A dozen bare-chested dancers wearing body paint performed songs and dances in front of hundreds of people, including dozens of nuns wearing turquoise scarves from the order that MacKillop helped found.
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd, who formally apologised for the treatment of indigenous Australians in 2008, attended the show and opened an exhibition of Aboriginal art in the Vatican museum.
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"I think all Australians, whether they be Catholic or not... are looking forward to an extraordinary weekend of celebrations in honour of an extraordinary Australian woman," Rudd told reporters.
MacKillop (1842-1909) is due to be formally recognised as a saint by the Roman Catholic Church at a mass in front of Saint Peter's basilica Sunday to be celebrated by Pope Benedict XVI with thousands in attendance.
"This is a wonderful place... this is a place of great beauty, of great spirituality," Rudd said, as he opened the exhibit of around 100 indigenous Australian works from the Vatican collections.
Nereda White, an associate professor for indigenous studies at the Australian Catholic University in Brisbane, said: "Mary MacKillop had a deep concern for the education of indigenous peoples."
The works on show included painted didgeridoos, boomerangs, spears and headdresses from the 19th and 20th centuries, many of which were donated to the papacy by Aboriginal Catholics, organisers said.
