Commonwealth Games opening: Prince Charles and Camilla blessed in Aboriginal smoking ceremony

PRINCE Charles and Camilla were blessed Aboriginal-style in an ancient smoking ceremony in the royal box as indigenous culture took centre stage at Wednesday night’s opening spectacular.

PRINCE Charles and Camilla were blessed Aboriginal-style in an ancient smoking ceremony in the royal box as indigenous culture took centre stage at Wednesday night’s opening spectacular.

Local Yugambeh Aboriginal artist Luther Cora and his family performed the ceremony in the middle of the stadium before the smoking bundle of plants was taken to the box to ‘cleanse’ the Prince and Duchess of Cornwall.

Striking indigenous themes dominated the ceremony which began with big screen images of 11-year-old Aboriginal girl Isabella Graham sitting in the crowd holding a mobile phone.

Isabella, the niece of Coast Games medal designer Delvene Cockatoo-Collins, raised the phone displaying the message: ‘Welcome to the oldest living culture on earth’.

Luther Cora and his family conduct a traditional smoking ceremony during the Opening Ceremony for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.

It signalling a countdown to a dramatic burst of blue pyrotechnics representing planet earth’s creation.

The smoking ceremony at the opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games on Wednesday night.

World-renowned didgeridoo player William Barton also starred, with images of him blowing his instrument atop Surfers Paradise super-tower Q1 before appearing in the stadium as part of the ‘Four Winds’ didgeridoo orchestra.

The traditional smoking ceremony is performed at the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony on Wednesday night.

Action from the smoking ceremony at the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony on the Gold Coast.

Luther Cora and his family conduct a traditional smoking ceremony during the Opening Ceremony for the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games.

Mau Power, the first hip-hop artist to emerge out of the Torres Strait, performed his upbeat rap remake of the Christine Anu hit before Anu herself joined him in the middle of the stadium.

Prince Charles and Camilla at the opening ceremony.

Daubed in ghostly paint and feathers and carrying smoking staffs, members of the acclaimed Bangarra Dance Theatre performed a totem ceremony which finished with a flyover by a giant wedge tail eagle created as part of a dazzling light show.

The athletes paraded around the stadium on an 8m wide ribbon of indigenous artwork created by renowned Torres Strait artist Brian Robinson.

A giant effigy of famed white whale Migaloo, lit up with images of Antarctica and the Great Barrier Reef painted by Cockatoo-Collins, floated across the stadium in a dramatic finale.