Topics: Culture
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West - view
Currently Chris works as a cultural interpreter for NSW National Parks . For Chris Tobin, his identity gives him heritage, responsibilities and a deep sense of belonging.
North West - view
fight to protect a local art site
West - view
Uncle Neddy , who cared for him and shared old stories and knowledge with him and his mother
Central - view
Uncle Gordon Briscoe remembers The Greek Café in Redfern as a place of continuity for Aboriginal people. It was a convenient meeting place for families where they could have tea or a milkshake and then hop on a tram and explore the rest of Sydney.
South West - view
Auntie Frances Bodkin describes how stories travelled across the continent, tracing trade routes
North Coastal - view
a recent ceremony and re-understandings have brought them together again .
South West - view
Auntie Glenda Chalker discusses the history of known remains from the Appin Massacre of 1816, which some of her ancestors survived and some may not have
Central - view
the power of creating and letting all Aboriginal people dance in their own way, be that traditional or contemporary.
South West - view
Auntie Frances Bodkin explains how Aboriginal science, unlike Western science, has always highlighted the importance of connections
North Coastal - view
Women’s and Men’s Business that is all through this country
South West - view
Auntie Glenda Chalker describes her relationship to country
West - view
Uncle Dennis shares their stories and his memories of the individuals and families and the connections between them, giving an insight into what they meant to each other.
Central - view
To imbue the college with practices and values and principles that are truly Aboriginal
South West - view
tells of traditioinal stories that teach of the near and distant past . She also explains the differences between D’harawal peoples depending on which waterways they are most connected to, yet how they are all linked by these waterways.
North Coastal - view
Songlines that go across present day Sydney, into Queensland and across to Central Australia
Before Cook - North Coastal - view
The Guringai (Kuringai) speakers are thought to be the original inhabitants of northern Sydney and the inner eastern harbour regions. Guringai-speaking clans of about 40 to 60 people were made up of smaller extended family groups of perhaps a dozen people.
Before Cook - North Coastal - view
The Cameraigal were considered by the first fleet author Collins as “by far the most numerous tribe of any within our knowledge” (Collins 1975, p. 453). Richard Hill of the Aborigines Protection Board wrote that the “Cammera” people extended from the northern part of Sydney Harbour, “say from North Head to Lane Cove River or estuary, right away north to the Hawkesbury, and away east to the sea coast” (Hill and Thornton 1892). Cammeragal, therefore, seems to have been a collective name for a strong alliance of clans on the north harbour of Port Jackson.
In the harbour area of Port Jackson, people may have called themselves Eora and the name for man or people was ‘mulla’ . This was recorded in vocabularies by Phillip Gidley King, William Dawes, John Hunter and Daniel Southwell. Recent research suggests that ‘Eora’ did not signify a definite clan or group. The consensus among linguists is to describe the language spoken in this region as the Sydney language as suggested by Dr Jakelin Troy. (Troy 1994)
Before Cook - North Coastal - view
Koori people are living on the east coast of Australia. Observers of the first fleet note many formal ceremonies including burying and cremating the dead, and initiation rituals such as ‘era-bad-djang’ where the upper right incisor tooth of young males is loosened and knocked out (this called yoothsay in Cameraigal language). Koradji (clever men) carry out ceremonial rituals, often in the higher, sandstone country. Young girls have the first two joints of the little finger removed by pressure from spider web or wild string tied children. They become ‘mal-gum’ fisher women.
Observers in the First Fleet also note the very large number of rock engraving (at least 180 art sites in the Hawkesbury River region). Some are secret-sacred sites for men and women, other are for the education of young people to be initiated. Subjects represented in carvings include Daramulan, the one legged god who is present at initiation ceremonies and Baiami, the sky-culture hero. Other subjects represented on rock platforms are mundoes (footprints), fish and ancestral beings and stories engravings. Koories also produce ochre paintings of animals and handprints. In both cave and on rock platforms, totemic figures were also reproduced in soil and sand during ceremony. (See NSW Department of Education and Training nd, http://www.rumbalara-e.schools.nsw.edu.au/publications/mypeople1.pdf )
Many blade and axe grinding sites are still to be found, mostly near running water.
Trade items like chert stones from the Upper Hawkesbury are traded to make axes and for artefacts used in ceremonies. Also traded are stones for tool making, food, clay, whale blubber and ochre. Koori women and men use bone awls (needles) to sew possum skin cloaks, and fashion fishhooks by grinding sea shells.
Inter-tribal fights and ritual spearings are not uncommon.