The Vigil: Adam Goodes dances in the spirit of Indigenous warriors at Sydney festival's 26 January reflection

Australian Rules footballer Adam Goodes once famously danced a “war cry” after kicking a goal. He was inspired by Indigenous children who play the sport, but the public backlash was swift. Now he has danced again, paying homage to his mother, a member of the stolen generations.

The dual Brownlow medallist and former Sydney Swans star was among more than 70 Indigenous men and boys taking part in Uralaku Thikina, the “dance home”, their faces, torsos and legs daubed in thick white ochre, to celebrate Indigenous men’s warrior strength and family responsibilities.

Related: Invasion Day: thousands attend vigils before 26 January protests and marches

Goodes and his dancing cohort gathered on Monday night as part of the third year of the Vigil, staged by Sydney festival annually on 25 January at Barangaroo on the Sydney harbour headland to mark the day before the First Fleet arrived in 1788, shattering Indigenous lives.

Yet spirit and culture lives on: the men stomped feet and clapped hands, having talked during the day’s rehearsals of leadership, teamwork, community and inclusion.

Now, they hushed. Goodes, 41, stood proudly and spoke of his mum, Lisa Sansbury, from the Adnyamathanha people of the Flinders Ranges whose name means “rock people”. He told the audience she was removed from her family at age five and put into a home. “For 50 years, disconnected,” said Goodes.

Then he turned to his own story: “Anything that is severed, can be healed. Can be reconnected. For me, it’s been about learning. Going to school. Educating myself. Talking to my ancestors.” Goodes could feel the spirit of Barangaroo, a warrior Cammeraygal woman, on this night. “I know she’s here with us. You can feel it in the wind, can’t you?”

The dance resumed, having been hailed by Goodes as a way to reconnect to culture. But then it stopped again. Journalist Stan Grant stepped into the spotlight, and we heard pre-recorded words by his father, Stan senior, who co-produced a Wiradjuri dictionary.

“That voice you can hear is the voice of my father, speaking the language of his father, and the language of his father before him,” said Grant, 56. “Wiradjuri men who cared for and loved this land and fought for this land, and have never surrendered this land.”

But Grant was keen to emphasise inclusion: “Tonight we stand here as one people.”

Prior to taking part in the dance himself, and celebrating his final year as Sydney festival artistic director, Noonuccal Nuugi man Wesley Enoch said the Vigil had succeeded as a ceremony of belonging and coming together.

Despite the Covid-19 pandemic and bushfires, positive things had emerged in the past 12 months, such as “the rise of Indigenous knowledges to help teach all of Australia how to live in this country,” he said.

“The idea of community and looking after each other as we face a terrible disease, and us coming through it.

“And maybe the best of all, we didn’t celebrate Captain Cook comin’.”

Enoch then held aloft a now defunct one dollar Australian note, which had featured “fantastic” art by Yolgnu artist David Malangi on one side and “some lady [Queen Elizabeth II] on the other”.

The 51-year-old pointed out that the bill carried a Captain James Cook watermark, although many young people might not remember the one dollar note. “We don’t have that anymore; we don’t have that shadow looking over us,” he said.

Related: Stories and spectacle: climbing Sydney Harbour Bridge for a First Nations view

“We believe in our strength as a community, and this poor fella, Captain Cook, didn’t know how to talk to us … Didn’t know how to engage with First Nations people. He can go. We don’t need him.

“We, as a sovereign nation, need to step out of the shadow of these narratives that held us back ... But also, the idea of the 26th of January, that those [First Fleet] ships are the beginning of time somehow. Like we were somehow just waiting for those ships to arrive and discover us. We can let that go.”

As cleansing smoke buoyed by strong Sydney Harbour winds billowed across the spotlit stage at Barangaroo, soul singer Emma Donovan sang Mob March, which she dedicated to anyone marching for change on 26 January.

“Wearing our colours proud,” she sang in her big, bluesy voice, before people made their way to sit around “yarning circle” camp fires. “Red, yellow and black, screaming land rights, reclaiming everything back.”

• The Vigil at Barangaroo was a Sydney festival event. If you couldn’t make it in person, you can stream it at SBS On Demand