, saying it was an "magnificent" event.
"We need more and more of these," she said.
"I'm so proud that there are more and the crowds are getting bigger. It's just beautiful.
"I'm so proud of all of us that come here and are making an effort, no matter your colour or where you come from."
Raymond Kelly from the University of Newcastle's Wollotuka Institute spoke on the night about "what it means to have a voice".
"And I'm not speaking about the campaign for the voice," Dr Kelly said.
"I'm speaking about our languages being communicated in our communities and in our schools and to each other."
Dr Kelly said in 1925, University of Newcastle Emeritus Professor John Maynard's grandfather held a conference at Kempsey Showground.
"Over 700 Aboriginal men and women came from as far afield as Western NSW," he said.
"At that event, they spoke about the challenges in their communities. They argued for better education.
"They argued for land rights. They argued for better health and well being.
"What we know today is that many, many of those papers that were delivered and communicated by people who attended that event were communicated in language.
"Aboriginal people got up and spoke about the world and the challenges they were facing in language."
He said these issues still remained for First Nations people today.
"In our communities, we have to find ways to sit down and have rational conversations about the challenges that each of our communities are facing," Dr Kelly said.
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