Topics: Culture
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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
North Coastal - view
sacred sites
South West - view
Glenda Chalker describes hopes to return to traditional fire practices, and the ways that her family are reclaiming other traditional ways
West - view
story teller explains that it is not just entertainment, there is a teaching in it as well. He goes on to play the story of the joey who couldn’t jump the fence on the didgeridoo.
South West - view
Auntie Frances Bodkin , speaking with Karen Maber , tells part one of the story of the lyrebird and how it came to speak all languages.
North Coastal - view
the knowledge that was taught to him as a child
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.
Before Cook - North Coastal - view
Other discoveries in middens include bone points with drilled holes or grass-tree resin glued to them, and small stone tools.
Women collect shellfish. Men use spears for fish, eastern grey kangaroo, swamp wallaby, red necked wallaby. Men and women hunt bandicoot, echidna, goanna, snake and birds and many other species. Huts are made of grass and bark ‘Kokorre’ .
A drink is made ‘Bool’ from soaking Banksia blossoms in water and allowed to ferment to make an invigorating drink.
Koories carry out annual burn-offs in late winter to assist in the capture of grass-eating animals. The green pick attracts game such as kangaroos and emus so they can be managed in a sustainable way. They gather sometimes annually at sites where traditionally food is available, for ceremonial business or for settlement of grievances, initiation ceremonies, betrothal and marriage, corroborees for the renewal of the natural environment and benevolent spirits. Bora grounds are used for some ceremonies. Clan meetings attract large numbers from Manly Cove, Collins Cove and Farm Cove. (Attenbrow 2003)