Murray Darling Basin

Brewarrina

Bradley Hardy, a Ngemba Educator at Brewarrina Aboriginal Cultural Museum, stands beside the ancient fish traps as he concludes his sharing of Aboriginal culture and protocols.

 

TRANSCRIPT

I brought you to this last spot to share with you our ochre. So that's your orange, your red, your yellow, your brown, your grey - all your different colours. So our people used the ochre to paint themselves up to do their corroboree, ceremony, dance, skin healing medicine, skin nourishment. They'd also use it for burial.

Friends, everything our people needed in the old days was here. Fish, water, bird life, corroboree, ceremony, dance, meeting place, gathering place, place of peace, place of love, place of burial. Everything our people needed was here.

What's so powerful about this place after all these years?

It's still a meeting place. Look, I met you.

It's still a gathering place. Look what we're doing.

It's still a sharing place. Look what we're doing, for all different tribes.

So it's still a meeting place, still a gathering place, still a sharing place for all the different tribes.

So, we're different tribes to what back then, but it's still a meeting place, still a gathering place, still a sharing place for all different tribes.

We're all from different tribes, we're all from different people, we meet here. That's what makes this place so powerful. It's still a meeting place, still a gathering place, still a sharing place.

Now, so that's my duty to make you feel comfortable, make you feel welcome, 'cause thousands of years before me, that's what my old people did to visiting tribes in this area. And visiting tribes that came through from different areas. Our people would make them feel welcome, makes them feel comfortable, and share this place with them.

So that's our duty, to keep it evolving.

So I'll share one more thing with you.

You're important.

Why you're important?

You could've been anywhere else today, but you chose to come here.

By you choosing to come here, you help keep our culture evolving, keep it alive.

Thank you for coming in. Thanks, friends, for coming in.

 

Story Map

Story Menu

April 2021
Menindee with Barkindji Elder and Artist Badger Bates

March 2021
The Great Artesian Basin with Artist and Educator Bonita Ely

March 2021
Darling Downs with Writer Sarah moles

March 2021
Brewarrina with Ngemba Educator Bradley Hardy

March 2021
Lake Mungo with Ngiyampaa man Lance Jones

February 2021
Mildura with Wemba Wemba Educator Sandra Stewart

December 2020
Gwydir Wetlands with Gamilaroi Scientist and Educator Bradley J. Moggridge