24th Aug 2014 – Aboriginal Landscapes of the Baynton and Sidonia districts
Posted on 15 August, 2014 by Connecting Country
On Sunday 24th August the people of Baynton, Sidonia and surrounding districts are being offered a rare opportunity to learn about how Aboriginal people lived in the area up until 180 years ago.
Baynton Sidonia Landcare group is holding a seminar titled “Aboriginal Landscapes” and is delighted that some members of the Taungurung Clans Aboriginal Corporation (TCAC), who are Traditional Owners of this part of Victoria, will be offering some Aboriginal cultural workshops. Dr Gerry Gill, formerly of La Trobe University, Bendigo, will also give an illustrated talk and show a film he has recently made.
The Seminar will run from 2 pm to 8 pm on Sunday 24th August at the Baynton Hall, Darlington Road, Baynton. Participants are advised to wear warm clothes as some sessions will take place in a marquee. The Seminar is free and refreshments (including dinner) are provided.
Booking is essential, as places are limited, by phoning Clare on 54 234 152 or emailing clare@knco.net.
Taungurung cultural objects laid out for workshop participants to examine and admire.
Ms Trish Terry, Country and Community Strategic Initiatives Coordinator with the TCAC, said, “We are so pleased to be working with a Landcare group like the Baynton Sidonia group. People in the community are becoming increasingly interested in and curious about Aboriginal cultural heritage and it is great when a Landcare group acts as a conduit for that information to get out into the community. We look forward to working with them on future projects.”
After a Welcome to Country, members of the Taungurung Clans will run workshops on Stone Tool Making and Story Telling. Seminar participants will be offered a chance to try their hands at stone knapping (flaking) and a large supply of Bandaids has been purchased as the skill is nowhere near as easy as it looks in the hands of an expert.
Ms Trish Terry will lead an information session on recent developments in cultural heritage protection with time for questions. “As Traditional Owners of this country, we have significant obligations to care for our cultural heritage and preserve it for future generations to learn from, value and be inspired by. We are seeking to develop genuine partnerships with local landholders, so that working together we at least record, but preferably preserve, this heritage in a way that landholders can be proud of what they have on their place.”
In the second half of the seminar, Dr Gill will give participants an introduction to the social organisation and culture of the Aboriginal clans of this region and show us how we can still recognise the enduring presence and shaping influence of Aboriginal people on the landscape. Dr Gill will show some short documentary films he made in collaboration with Jaara Elder, Uncle Brien Nelson. These films reveal some of the cultural treasures of the region that are of great importance to both Aboriginal and non-Indigenous Australians.
Dr Gill is currently writing a book about a great local Aboriginal leader, Manungabum, and he will read some excerpts from the book. He will select three or four little stories that reveal what a strange and violent place the pastoral frontier of this district was in the period between 1836 and 1850.
Dr Gill commented that he is aware that some people believe that “nothing” is left in the landscape from before White settlement, but once people realize that historically, Aboriginal people, like us, chose to live near water and that many of the roads we use today were also the way Aboriginal people negotiated the landscape, they begin to be able to “read” the landscape more effectively. When landholders are shown tree scars, stone scatters, hearths and other remaining artifacts and once they get their eye “in”, they suddenly “notice” artifacts that they had not previously realized were there.
The Seminar has been funded by the Victorian and Australian governments through the North Central CMA-delivered Caring for the Campaspe and Kyneton Woodlands projects and the Victorian Landcare grants.
Interesting, do you offer any courses online? keep us posted
Hi Hubert,
This event was run by the Baynton-Sidonia Landcare group as a one-off day of learning about local Aboriginal landscapes. At the moment, Connecting Country isn’t planning to run any courses online, and I’m not aware of any local Landcare groups that do this either.
However, from our field days, we always include additional reference material on our website to extend the knowledge of those that did attend, and to provide some help to those that weren’t able to attend (http://connectingcountry.org.au/education-resources/education-program/).
Hope this is of some assistance.
Chris
I know that there are precious few (if any) places remaining but is there any chance of a place in this wonderful initiative? I’ve been out of action due to surgery so couldn’t reply sooner. p.s. I was the one with the sling at the recent bird id workshop in Castlemaine.