The Awakening segment celebrated Australia's Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, which was claimed at the time to date back over 60,000 years. A special welcome was made to countries competing at the Games. A Yolngu elder and songman, Djakapurra Munyarryun, guided the girl through the indigenous ceremonies of connections to the land and the protocols for welcoming others to indigenous land. The segment featured Indigenous Australians from the Central Desert, the Numbulwar, Yirrkala, Ramingining and Manningrida peoples of Arnhem Land, Torres Strait Islanders, and the Koorie clan of NSW. The segment ended when the Wandjina-ancestral spirit appeared (in the form of a 32-metre diameter cloth in the style of rock portrait) roaring and flinging a lightning bolt to ignite a bushfire.