'Guraban: where the saltwater meets the freshwater' catalogue

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander viewers are advised that this catalogue contains images of deceased persons.

Clan groups along the Georges River, 2022 Digital map Courtesy of the Gujaga Foundation

Foreword

Guraban: where the saltwater meets the freshwater is a significant exhibition for Hurstville Museum & Gallery.

As a converged facility – both a museum and a gallery – this marks the second time our exhibition space has simultaneously reflected our two halves. Often alternating between a social history (or ‘museum’) exhibition and a visual arts (or ‘gallery’) show, this exhibition showcases the full potential of a combined facility, as we present side by side aspects of the First Nations history of the Georges River accompanied by works of art responding to the themes and objects on display.

While the Georges River was explored by Europeans in the 1790s, it has played an important role for the Bidjigal People, the Traditional Custodians of this region, and many other First Nations communities. For thousands of years First Nations peoples have lived along this waterway - the Dharug, Bidjigal, Cabrogal to the north and the Dharawal, Gandangara, Norongaragal and Gweagal to the south. The river has always been an important focal point for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander life and culture in southern Sydney, for food, transport, and trade, as well as the land, flora and fauna, the sea, and sky, all part of embedded connections to Country.

Taking its name from the Dharawal word for bitterwater, Guraban, meaning where the saltwater meets the freshwater, combines historical objects, documents and photographs sourced from public and private collections, positioned alongside the work of commissioned First Nations visual artists,

Dennis Golding, Jenine Boeree and Nicole Monks, (mother and daughter), Djon Mundine, Marilyn Russell and Jason Wing. Through these art works multiple connections to the Georges River and its history are explored along with its continuous, ongoing associations with First Nations communities. Funding secured from Create NSW has made possible these commissioned artworks by leading First Nations artists.

Guraban was developed in collaboration with local First Nations groups, individuals, the artists, and the Gujaga Foundation, a peak Dharawal organisation leading language, cultural and research activities. They provide Language and Cultural advice to educational, government and corporate organisations within their cultural boundary of eastern, southern and south western Sydney.

At the heart of most cultural institutions is storytelling, and one of Hurstville Museum & Gallery’s strengths is its focus on revealing the many diverse historical and contemporary stories of the Georges River community. The Council’s Cultural Strategy, Create, highlights the link between culture and place, exploring how our community’s activities, backgrounds, and beliefs impact upon the place where we live. This exhibition demonstrates the value of showcasing aspects of the social, cultural, and environmental history of the Georges River area to the local community and beyond.

To our exhibition lenders and oral history participants, thank you for sharing your stories, memories, and collections. It is through the items displayed and

personal accounts and recollections that the personal lives of First Nations people and their connections to the Georges River area come alive.

To our commissioned artists, thank you for your support and enthusiasm for and participation in the exhibition.

Finally, to Hurstville Museum & Gallery staff for all your assistance with and dedication to the many practical, administrative, conceptual, and programming tasks that made the exhibition possible – a huge team effort. To the curators, Vanessa Jacob, and Renee Porter, you should both be very proud of this exhibition. Vanessa, you researched collections and listened with care to First Nations community members, uncovering fascinating stories and images related to their ongoing connections to the Georges River, while working with and managing the consultation with the Gujaga Foundation and its members. Renee, you worked very hard with the commissioned artists on your ‘wish list’, through patience and persistence, to achieve the works included in the exhibition, highlighting the importance of visual arts at Hurstville Museum & Gallery.

I hope our visitors enjoy uncovering the intertwined connections between the artworks and historical items in Guraban, gaining insights into the longstanding First Nations connections with the Georges River area. It is hoped that this is the beginning of an ongoing dialogue, building on established relationships with our First Nations communities and recognising the continuity of First Nations culture, history, and connection, integral to the Georges River and its many stories of people and place.

Claire Baddeley Acting Coordinator Cultural Services Hurstville Museum & Gallery

Guraban

AN ESSAY BY DR. SHANE INGREY AND DR. PAUL IRISH

The whole tribe rushed to a cave they knew of. It was formed by the rolling, some long years before, of three huge boulders against one another in such a way that an entrance was left, and inside was room for several hundred people…In a lull in the downpour something happened. Flame and sound came at the same second. The clustering boulders were struck. A gum was splintered and shattered, and the whole earth, it seemed to the frightened tribe, was smitten, and it groaned and was hurled into space. The great masses of rock shifted, and the entrance was closed. Utter darkness fell in there. It was a thing that had never happened to their world before.

This is part of a Dreaming story that has been passed down from our old people. It is not a story from a time gone past recorded in a colonial journal, but one that was passed down and continues to be told to the next generations of Dharawal descendants. It is about the creation of the gymea lily and relates to the Georges River and it was recorded in the 1920s by senior Dharawal woman Ellen Anderson while she was living along the river at Salt Pan Creek.1

Most of us are familiar with the Georges River as a wide salty waterway winding its way east from Liverpool to Gamay (Botany Bay). But in fact, more than half of the river is freshwater, extending about forty kilometres south from Liverpool to its headwaters in the rocky gullies around Appin. All of this is Dharawal Country and Aboriginal people have lived along the river long before it took the form we know today.

About 20,000 years ago sea levels were about 125 metres lower than the

present day. Today’s wide Georges River did not exist – it was a freshwater stream flowing through the bottom of a wooded gully (like you see today from lookouts in the Blue Mountains). Where it now enters Gamay, it instead met the freshwater Cooks River and ran behind present day Towra, between Cronulla and Boat Harbour and out to the old shoreline approximately 15 kilometres to the east. Neither the Kurnell Peninsula nor Gamay existed at this time. Sea levels rose and by about 6,000 years ago the sandy plain of Gamay and the woody river gully were flooded into their current form. Aboriginal people witnessed the river form as the tidal, salty divide slowly travelled west with the rising seas, before stopping around Liverpool.

The Georges River has always been an important place to Dharawal people, and to other Aboriginal people who have used parts of the river in the past and through to the present. It has been a place that provided food, shelter and culturally significant places, not only in the past but a place that allows continual connection and usage by Aboriginal people today. There are many hundreds of recorded Aboriginal sites along the Georges River itself, and many more associated in the wider cultural landscape of its creeks, slopes and ridges. They include middens and other campsites in the open, sandstone rockshelters that were lived in and sometimes have art on their walls, rock engravings, water holes and grooves formed from the sharpening of stone axes. Sadly, many have been destroyed either through urbanisation or early “scientific collecting”, but some of these precious places still remain and need protection.

There is a misunderstanding that traditional lifestyle is a thing of the past and stopped a few years after the arrival of the British; that all of the Sydney Aboriginal people had died out due to smallpox and the colonial violence of those earliest years, leaving only archaeological finds behind. However even the archaeological record shows that this is not accurate. A famous example is Bull Cave, located in Campbelltown about a kilometre west of the river. This is a sandstone rockshelter containing cultural art depictions of animals and other cultural entities done with red ochre and charcoal outlines. The shelter also contains the charcoal outlines of several bulls that are believed to be those that escaped from the Sydney colony in 1788 and made their way south-west.2 Also included in this exhibition are some of the finds from an archaeological dig by J.V.S. Megaw and J. Wade at Connell’s Point in 1965 which included shellfish, stone tools and even bone points made from bird bone.3 Also found within this dig was a butchered sheep skull, showing the adoption of introduced foods by Aboriginal people.

These two examples among many show that Sydney Aboriginal people had not died out and continued to live along the Georges River and elsewhere after the arrival of the British, modifying their traditional lifestyles within their cultural areas and the ever-expanding colonial setting. The historical record carries this story forward from those early years, supporting the deep and continuous connections that Dharawal people have always asserted to the river.

In the early 1800s, botanist and explorer Robert Brown recorded and spoke to Aboriginal people at the junction of the Georges River and Guragurang also known as Mill Creek that led to several recordings of language and knowledge about the Georges River.4 Fifty years later, Dharawal woman Biddy Giles and her companion Billy Giles lived on a farm on Guragurang, conducting hunting and fishing tours along the Georges River and into the Royal National Park. She expertly navigated her country with ease, knew all about the plants, their uses and the Dharawal language names, was an expert fisher and had knowledge about the famous rock engravings at Jibbon Head.

Her expert knowledge and movement around the Georges River and Gamay showed her continual familiarity with her country and was commented on regularly by her tour clients. 5

In 1870 a newspaper article about the river noted that there were still ‘many half-castes who preserve much of the aboriginal type, and who, although they have been changed in character and habits by European contact, still retain a strong preference for the district in which they were born.’6 Among them were Johnny and Lizzie Malone, who provided examples of Dharawal language to anthropologists which have been used in recent decades by Dharawal descendants in Dharawal language revitalisation. The Malones and other local Aboriginal families associated with the Georges River like the Lowndes and Fussells established a camp at Sans Souci in this period.7 They received rations throughout the 1880s before eventually this and many other “black camps” around coastal Sydney were disbanded as Aboriginal people moved to the La Perouse Aboriginal settlement.

But moving away did not mean forgetting. In a news article from the Evening News in November 1900, Lizzie Malone tells the reporter that her people used to ‘be ‘all up atween here and the head of the George’s River’.8 Nor did Aboriginal people leave the river permanently. The 1920s saw many Georges River Aboriginal people and descendants return to Salt Pan Creek after their forced removal to missions all over the country.

One notable identity at Salt Pan Creek was Ellen Anderson, daughter of Biddy Giles, who purchased land at Salt Pan in the 1920s, and was later joined next door by Dharawal man William Rowley and his family, as a safe haven in a period of brutal government intervention and segregation. Ellen continued to live a semi-traditional lifestyle and the Gymea lily story we began with was among many she shared at this time, demonstrating the continuity of cultural knowledge among Dharawal people.9 Like her mother before her she had a deep knowledge of plants, in particular wildflowers, and their Dharawal names. She used this knowledge of plants and country to find the

seasonal wild flowers, sell them door to door or at the local and city markets, to generate an income in a time that was hard for most Aboriginal people economically.10 During these trips, Ellen would teach her granddaughter about the plants and their medicinal and food value, the landscape on which the plants grew and the different seasonal flower blooms. She continued to teach her grandchildren using her cultural knowledge of plants and country for her to also survive economically in an ever-changing living experience.11

Today, many Dharawal descendants are continuing to learn and teach their culture as it has been passed down through time. Descendants of Ellen Anderson, William Rowley, Johnny Malone and others still learn and teach the cultural use of plants through, weaving, and artefact education, medicinal plant research, caring for Country as a part of the Gamay Rangers team out of La Perouse, teaching Dharawal language and culture and even working collaboratively on this Guraban exhibition.

This demonstrates the continuous connection Aboriginal people have to the Georges River. The continual passing down of knowledge of Georges River country. The continual care and use of the Georges River. The place where freshwater meets saltwater. Guraban.

Dr. Shane Ingrey

Dharawal descendant

Gujaga Foundation and Centre of Excellence for Australian Biodiversity and Heritage

Dr. Paul Irish

Historian Coast History and Heritage

1 Anderson, E., Australian Legends, n.p.

2 Attenbrow, V., Sydney’s Aboriginal Past, p. 150

3 Wade, J.P., ‘The Excavation of a Rock-Shelter at Connel’s [sic] Point, New South Wales’, p. 35

4 Goodall, H. and Cadzow, A., Rivers and Resilience, p. 38

5 Goodall, H. and Cadzow, A ., ibid., pp. 94-97

6 Unknown Author, ‘The Laperouse Blacks’, p. 2

7 Irish. P., Hidden in Plain View, p. 122

8 Unknown Author, ‘The Laperouse Blacks.’, p. 2

9 Anderson, E., Australian Legends, n.p.

10 Goodall, H. and Cadzow, A., ibid., p. 121

11 Goodall, H. and Cadzow, A., ibid., p. 132

References

Anderson, E., Australian Legends: Tales Handed Down from the Remotest Times by the Autochthonous Inhabitants of Our Land, Parts 1 and 2, c ompiled by C. W. Peck, Stafford & Co., Sydney, 1925

Attenbrow, V., Sydney’s Aboriginal Past: Investigating the Archaeological and Historical Records, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2010

Unknown Author, ‘George’s River’, Sydney Morning Herald, 8 August 1870, p. 2

Goodall, H. and Cadzow, A., Rivers and Resilience: Aboriginal people on Sydney’s Georges River, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2009

Irish. P., Hidden in Plain View: The Aboriginal people of Coastal Sydney, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2017

Unknown Author, ‘The Laperouse Blacks.’, Evening News Sydney, 14 November 1900, p. 2

Wade, J.P., ‘The Excavation of a Rock-Shelter at Connel’s [sic] Point, New South Wales’, in Archaeology & Physical Anthropology in Oceania 2, no. 1, Oceania Publications, University of Sydney, 1967, pp. 35-40

Guraban: where the saltwater meets the freshwater

The Georges River originates south-east of Appin, flowing north-east to Liverpool and then south-east again into Botany Bay. It has several important tributaries including Williams Creek in Holsworthy, Salt Pan Creek at Padstow, Mill Creek in Menai, and the Woronora River at Illawong. The water is fresh above Liverpool and salty down to Botany Bay. The Georges River is the main tributary of Botany Bay, with the Cooks River being a secondary tributary. Today the Georges River catchment is home to 1.4 million people and is one of the most highly urbanised rivers in Australia.

Known as Tucoerah (Dhugara in Dharawal) the river was named after King George III by Governor Arthur Phillip and first explored by the Europeans Bass and Flinders in 1795. Aboriginal People have been the Traditional Owners of Country adjoining both sides of the Georges River for thousands of years; the Dharug, Bidjigal and Cabrogal to the north and the Dharawal (Tharawal), Gandangara, Norongaragal and Gweagal to the south. The river has always been an important focal point for Aboriginal life and culture in southern Sydney, for food, transport, and trade, as well as the land, family, flora and fauna, the sea, and sky, all part of Country. Uncovering and presenting Aboriginal stories associated with the Georges River in the local region, the exhibition highlights multiple perspectives on significant historic and contemporary connections to the river, its people, and places.

Rock Oyster and other shell fragments, date unknown Hurstville Museum & Gallery collection, 1980.1500

Mapping the Georges River

During the 1790s the New South Wales colony rapidly expanded. Fertile land near Sydney and Parramatta was settled for farming and stock grazing. Until the 1820s most European settlements were coastal or inland on river flats. The Georges River was mapped by Captain James Cook in 1770 and was subsequently mapped by John Hunter in 1789, who was a Royal Naval Officer and surveyor of Sydney’s rivers and harbours. He surveyed the Georges River from Botany Bay to Salt Pan Creek, which was initially called the West River.

With the hunger for land by Europeans, the impact on Aboriginal communities was severe, resulting in ‘social disruption, physical displacement and eventual social dislocation’1. Despite this, land along the Georges River remained sparsely populated by Europeans for some fifty years after the establishment of Sydney. The river, with its rocky escarpments and sandy soils, forced settlers to ‘farm in some areas but not others’, while the varied use of the land and waterways led to different histories and stories by Aboriginal People along the river2. The movement of Aboriginal People in and around Sydney during the early 19th century mostly occurred within the coastal areas, south of Sydney to Port Hacking, inland from Botany Bay and to ‘the tidal limits of the Georges River at Liverpool3. During this time, Aboriginal People ‘used old ways to respond to new realities4. They continued to fish and trade but also sometimes cultivated relationships with Europeans, ensuring their survival in the early colony.

1 Tropman and Tropman, Kogarah Heritage Study Volume 1: Report, Tropman and Tropman Architects, Sydney, October 1994, p. 20

2 Goodall, H. and Cadzow, A., ‘Aboriginal people on Sydney’s Georges River from 1820’, The Dictionary of Sydney, online, accessed 29 August 2022

3 Irish. P., Hidden in Plain View: The Aboriginal people of Coastal Sydney, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2017, pp. 5-6

4 Irish, P., ibid., p. 8

(left) Made by Ancestors, Three trimmed flakes, date unknown

Various stone types, found at Rocky Point, Sans Souci Australian Museum collection, reproduced with permission from Uncle David Ingrey and the Australian Museum

(right) Made by Ancestors, Ground-edge Axe, date unknown

Volcanic rock from Kiama, found at Sans Souci Australian Museum collection, reproduced with permission from Uncle David Ingrey and the Australian Museum

First Encounters

For the first few years after European settlement, Aboriginal People on the Georges River continued to live traditionally, with campsites, shell middens and art works along its length. Extensive trade networks had been developed by communities to source tools or the raw materials needed to make them, of stone, bone and shells. The St. George district was slower to develop than many areas around Sydney, due to the belief that it was an undesirable tract of land for settlement, as well as the barrier formed by the Cooks River. However, the lives of Aboriginal People along the river were severely impacted. With food supplies interrupted and social structures fragmented, confrontations between European farmers and Aboriginal People began in the Georges River area in 1799. Frontier violence raged across parts of Sydney between the 1790s and 1810s.

The Bidjigal warrior Pemulwuy initiated a war of resistance in the early 1790s, leading raids on settlers at locations including Toongabbie, Georges River and Parramatta. Despite being seriously wounded in 1797, he eluded capture, gaining heroic status, and continued to be admired by many generations of Aboriginal People after his death. He was similarly respected by Governor King, who in June 1802 after the warrior’s death, wrote that he regarded Pemulwuy as ‘a terrible pest to the colony, [but] …a brave and independent character’1.

‘Pimbloy: Native of New Holland in a canoe of that country’, 1803 Facsimile etching, National Library of Australia collection

Samuel John Neele (1763-1824)

1 Kohen, J.L., ‘Pemulwuy (1750–1802)’, Australian Dictionary of Biography, online, accessed 7 Sept 2022

A Century of Change

While the suburbs of Sydney expanded during the early 19th century, Aboriginal People were still able to largely choose where they lived. There were spaces in the settler landscape that gave Aboriginal People ‘continued access to the land’ 1. Along the Georges River family groups continued to live in traditional ways, supplementing fishing and food gathering with participation in the European economy. Until the 1840s the New South Wales colonial government was largely indifferent to Aboriginal welfare, beyond handing out blankets. By the 1880s however, Europeans believed that Aboriginal People were a ‘dying race’ and ‘a moral and social problem that needed to be solved’2. The government increasingly intervened in Aboriginal life and people were forced to gather on reserves, including those at Sans Souci, on Kogarah Bay and La Perouse on Botany Bay.

Despite this, these sites had a long history of Aboriginal occupation, which allowed local knowledge and family connections to continue. At these sites Aboriginal People made and sold shellwork and collected wildflowers which were sold at city markets. The Sans Souci site was abandoned by 1890 and from 1900 La Perouse was one of the few Aboriginal settlements remaining around Sydney. From 1883 the Aboriginal Protection Board was established to manage the reserves and restrict the lives of an estimated 9,000 Aboriginal People living in New South Wales, which it continued to do until 1940.

2

Australian Indigenous Ministries pictorial material ‘Last of the Georges River Tribe, NSW’, c. 1885 Facsimile photograph, State Library of New South Wales collection

1 Irish. P., Hidden in Plain View: The Aboriginal people of Coastal Sydney, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2017, p. 45

Irish, P., ibid., p. 106

Salt Pan Creek

While the Aboriginal Protection Board exerted significant control over the lives of Aboriginal People into the 20th century, more independent settlements existed in Sydney. An important tributary of the Georges River, Salt Pan Creek near Peakhurst was by the 1920s still an area of low density, with few houses and little urban development. The area offered several Aboriginal families a degree of freedom from the ‘unwelcome visits of local Council and Aboriginal Protection Board officials’1. A camp had existed at this site since the 1910s and families were able to fish and collect wildflowers and gum tips, selling some at markets. Aboriginal men worked in local industries, while others made boomerangs from gathered mangrove wood, and their children attended the public school in Peakhurst.

The site became a focal point of intensifying Aboriginal resistance and political activism. Joe Anderson, also known as King Burraga, was one of the first Aboriginal men to use film to demand recognition for his people. Standing on the banks of Salt Pan Creek in 1933 he delivered a message via Cinesound news, making a strong statement in support of Indigenous rights and representation in Federal parliament. Aboriginal People at Salt Pan Creek, however, were not always welcomed by neighbouring residents. Local Progress Associations, seeking to shape the economic, cultural and leisure opportunities offered by the Georges River at a time of increasing suburbanisation, eventually had the Aboriginal community at Salt Pan Creek evicted, and the settlement closed in 1939.

(left) Made by Ancestors, Souvenir boomerangs, 1926-1938 Bound folder of miniature timber (mangrove wood) boomerangs Collected by Miss Annie Dulcie Clinton Snoor, Oatley, 1920s-30s Hurstville Museum & Gallery collection, 1980.803

(right) Made by Ancestors, Miniature souvenir boomerangs, 1926-1938 Mangrove wood, various locations

Collected by Miss Annie Dulcie Clinton Snoor, Oatley, 1920s-30s Hurstville Museum & Gallery collection, 1980.803

1 Read, P., ‘Reanimating Lost Landscapes: Bringing visualisation to Aboriginal History’, in Public History Review, vol. 17, UTS ePress, Sydney, 2010, p. 86

Continuity on the River

For many people prior to the Second World War, the Georges River was a place for recreation, fishing, and swimming; a place of leisure. During and after the war, however, with an increasing population, expanding industry and the need for larger facilities, the river experienced rapid change. There was a push for more factories and subdivisions for housing with many people ‘slum cleared’1 out of the crowded inner city. These developments brought with them urban encroachment, pollution, clearing of the bush and changing community access to the river. By the 1960s there was public concern about the environmental state of the river.

For Aboriginal People this period was also one of great change. Fewer locations were available along the river to live, and many Aboriginal People were forced to move away. At the same time Aboriginal People from regional areas in New South Wales sought better work, health, and educational opportunities by moving to the inner city. Aboriginal communities around the Georges River had been able to fend off encroaching interests along the river, but the war ‘finally made such resistance impossible’2 . Families moved into public housing at Herne Bay (later Riverwood), Green Valley and further up the river at Campbelltown and Macquarie Fields during the 1950s and 60s. This occurred at a time when there was increased public pressure to ‘assimilate’ Aboriginal People into mainstream Australia. Despite this, Aboriginal People continued to maintain geographic and community connections to the Georges River.

Joan Hatton, Herne Bay public housing centre, 1957 Facsimile photograph, Herne Bay (later Riverwood), NSW Georges River Council Libraries Local Studies collection

1 Goodall, H., Georges River Blues: Swamps, Mangroves and Resident Action 1945-1980, ANU Press, Canberra, 2022, p. 3

2 Goodall, H. and Cadzow, A., Rivers and Resilience: Aboriginal people on Sydney’s Georges River, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2009, p. 168

Culture and Connection

By the 1970s environmental concerns about the degradation of the Georges River were shared by European and Aboriginal People alike. Aboriginal People who had lived along the waterways - both Traditional Owners and people who had migrated from regional areas - understood cultural responsibilities towards the river and increasingly took an ‘active role in the custodianship of the land on which they [were] now living’1. By 1983 under the Land Rights Act, the Sydney Metropolitan, Gandangara, Tharawal (Dharawal) and La Perouse Aboriginal Land Councils (LALCs) led initiatives to preserve the natural ecology of the river, working in partnership with the Georges Riverkeeper program, particularly from 2014-2018. With guidance from Elders and knowledge holders, the Aboriginal Riverkeeper team undertook conservation and land management traineeships, with ecological restoration occurring at 17 sites across the Georges River catchment.

Today the Aboriginal population living along the Georges River is small, but forms a culturally significant minority, at 1-2% of the population. The Georges River catchment area forms part of the lands of the Dharawal (Tharawal) Nation to the east and Dharug Nation to the west. Through NAIDOC and Reconciliation week programs, principles of respect, recognition, access and equity, consultation and opportunity, Georges River Council acknowledges the Bidjigal People as the Traditional Custodians of all lands and waters in the Georges River region. The continuity of Aboriginal culture, history, and connection remains integral to the Georges River and its many stories of people and place.

Dennis Golding, Latoya Brown, Aunty Diane Bundy, Aunty Beverly Simon, Aunty Heather Cook, Aunty Joyce Timbery, Aunty Rene Campbell, Uncle Troy Stewart, Monica Stewart, Nuinkala Stewart-French, Bradley Stewart, Thomas Stewart, Kerri-Ann Youngberry, Sophie Youngberry, Bella Kelly, Wesley Shaw, Jack Cook, Vicki Golding, Honie Golding, Vickie Simms, Julie-Ann Mason, Timothy Ella, Gail Brown, John Brown, Richard Brown, Margaret Brown, Joe Brown, Kimberly Brown, Terrence Brown.

Sewer: Carol McGregor. Ochre: Latoya Brown

La Perouse Aboriginal Community Cloak, 2020-21

Ochre, binder, waxed cotton thread on possum skins

Lent by the La Perouse Aboriginal Community

1 Goodall, H., Cadzow, A., Byrne, D. and Wearing, S., ‘Fishing the Georges River: cultural diversity and urban environments’ in Everyday Multiculturalism, (eds.) Amanda Wise and Selvaraj Velayutham, Palgrave, London, 2009, p. 179

Tides of Renewal

AN ESSAY BY NICOLE FORESHEW

There are plenty of fish in the river for us all and land to grow all we want…

The Aboriginals owned Australia, and today he [Aboriginal people] demands more than the white man’s charity. He [Aboriginal people] wants the right to live…1

Guraban: where the saltwater meets the freshwater, features newly commissioned contemporary artworks by Dennis Golding, Jenine Boeree and Nicole Monks, Djon Mundine, Marilyn Russell and Jason Wing, affirming the endurance of Aboriginal artists of the south-east region of Australia. Guraban can be seen to commemorate the rich cultural and historical inheritance of the Bidjigal people who are the custodians of the Georges River area in southern and south-western Sydney.

Each artist is unafraid to continue to challenge post-colonial stereotypes of Aboriginal art and identity. To speak up against injustice, giving cues to issues of dispossession, assimilation, land and water rights and activism that reflect on and yet transcend past eras, to speak to issues that reverberate to future generations, from unwavering portrayals of resistance contrasted with museum depictions of fertile land and waters - a land of plenty. Guraban merges the historical with the contemporary, speaking not only to the nostalgic pre-suburban chronicle of southern and south-western Sydney but of timeless connection and expression across generations.

Drawn from the Latin Terra Australis, the name of the nation we live in was a hypothetical continent mediated by water through mapping and directions,

both about other lands and inside the continent itself. It is universally acknowledged that Aboriginal cultural practices and survival have shaped the continent for thousands of generations. Aboriginal people are connected to their lands, waters, and resources because every person comes from, and belongs to, their Country. Maintenance of this relationship is critical for Aboriginal people and communities’ social and emotional well-being.

Aboriginal culture is still alive and exists amongst residential subdivisions within the great sandstone escarpments - united by water, creeks, rivers, and the sea - sites of creation, gathering, and protest, sources of nourishment, connection, and memory.

For over 250 years, Aboriginal cultural heritage has been disrupted, taken, removed, and destroyed using government policies applied to ‘protect’ and ‘assimilate’ Aboriginal people. Therefore, without full recognition of Aboriginal customary laws, practices, and ownership of land and water, since 1788 has had a radical impact on Aboriginal people, culture, and everyday life.

However, despite the carnage and concealment of first contact in south eastern regions of New South Wales and the effects of restrictive government assimilation policies. Aboriginal artists and communities retain a vital role in maintaining culture, land and water rights, education, and above all, sovereignty. These ongoing actions sustain the much-needed shifts in mainstream society’s perception regarding the everyday life of Aboriginal people residing in the cities and suburbs of south-eastern Australia.

As a result, any attempt to resolve hundreds of years of historical experiences is problematic. Aboriginal people have not been treated with the same rights, having little recognition of any customary authority, laws, and ownership of land, or at the very least, preventing Aboriginal children from being taken from their families and defending a distinct urban Aboriginal cultural identity. If Guraban aims to re-contextualise the history of Georges River and greater south Sydney, what form of resolution is now taken?

Commemoration is a unique feature of Marilyn Russell’s lustrous continuation of shell work adorning small-scale objects, from the monumental Sydney Harbour Bridge to treasured personal jewellery boxes and slippers. Russell’s practice echoes her mother, Esme Timbery’s dynamic process spanning more than eighty years of collecting and sorting shells from the 1930s2. A celebration of harvesting and collecting seashells on the coastline from the community of La Perouse, just south of Sydney, once sold as tourist objects, now enrich significant museum and gallery collections nationally. The familial testimony is a luminous glimpse into the endurance of Aboriginal women at the forefront of challenging stereotypes of identity whilst simultaneously maintaining culture and community.

In Dennis Golding’s Remnants, 2022, a curious juxtaposition is created in response to the Hurstville Museum & Gallery collection of stone tools. A typographic map is laid out with shattered black resin and concrete objects. A widening stream shape opens from the debris, suggestive of earlier works where Golding reproduces the original 19th-century fence panels using epoxy

resin.3 Recalling childhood memories, the decorative fence lines of the inner city suburb of Redfern, also known as ‘the block’, sit as residual impressions of the past alongside customary stone tools, fishhooks, and blades to be read within both art and museum contexts. Questioning the purpose of material culture presentation and how the visual culture of the south-east of Australia has been shaped to stimulate the ongoing interpretation of cultural identity, the environment, and its citizens. Golding’s response can also reveal a framework for repositioning cultural representations - a means or path that now symbolises a lived experience, trace, or memory.

In the same way, the combination of contemporary art as a response to fragments of archival material is shared in both Djon Mundine’s All the Black man wants is representation in Parliament, 2022 and Jason Wing’s Endeavour to improve our conditions, 2022. Both works encrypt text, forming phrases, from King Burraga, known as Joe Anderson. Combining both language, portraiture, and landscape imagery. Referencing the onset of organised political agitation by Aboriginal people publicly voicing dissatisfaction about their treatment by white Australia through street rallies, meetings, and conferences.

King Burraga’s direct-to-camera plea was distributed in the 1933 Cinesound News broadcast, reaching audiences nationwide. He announces:

Before the white man set foot in Australia, my ancestors had kings in their own right, and I, Aboriginal King Burraga, am a direct descendant of the royal line…4

Reciprocity and acknowledgement are a motion that still resonates today. Wing’s insertion of the word “still” highlights that such statements are not diminished with time. Even when read today, petitions that sought to recognise Aboriginal people are contemporaneous in pitch and as relevant as the day Burraga voiced them. Mundine and Wing continue to declare that Aboriginal people’s rights regarding occupation and land ownership override all others cautiously refusing any notion of inferiority.

History, display, and repossessing narrative through Jenine Boeree and Nicole Monks (mother & daughter) collaborative installation of Thalanara yalimanha (making kangaroo skin blankets) and NSW Aboriginal blanket, 2022 is warning from a not-too-distant past. The hard-hitting suspension of cloth and animal skin is an invective voice against the injustice of colonisation and assimilation practices implemented by successive governments.

From the mid-1800s, British colonies across the south-east region of New South Wales distributed blankets to local Aboriginal people. Government issued blankets replaced possum skin cloaks and kangaroo skins, offering little protection from the weather and disease. Many Aboriginal people became ill and died, having a devasting impact and continuing to have lasting effects on the reclamation of art and cultural practices. For Boeree and Monks, the repatriation of kangaroo skin-making across generations is a participatory cultural action - having a powerful healing effect.

The exhibition’s presentation of contemporary artwork included in Guraban can be seen to aid audiences in the vital bonding of diverse connections to culture and responses to local histories. Compiling sculptures, drawings, images, and installations allows tracing crucial historical milestones and artistic expression. Guraban artists may be found to navigate the social and cultural landscape, reflecting the solid relationship between Aboriginal people land and water, the management of resources, health, and well-being.

Art, like water, is a place for movement, a tide of departure and arrival, having the ability to renew.

Nicole Foreshew Wiradjuri

Artist, writer and curator

1 Burraga Foundation, ‘The Burraga Story’, Burraga Foundation, Sydney, 2022, https://www.burraga.org/, accessed December 2022

2 Museum of Contemporary Art, ‘Esme Timbery: Shellworked slippers, 2008’, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney, 2008, https://www.mca.com.au/artists-works/ works/2008.46/, accessed December 2022

3 Dennis Golding, Artist statement for Remnants, 2022, accessed December 2022

4 Burraga Foundation, ibid., accessed December 2022

King Burraga Joe Anderson at Salt Pan Creek, September 1933

Cinesound film footage

National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra

Background: Joan Hatton, Salt Pan Creek Tributary of the Georges River, c.1975

Facsimile colour photograph

Georges River Council Libraries Local Studies collection

Jenine Boeree & Nicole M onks

YAMAJI WAJARRI AND EUROPEAN

Kangaroo Cloaks are a significant cultural belonging, many have symbolic moiety and totemic inscriptions.

The cultural practice of making cloaks including kangaroo and possum skins happens around Australia, from Bidjigal Country, NSW (here) to Yamaji Country, WA (our mob).

Making a Kangaroo Cloak is a long and laborious process. Made after hunting and skinning a kangaroo in a singular piece, any excess fat is removed and then tanned (on Yamaji country this is done with a particular wattle seed from around byro), it is stretched and dried for a long period of time before it is cured. Multiple skins can be stitched together (using a French seam) with bone needles and sinew from the kangaroo tail. They are extremely soft providing warmth and protection, depending on the weather and cloaks could be worn both fur in and fur out to suit.

However, Cultural practice and language were forbidden by the colonists, and Kangaroo and Possum Skin Cloaks and cloak making skills were not allowed, the government replacing them with blankets labelled ‘NEW SOUTH WALES ABORIGINES’. It is remembered not as an attempt to achieve security through reciprocity, but as a symbol of paternalism and dependency.

By issuing the blankets the colonists had unwittingly chosen an item which, in its traditional skin form, was a potent element of Aboriginal gift exchange. David Dunlop magistrate at Wollombi explained thus:

‘ any encroachment on each other’s boundaries occasions much hostile feelings betwixt the tribes. Sometimes the price for peace must be either a young gin, or an opossum cloak… Their simple nature understood thus, that the Governor sold their grounds to people… and that in lieu thereof he gave blankets.’

By participating in the annual distribution of blankets, Aboriginal people sought to contain the overwhelming European threat, restore some semblance of order to a world now shared with Europeans, who were at least meeting some traditional obligations, and ensure a measure of security for themselves. Their hopes proved illusionary.

References

Matatini, T., ‘Reclaiming tradition and re-affirming cultural identity through creating Kangaroo Skin Cloaks and Possum Skin Cloaks’, vol 1, issue 1, article 2, in Journal of Indigenous Wellbeing, Te Mauri - Pimatisiwin, New Zealand, 2016

Nettelbeck, A., ‘Bracelets, blankets, and badges of distinction: Aboriginal subjects and Queen Victoria’s gifts in Canada and Australia’, in Sarah Carter, S. and Nugent, M., (eds.), Mistress of Everything: Queen Victoria in Indigenous Worlds , Manchester University Press, Manchester, 2016, pp. 210-227

Thalanara yalimanha (making kangaroo skin blankets), 2022 Kangaroo Cloak - kangaroo pelt, sinew NSW Aboriginal blanket - cotton, cotton thread, paint Collection of the artists

Jenine Boeree was born in Perth, Western Australia on Noongar Country in 1956. Growing up in Western Australia, Boeree moved to New South Wales to start her family in 1977.

First settling in Sydney and then the Mid-North Coast in 1981, during this time Boeree was sewing and making her own clothes and painting, completing a pattern making course and Certificate IV in Visual Arts at the Great Lakes TAFE NSW, Boeree is renown as a tactile artist.

In 2007 Boeree was reconnected with her mob from the Murchison region in WA, Yamaji Wajarri. Since then, Boeree has continued her practice as a way of connecting to Country and to heal wounds as part of the Stolen Generation, in particular intergenerational collaborative works with her daughter Nicole Monks.

Boeree has now settled in Newcastle on Worimi and Awabakal Country.

Nicole Monks is a multi-disciplinary creative of Yamaji Wajarri, Dutch and English heritage living and working on Worimi and Awabakal Country (Newcastle). Monks’ practice is informed by her cross-cultural identity, using storytelling as a way to connect the past with the present and future. Her works take a conceptual approach that are embedded with narratives and aim to promote conversation and connection.

An award-winning designer and artist, Monks crosses disciplines to work with furniture and objects, textiles, video, installation and performance. Across these varied forms of contemporary art and design, her work reflects Aboriginal philosophies of sustainability, innovation and collaboration. Monks is well known for her success as a solo and collaborative artist and founder of design practice blackandwhite creative as well as public art company mili mili.

Monks currently sits on the University of NSW Galleries Board, the Advisory Council for the University of NSW School of Art, Design and Architecture, and the Design Advisory Panel for the Powerhouse. Monks was the winner of University of NSW Art & Design Indigenous Professional Development Award, Arts NSW Aboriginal Design Grant, Vivid Design competition (furniture) and Sydney Design Award (Textile and Surface Design).

Monks’ works are held in national collections including the Powerhouse, National Gallery of Victoria, Art Gallery of Western Australia and the Museum of Art and Culture, Lake Macquarie.

Thalanara yalimanha (making kangaroo skin blankets), 2022 (detail)

Kangaroo Cloak - kangaroo pelt, sinew

NSW Aboriginal blanket - cotton, cotton thread, paint Collection of the artists

Dennis Golding

KAMILAROI / GAMILARAAY

In response to the collection of flints and stone tools at the Hurstville Museum & Gallery, this work highlights the impact that colonisation has had upon Aboriginal people, their traditional practice, and their lands. These stones and flints found in the St George area were once used by locals as fishhooks, blades and grooving tools and were considered an everyday life resource.

In this work, I have used epoxy resin and iron oxides to replicate the mid nineteenth century iron lace found on balconies and palisades on The Block (Redfern) where I was born and raised. I symbolise the lace work fences from memories of my childhood and recognise them as a device used by settlers to claim land and the removal of Indigenous people and culture - in protest to the continuing colonisation of this land and the impact it has had on Aboriginal people and the environment. I have intentionally shattered the European resin fences into small remnants. The broken curlicues of European flora such as ivy and daylilies, are laid to form a topographic view of the Georges River.

This work is a critique of the colonial expansion of Sydney and cues the dispossession that colonisation has caused to the Aboriginal community here.

Dennis Golding is a Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay artist, curator and collaborator based in Sydney. Working in a range of mixed media including painting, video, photography and installation, Golding critiques the social, political and cultural representations of race and identity. His practice is drawn from his own experiences living in urban environments and through childhood memories. Golding was surrounded by art from his urban upbringing living

in an Aboriginal community in Redfern (often referred to as ‘The Block’). As a young child, he often watched his mother and grandmother paint on large canvas and sheen fabrics which depicted Australian native plants and animals, cultural motifs and human figures.

Before entering his formal art training, Golding worked as an administrative trainee at Nura Gili Indigenous Programs UNSW. He later developed his professional practice in art school through mentorships with leading curators, educators and artists. Golding graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts (Honours) at UNSW Art & Design in 2019 and now works independently as an artist and curator. Through his artistic and curatorial practice, Golding aims to present powerful representations of contemporary Aboriginal cultural identity that inform narratives of history and lived experiences.

Remnants, 2022

Epoxy resin, concrete, dye Collection of the artist

Work Experience & Employment History

Present Independent artist and curator

2021-22 Cement Fondu - First Nations Curator/Producer

2018-19 Australian Design Centre - First Nations Creative Producer

2018 Murray Art Museum Albury - Assistant Curator

2017 Art Gallery South Australia - Assistant Curator

Group Exhibitions

2022 FREE/STATE Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art, Art Gallery South Australia, Adelaide

2021 NATSIAA, Museum and Art Gallery Northern Territory, Darwin

2021 The Future Is Here, Carriageworks, Eveleigh

2020 Fishers Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre, Campbelltown

2020 NSW Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship, Artspace, Woolloomooloo

2019 Churchie Art Prize, Institute of Modern Art, Brisbane

2019 Hatched, National Graduates Exhibition, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art

2019 Subverting ‘The Intolerable Narrative’, FirstDraft, Woolloomooloo

2018 The Annual Graduate Exhibition, UNSW Galleries, UNSW Art & Design

2018 King & Mallesons ATSI Contemporary Art Prize, NSW Parliament House

Solo Exhibitions

2021 Tracing Places, Artereal Art Gallery, Rozelle

2019 Sight/Insight, Australian Design Centre, Darlinghurst

Creative Projects

2022 Window Gallery, ARTBANK & The Agency, Guest Curator

2022 Sydney Football Stadium Ground, Cultural Capital, Public Art

Commissioned Artist

2021 Sydney Gateway, Cultural Capital, John Holland, Public Art Commissioned Artist

2020 Ngaliya Diyam, Granville Centre Art Gallery, Co-curator

2020 First Nations Curatorial Program, FirstDraft, Woolloomooloo, Curator

2019 In her hands, mural, Esme Timbery Creative Practice Lab UNSW, Co-designer

2019 Gadigal Mural, Australian Design Centre, First Nations Creative Co-producer

Residencies & Fellowships

2021-Present Clothing Store Artist Studios, Carriageworks, Eveleigh

2020-2021 Solid Ground, Artist in Residence, Carriageworks, Eveleigh

2020 Recipient, NSW Visual Arts Emerging Fellowship, Artspace Sydney

2019 Hatched Residency Program, Perth Institute of Contemporary Art

2020 One Year Studios, Artspace Sydney, Woolloomooloo

Education & Training

2014-2019 Bachelor Fine Arts (Honours), UNSW Art & Design

Awards

2020 Blacktown City Art Prize, Blacktown Arts Centre, Aboriginal Artist Award

2019 Aboriginal Art Award, Fishers Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre

2018 Painting Prize, The Annual, UNSW Galleries, UNSW Art & Design

2018 Aboriginal Art Award, Fishers Ghost Art Award, Campbelltown Arts Centre

2016 UNSW Art & Design Academic Excellence Award

2014-17 Scholarship Recipient for Aboriginal Art, UNSW Art & Design

Remnants, 2022 (details)

Epoxy resin, concrete, dye Collection of the artist

Djon Mundine BANDJALUNG

Aboriginal people are everywhere, and Aboriginal people do everything. The history of First Peoples is constructed of named human beings, with their own adventures, endeavours and personalities, at particular sites and times across the continent now called Australia.

It is my art practice to bring these invisible in plain view Aboriginal individuals into the light.

Before the white man set foot in Australia, my Ancestors, had kings in their own right, and I; Aboriginal King Burraga, am a direct descendant of the royal line …

The Black man sticks to his brothers and always keeps their rules, which were laid down before the white man set foot upon these shores. One of the greatest laws among the Aboriginals was to love one another, and he always kept to this law. Where will you find a white man or a white woman today that will say I love my neighbour? It quite amuses me to hear people say they don’t like the Black man ... but he’s damn glad to live in a Black man’s country all the same!

I’m calling a corroboree of all the natives of New South Wales to send a petition to the King in an endeavour to improve our conditions.

All the Black man wants is representation in parliament.

There is also plenty of fish in the river for us all, and land to grow all we want.

One hundred and fifty years ago the Aboriginals owned Australia and today he demands more than the white man’s charity.

He wants the right to live!

King Burraga – Joe Anderson, Salt Pan Creek, 1933.

Djon Mundine was art and craft adviser at Milingimbi in 1979 and curator at Bula Bula Arts, Ramingining, Arnhem Land Aboriginal communities for sixteen years. In this time of regular attendance at large scale ceremonies and every day rituals, he was made aware of ethical behaviour, protocols, rules, and responsibilities, and group collaboration. Here Djon originated what has been described as “one of the greatest pieces of art ever to be created in this country”, the Aboriginal Memorial, comprising 200 painted poles by 43 artists from Ramingining and surrounds, each symbolising a year since the 1788 British invasion. The Memorial was central to the 1988 Biennale of Sydney and is on permanent display at the National Gallery of Australia.

All the Black man wants is representation in parliament, 2022 Synthetic polymer paint on canvas Collection of the artist

In collab. with Annemaree Dalziel, McCallum Mundine (Yorta Yorta/Bundjalung/ Gamilaraay/Yuin), Charleene Mundine (Bundjalung/Yuin/Kamilaroi/Anaiwan)

Djon Mundine has held senior curatorial positions in national and international institutions including the National Museum of Australia, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Campbelltown Art Centre and Queensland Art Gallery, while also working with regional and community based organisations across Australia.

A passionate advocate for self-determination, in 1987 Djon was an active founding member of the Association of Northern, Kimberley and Arnhem Aboriginal Artists (ANKAAA). The peak advocacy and support agency for Aboriginal artists working individually and through 48 remote art centres spread across a vast area of approximately 1 million square kilometres). This organisation was founded as a strategy to ensure that the evolution and creation of Aboriginal art be determined by culturally active Aboriginal communities, not by bureaucracies in cities, or commercial galleries. Lifting the scale of public funding to Aboriginal art was central to this aim, as well as supporting the release of positive memories for Aboriginal people generally, used as an educative tool in consciousness raising for the Australian non-Aboriginal population, conveying another history.

Recent work as an independent curator includes exhibitions such as The dingo project (2022) an exhibition that opened the Ngunungula Regional Gallery, Bowral, Three Visions of the Garingal, Karla Dickens, Adam Hill, Jason Wing (2020), Fiona Foley: Who are these strangers and where are they going? (2019), retrospective for the Ballarat International Foto Biennial, Four Women: I do belong, double (2017) at the Lismore Art Gallery, Boomalli Ten 30thAnniversary exhibition (2017), Sixth sense (2016), National Art School Gallery and Whisper in My Mask (2014) co-curated with Natalie King for the Tarrawarra Biennial. Djon’s radical curatorial approach is exemplified by the evolution of the multi-award-winning performance digital-video projection installation, Bungaree’s Farm (2014), which toured nationally in 2015–16 from Bungaree: The First Australian (2012), an exhibition and catalogue of commissioned artworks by sixteen NSW Aboriginal artists for Mosman Art Gallery.

At the end of 2020 he created his own digital projection performance; Wali concerning the likely extinction of Australia’s marsupials due to criminal deforestation and the climate-change fires; at the Cross Arts Projects and the Casula Powerhouse.

In 2022 Djon became a recipient of a Samstag Research Fellowship and in addition was honoured by the National Gallery of Australia as part of their 40th anniversary for exceptional contributions to advancing the profile and recognition of First Nations art and artists in the national consciousness. He is renowned as a curator and artist for The Aboriginal Memorial 1987-1988 and for his deep connection and commitment to the Ramingining community and the artists that produced the two-hundred hollow log coffins which make up The Aboriginal Memorial. In 2021 he was awarded an Honouree Doctor of Letters from the University of Newcastle, and inducted into The Australian Humanities Academy. He was a recipient of the 2020 Red Ochre Award (lifetime achievement) of the Australia Council for the Arts. Djon became a Fellow of the Australian Humanities Academy (FAHA) in 2020.

His insistence that “Art is a social act” underlies his practice, cultural leadership and working methodologies, reflecting a contemporary application of sophisticated social technologies and diplomacy characteristic of Aboriginal society. Throughout his career, he has adhered steadfastly to a recurring theme: that Aboriginal people be recognised — as First People in all their diversity, and as part of the Constitution.

Contribution by Dr. Shayne T Williams (Dharawal descendent and nephew of King Burraga Joe Anderson), facilitated by Djon Mundine OAM, Monday 5th December 2022 video stills by Will Chittick

Marilyn Russell

BIDJIGAL

It’s supposed to be handed down from grandmothers, mothers, daughters, granddaughters. To me it’s time consuming, which my mum’s got a lot of patience. I know you have to have it for this sort of work. They’re just so beautiful and… I’ve lost sight of that. But I really, really would love to get back in and do it. I suppose when I get a little bit older…

Marilyn Russell (Bidjigal)1

Aunty Marilyn’s shellwork forms are created from cardboard bases stretched with fabrics such as velvet or satin, then embellished with seashells and glitter. These shell artworks are a symbol of cultural strength, particularly as Marilyn’s daughter and granddaughter contributed to the making process. For the first time, thanks to Marilyn’s granddaughter, the addition of gold glitter can be seen on some of these works, a visual reminder to acknowledge and commemorate knowledge transfer to a new generation of women in the Timbery line.

Slippers are pairs of small shell worked slippers and while beautiful, connect to painful histories. These shell-covered slippers remember the Stolen Generations of Aboriginal children who were forcibly taken from their families. The slippers’ small size alludes to the absence of the children whose feet they could fit. Slippers makes material the memories and minutiae of childhoods which were stolen from so many Aboriginal children and their families. This is recent history and within living memory for many.

Dennis Golding (Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay)

In 2020, fellow commissioned artist, Dennis Golding jointly curated the exhibition Ngaliya Diyam and included the shellworks of both Marilyn and her mother, Esme Timbery. These Sydney Harbour Bridge sculptures are instantly recognisable to most visitors, but Dennis takes this further and makes the viewer question as to why this iconic landmark has been chosen?

Aunty Marilyn is reclaiming the site as Aboriginal land and water through shells collected from Southeast coastlines and waters that flow in and around Sydney Harbour. 2

Dennis Golding (Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay)

These slippers, jewellery boxes and bridges are a testament and celebration of the ongoing shell tradition and speak to the resilience of Aboriginal families in La Perouse.

1 Nangara Gallery, ‘Esme Timbery and Marilyn Russell’, Na Ngara, Nangara Gallery, Sydney, 2017, https://www.nangara.gallery/esme-timbery, accessed 18 December 2022

2 Shim, S-M., ‘Declaring presence: ‘Ngaliya Diyam at Granville Centre Art Gallery’, Art Monthly Australasia, Canberra, 2020, https://www.artmonthly.org.au/blog/declaringpresence-ngaliya-diyam, accessed 18 December 2022

Untitled [Sydney Harbour Bridge], 2022 Shells, velvet, glitter, glue, paper, plywood Collection of the artist

Marilyn Russell is a Bidjigal woman, born in 1953 at La Perouse, she continues to live on her Bidjigal Country.

Marilyn is recognised for her shell worked sculptures of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and slippers, also referred to as booties. This artistic practice is very much a family tradition and intergenerational practice. Aboriginal women of the La Perouse community have produced shellwork for generations. Marilyn’s inherited shellwork knowledge traces through her Timbery family, from her mother, Esme, following a long line to her great-great-grandmother ‘Queen’ Emma Timbery, who produced shell worked objects for an exhibition of Australian manufactures in England in 1910.1

Passed between grandmother to daughter to granddaughter, between sisters, aunts, and cousins. It is a family practice; from the collection of shells from particular beaches, to sitting together and working on shellwork projects. This matrilineal knowledge is continuous and accumulative and harkens back to the use of shells by local south-east Aboriginal women for fishhooks and jewellery. 2

Dennis Golding (Kamilaroi / Gamilaraay)

Marilyn’s work has been part of numerous exhibitions which include Wuliwulawala: Dharawal Women Sharing Stories 2021, Hazelhurst Arts Centre; Shell it 2021, a Boomalli exhibition at La Perouse Museum; Ngaliya Diyam 2020, Granville Centre Art Gallery; Ngadhu, Ngulili, Ngeaninyagu – A personal history of Aboriginal art in a premier state 2008, Campbelltown Arts Centre.

Marilyn’s work is held in numerous private collections and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney. The WestConnex M4-M5 Link Tunnel, St Peters (2019–2022) is a recent joint commission with her mother, Esme Timbery which acknowledges this ongoing intergenerational practice, recognition of the importance of La Perouse shellwork.

1 Jones, J., ‘Esme Timbery’, Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, NSW, 2014, accessed 18 December 2022

2 Shim, S-M., ‘Declaring presence: ‘Ngaliya Diyam at Granville Centre Art Gallery’, Art Monthly Australasia, Canberra, ACT, 2020, accessed 18 December 2022

References

Golding, D., ‘Ngaliya Diyam’ , Granville Centre Art Gallery, Granville, 2020

Hazelhurst Arts Centre, ‘Wuliwulawala: Dharawal Women Sharing Stories exhibition’, Hazelhurst Arts Centre, Sydney, 2021, http://cms.ssc.nsw.gov.au/Community/Hazelhurst/ Exhibitions/Previous-Exhibitions/2021/Wuliwulawala-Dharawal-Women-Sharing-Stories , accessed 18 December 2022

Nangara Gallery, ‘Marilyn Russell’, Nangara Gallery, Sydney, NSW, 2017, https://www. nangara.gallery/marilyn-russell, accessed 18 December 2022

Nash, D., ‘From shell work to shell art: Koori women creating knowledge and value on the South Coast of NSW’, in Craft + design enquiry, issue 2, ANU Press, Canberra, 2010, https:// press-files.anu.edu.au/downloads/press/p212111/html/ch05.html?referer=&page=7#toc_ marker-5, accessed 18 December 2022

Nugent, R., ‘WestConnex M4-M5 Link Tunnels: Artwork Journey’, CM+40, Sydney, 31 August 2020, https://www.cmplus.com.au/westconnex-m4-m5-link-tunnels-art-journey/, accessed 18 December 2022

Randwick City Council, ‘Shell it: a Boomalli exhibition at La Perouse Museum’, Randwick City Council, Sydney, 2021, https://www.randwick.nsw.gov.au/abous-us/news/newsitems/2021/june/shell-it-art-exhibition, accessed 18 December 2022

Sullivan, J., ‘First Nations artists declare Ngaliya Diyam – we are here’ , Art Guide, 6 November 2020, https://artguide.com.au/first-nations-artists-declaire-ngaliya-diyam-weare-here/, accessed 18 December 2022

Slippers, 2022

Shells, velvet, glitter, glue, paper, plywood Collection of the artist

Jason Wing BIRIPI

AND CANTONESE

Jason Wing questions our understanding of history and of our current socio-political reality. He holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from Sydney College of the Arts, University of Sydney. Significant solo exhibitions include Battleground, Artereal, Mine, Museum of Modern Art, Tasmania, Australia: Antipodean Stories, Padiglione d’Arte Contomporanea, Milan, Italy, Defying Empire: 3rd National Indigenous Art Triennial, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra and Making Change, National Art Museum of China, Beijing.

Selected group exhibitions include Wondermountain, Penrith Regional Gallery and the Lewers Bequest, Emu Plains, The Native Institute, Blacktown Arts Centre, Blacktown, Making Change, National Art Museum of China, Beijing, Cold Eels and Distant Thoughts, Monash University Museum of Art, Melbourne, Bungaree: The First Australian, Mosman Art Gallery, Mosman, and Made in China Australia, Salamanca Art Centre, Hobart.

Wing has undertaken numerous public artworks and commissions spanning 13 years. Several of which include FireSticks, City of Parramatta, ART & About Sydney, City of Sydney, Gadigal Land, Australian Design Centre, Darlinghurst, Gadigal Land, Australian Design Centre, Darlinghurst and The Serpent, Canada Bay Council. Over the last twenty years, Wing has completed residences at places which include The Glasshouse Regional Gallery, Port Macquarie, International studio & curatorial programs in Brooklyn, New York, Red Gate Gallery, Beijing, China, Kluge-Ruhe Museum, Virginia, USA, Xucun Art Commune, Heshun County, Shanxi Province, China and OZASIA, Adelaide Festival Centre, Adelaide.

In 2012 he won the Parliament of NSW Aboriginal Art Prize for his provocative work Australia was Stolen by Armed Robbery. Wing’s work is held in both private and public collections including the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Artbank, Sydney; Blacktown Council, Blacktown; and the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Collection, Virginia, USA. Wing’s first monograph was published by Artspace 2014.

Endeavour to improve our conditions, 2022

Steel, freshwater, saltwater, ink marker Collection of the artist

My mixed media installation speaks to the frustrations regarding the lack of progress in human rights for Aboriginal people.

Aboriginal people are and have been the most oppressed people per capita worldwide. We are experiencing the worst treatment via colonial systemic control to date. Aboriginal people have mastered the Western language, media, and law, despite the evermoving goal posts.

My installation references Joe Anderson aka King Burraga’s eloquent and filmed protest, demanding human rights (1933).

Before the white man set foot in Australia, my Ancestors, had kings in their own right,

and I; Aboriginal King Burraga, am a direct descendant of the royal line …

The Black man sticks to his brothers and always keeps their rules, which were laid down before the white man set foot upon these shores. One of the greatest laws among the Aboriginals was to love one another, and he always kept to this law. Where will you find a white man or a white woman today that will say I love my neighbour? It quite amuses me to hear people say they don’t like the Black man ... but he’s damn glad to live in a Black man’s country all the same!

I’m calling a corroboree of all the natives of New South Wales to send a petition to the King in an endeavour to improve our conditions.

All the Black man wants is representation in parliament. There is also plenty of fish in the river for us all, and land to grow all we want.

One hundred and fifty years ago the Aboriginals owned Australia and today he demands more than the white man’s charity. He wants the right to live!

King Burraga – Joe Anderson, Salt Pan Creek, 1933.

These desperate cries of the past still echo today with little to no actual change to systemic racism, control, and the unjust murders of our people.

Aboriginal people cannot afford to play the waiting game and the colonial project understands and exploits this fact. Whilst we chase the clock back 250 years plus, the colonial project ignores, waits, and infers change.

When protests over time do not significantly improve Aboriginal conditions and are largely symbolic, what needs to happen next?

Endeavour to improve our conditions, 2022 (detail)

Steel, freshwater, saltwater, ink marker Collection of the artist

Exhibition Content List

GURABAN: WHERE THE SALTWATER MEETS THE FRESHWATER

Gujaga Foundation, Clan groups of the Georges River, facsimile digital map. Created by the Gujaga Foundation, 2022.

Joan Hatton (1926-2002), Georges River foreshore, location unknown, NSW, c. 1975, facsimile colour photograph. Georges River Council Libraries Local Studies collection; JHP223.

MAPPING THE GEORGES RIVER

Made by Ancestors, Scrapers and button flakes, kitchen midden, Sans Souci, date unknown, various stone types, found at Sans Souci. Donated 1932, Australian Museum collection; E035185.

Made by Ancestors, Three Bondi Points, date unknown, various stone types, found at Georges River. Donated March 1942, Australian Museum collection; E050010.

Made by Ancestors, Three trimmed flakes, date unknown, various stone types, found at Rocky Point, Sans Souci. Donated March 1942, Australian Museum collection; E049975.

Made by Ancestors, Two Bondi Points, date unknown, various stone types, found at Sylvania and Sans Souci, Georges River. Donated March 1942, Australian Museum collection; E050030.

Anthony Hordern & Sons Ltd , The Georges River and Botany Ba y (fishing map), c. 1905, linen backed paper. Georges River Council Libraries Local Studies collection.

William Bradley (1801-1857), Botany Bay, c. 1789, facsimile sketch, Chart 9 from Bradley’s journal A Voyage to New South Wales, 1802. State Library of New South Wales collection; a127080/ML Safe1/14, opp.p.176.

James Cook (1728-1779), Botany Bay in New South Wales latitude 34° 00’S (Entrance of the Endeavour River in New South Wales [J. Cook]), 1773, facsimile map, published by London: Strahan & Caddell. State Library of Queensland collection.

Dennis Golding (Kamilaroi/Gamilaraay), Remnants , 2022, epoxy resin, concrete, dye, collection of the artist.

Thomas Livingstone Mitchell (1792-1855), Detail of TL Mitchell’s map of the colony of New South Wales showing the Georges River, 1834, facsimile map, engraved by John Carmichael. National Library of Australia collection; nla.map-nk6228.

Thomas Medland (1755-1822), Natives of Botany Bay, 1789, facsimile etching, published by London: J. Stockdale, Rex Nan Kivell collection. National Library of Australia collection; NK3374/3.

Rock Oyster and other shell fragments, date unknown. Hurstville Museum & Gallery collection; 1980.1500.

Charles Rodius (1802-1860), Bulkabra, chief of Botany, c. 1830, facsimile wash drawing, Rex Nan Kivell collection. National Library of Australia collection; nla.obj-135516054-m.

FIRST ENCOUNTERS

Made by Ancestors, Assemblage, date unknown, various stone tools including fabricators, scrapers, Bondi Points, microcores, blades, eloureas, hammerstones and animal bone, excavated by J.V.S. Megaw and J. Wade at Connells Point, 1965. Australian Museum collection; NP00840-000.

Made by Ancestors, Cores, date unknown, various stone types, found at site between Shellharbour and Kioloa, NSW. Hurstville Museum & Gallery collection; 1980.899-35-36.

Made by Ancestors, Pounder, Kitchen midden, Georges River, date unknown, sandstone, found at the Georges River, Kitchen midden on Kangaroo Point. Collected by an Australian Museum staff member, October 1915, Australian Museum collection; E023199.

Samuel John Neele (1763-1824), ‘Pimbloy: Native of New Holland in a canoe of that country’ , 1803, facsimile etching, published in J. Grant, The Narrative of a voyage of discovery, 1803. National Library of Australia collection; nla.cat-vn2312357.

A CENTURY OF CHANGE

Made by Ancestors, Ground-edge Axe, date unknown, basanite / volcanic rock from Kangaroo Valley, excavated at “The Hermitage” property, Lugarno [Lime Kiln Bay, Oatley], c. 1900. Australian Museum collection; E060382.

Made by Ancestors, Ground-edge Axe, date unknown, stone axe head made of river pebble, found at Sans Souci and collected by the donor before construction of Captain Cook Bridge in the 1960s. Donated 1993, Australian Museum collection; E083449.

Made by Ancestors, Ground-edge Axe, date unknown, volcanic rock from Kiama, found at Mortdale. Donated January 1935, Australian Museum collection; E038170.

Made by Ancestors, Hammer stone, date unknown, stone, found at a site between Shellharbour and Kioloa, NSW. Donated 1979, Hurstville Museum & Gallery collection; 1980.899-37.

Jenine Boeree (Yamaji Wajarri and European) and Nicole Monks (Yamaji Wajarri and European), Thalanara yalimanha (making kangaroo skin blankets) Wajarri language , 2022, Kangaroo Cloak - kangaroo pelt, sinew, NSW Aboriginal blanketcotton, cotton thread, paint, collection of the artists.

Cinesound Review, ‘Australian royalty pleads for his people’ , September 1933, newsreel. National Film and Sound Archive, Canberra collection; no. 0100, title No: 10706.

Kerry & Company, Govt. Agents distributing blankets to Aboriginals, c. 1890-1898, facsimile photograph. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales collection; Call No: PX*D 398.

Walter G. Mason (1820-1866), View of the dam over the river at Liverpool, N.S.Wales, 1857, facsimile wood engraving, published Sydney: J.R. Clarke, 1857. National Library of Australia collection.

Unknown Artist , Plan of Sandringham [Sans Souci] public school site, c. 1885, facsimile pen and ink drawing on paper, Sandringham School Records 1876-1979 Administrative File. State Archives & Records Authority of New South Wales collection; 5/17590.3, NRS-3829.

Unknown Artist, View of Georges River near Liverpool, New South Wales/ the property of G. Johnston Esqre, 1819, facsimile pencil drawing on paper, owned by A.W.F. Fuller. State Library of New South Wales collection; PXD41.

Unknown Photographer, Aboriginal rock carvings at Rocky Point, Sans Souci, date unknown, facsimile photograph. Bayside Council Libraries Local Studies collection.

Unknown Photographer, Albert Binghi (King Albert), Georges River, c. 1880s, facsimile photograph. Bayside Council Libraries Local Studies collection.

Unknown Photographer, John (Johnny) Malone, c. 1875, facsimile photograph. NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Kurnell collection; 1980.899-37.

Unknown Photographer, ‘Last of the Georges River Tribe, NSW’, c. 1885, facsimile photograph. State Library of New South Wales collection; SPF/2703.

Unknown Photographer, Steam punt at Tom Ugly’s Point on the Georges River, south of Sydney, c. 1882, digital reproduction of glass plate negative, published by Henry King Company. Powerhouse; Tyrrell Collection, 85/1285-944.

Unknown Photographer, ‘The last of the Doll’s Point Aboriginals’, c. 1885, facsimile photograph, Australian Indigenous Ministries pictorial material. State Library of New South Wales collection; PXA 773 / Box 6.

SALT PAN CREEK

Henry Blewett, Billy cart, 1930s, wood, metal, rope. Donated by Graham Blewett, 2022, Hurstville Museum & Gallery collection; H2022.9.

Joan Hatton (1926-2002), Salt Pan Creek, tributary of the Georges River, Peakhurst NSW, c. 1975, facsimile colour photograph. Georges River Council Libraries Local Studies collection; JHP280.

Djon Mundine (Bandjalung), Annemaree Dalziel, McCallum Mundine (Yorta Yorta/ Bundjalung/Gamilaraay/Yuin), Charleene Mundine (Bundjalung/Yuin/Kamilaroi/ Anaiwan), All the Black man wants is representation in parliament, 2022, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, collection of the artist.

NSW Land Titles Office, Certificate of Title 3/12/1925 for Ellen Anderson, Lot 146 in Deposited Plan 11124, facsimile land title deed, NSW Land Titles Office Volume 3808, Folio 215. NSW Land Registry Services Archive.

NSW Land Titles Office, Certificate of Title 6/4/1927 for William Rowley, Lot 145 in Deposited Plan 11124, facsimile land title deed, NSW Land Titles Office Volume 3989, Folio 6. NSW Land Registry Services Archive.

Dr. Shayne T Williams and Vanessa Jacob, oral history interview, 24 May 2022. Georges River Council Libraries Local Studies oral history collection.

Jason Wing (Biripi and Cantonese), Endeavour to improve our conditions , 2022, steel, saltwater, freshwater, ink marker, collection of the artist.

Unknown Photographer, Aboriginal day of Mourning, 26 January 1938, facsimile photograph. Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies collection, Canberra; HORNER2.J03.BW.

Unknown Photographer, Children at La Perouse Aboriginal settlement, c. 1930-32, facsimile photograph. Donated by Dr. Shayne T Williams, 1999, Hurstville Museum & Gallery collection; H1999.11.

Unknown Photographer, Children at Salt Pan Creek , c. 1925, facsimile photograph, Australian Indigenous Ministries pictorial material. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales collection; PXA 773 / Box 1.

Unknown Photographer, Cummeragunja Aboriginal reserve residents, c. 1890-1900. Donated by Dr. Shayne T Williams, 1999. Hurstville Museum & Gallery collection; H1999.16.

Unknown Photographer, Dolly Anderson and son Thomas Henry Williams Junior at Salt Pan Creek property, c. 1923-24, facsimile photograph. Donated by Dr. Shayne T Williams, 1999, Hurstville Museum & Gallery collection; H1999.13.

Unknown Photographer, Ellen Anderson with her husband Hugh at their home on Salt Pan Creek, now Charm Place Peakhurst, c. 1925, facsimile photograph, Australian Indigenous Ministries pictorial material. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales collection; PXA 773 / Box 1.

Unknown Photographer, Hugh and Ellen Anderson at Salt Pan Creek, c. 1925, facsimile photograph, Australian Indigenous Ministries pictorial material. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales collection; PXA 773 / Box 1.

Unknown Photographer, Peakhurst Public School Class 6A , 1934, facsimile photograph, image courtesy of Graham Blewett, 2022.

Unknown Photographer, The growing Salt Pan Creek community, c. 1920s, facsimile photograph, Australian Indigenous Ministries pictorial material. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales collection; PXA 773 / Box 1.

Unknown Photographer, Thomas Henry Williams Junior (aged 8) at Salt Pan Creek property, (1930), facsimile photograph. Donated by Dr. Shayne T Williams, 1999, Hurstville Museum & Gallery collection; H1999.12.

Unknown Photographer, Thomas Henry Williams Senior and Thomas Henry Williams Junior at Salt Pan Creek , (c. mid-1920s), facsimile photograph. Donated by Dr. Shayne T Williams, 1999, Hurstville Museum & Gallery collection; H1999.14.

Unknown Photographer, Thomas Henry Williams Senior, of Salt Pan Creek, Herne Bay (later Riverwood) NSW, c. late 1920s-early 1930s, facsimile photograph. Georges River Council Libraries Local Studies collection; GRLS22-105.

Unknown Photographer, William and Mary-Ann Rowley at La Perouse, c. 1930-32, facsimile photograph. Randwick Library, Randwick Social History Project.

CHANGE AND CONTINUITY ON THE RIVER

Made by Ancestors, Collection of miniature souvenir boomerangs, 1926-1938, mangrove wood, various locations, collected by Miss Annie Dulcie Clinton Snoor, Oatley, 1920s-1930s. Hurstville Museum & Gallery collection; 1980.803.

Made by Ancestors, Souvenir boomerangs, 1926-1938, bound folder of miniature timber (mangrove wood) boomerangs, various locations, collected by Miss Annie Dulcie Clinton Snoor, Oatley, 1920s-1930s. Hurstville Museum & Gallery collection; 1980.803.

Joan Hatton (1926-2002), Herne Bay public housing centre, Herne Bay, NSW, 1957, facsimile photograph. Georges River Council Libraries Local Studies collection, LMG 16-071.

Ernest Mervyn McQuillan (1926-2018), Exterior Yard of one of the flats partitioned off at the Ministry of Housing settlement, Herne Bay, 1946, facsimile photograph. Australian War Memorial collection; 129560.

Unknown Photographer, [Aboriginal man] and woman with a rack of boomerangs, La Perouse, New South Wales, 3 January 1933, digital reproduction of glass plate negative, Fairfax archive of glass plate negatives. National Library of Australia collection; PIC/15611/11091.

Unknown Photographer, Georges River, Liverpool: dam and paper mills, c. 1940s, digital reproduction of glass plate negative, NSW Government Printing Office. State Archives & Records Authority of New South Wales collection; NRS-4481-[7/16215]-Sh1523.

Unknown Photographer, Snoor family home, 45 Waratah Street Oatley NSW, date unknown, facsimile photograph. Georges River Council Libraries Local Studies collection; SNR-139.

CULTURE AND CONNECTION

Made by Ancestors, Fish-hook file, date unknown, stone, found at Gamay (Botany Bay). Australian Museum collection; E054699.

Made by Ancestors, Red kurrajong string, date unknown. Hurstville Museum & Gallery collection; 1980.1500.

Abalone shell, date unknown. Hurstville Museum & Gallery collection; 1980.1503.

Lee Davidson , Aboriginal Riverkeeper team examining an ancient shell midden on the Georges River, 2014, facsimile photograph, a project of the Lower Georges River Sustainability Initiative. Aboriginal Riverkeeper Team.

Dennis Golding, Latoya Brown, Aunty Diane Bundy, Aunty Beverly Simon, Aunty Heather Cook, Aunty Joyce Timbery, Aunty Rene Campbell, Uncle Troy Stewart, Monica Stewart, Nuinkala Stewart- French, Bradley Stewart, Thomas Stewart, Kerri-Ann Youngberry, Sophie Youngberry, Bella Kelly, Wesley Shaw, Jack Cook, Vicki Golding, Honie Golding, Vickie Simms, Julie-Ann Mason, Timothy Ella, Gail Brown, John Brown, Richard Brown, Margaret Brown, Joe Brown, Kimberly Brown, Terrence Brown. Sewer: Carol McGregor, Ochre: Latoya Brown, La Perouse Aboriginal Community cloak 2020-21, commissioned by Artspace as part of djillong dumularra (exhibition in 2021), ochre, binder, and waxed cotton thread on possum skins. Lent by the La Perouse Aboriginal Community.

Marilyn Russell (Bidjigal), Slippers, 2022, shells, blue velvet, glitter, glue, paper, plywood, collection of the artist.

Marilyn Russell (Bidjigal), Slippers, 2022, shells, green velvet, glitter, glue, paper, plywood, collection of the artist.

Marilyn Russell (Bidjigal), Slippers, 2022, shells, light blue velvet, glitter, glue, paper, plywood, collection of the artist.

Marilyn Russell (Bidjigal), Slippers, 2022, shells, mauve velvet, glitter, glue, paper, plywood, collection of the artist.

Marilyn Russell (Bidjigal), Slippers, 2022, shells, red velvet, glitter, glue, paper, plywood, collection of the artist.

Marilyn Russell (Bidjigal), Untitled [Jewellery box], 2022, shells, blue velvet, glitter, glue, paper, plywood, collection of the artist.

Marilyn Russell (Bidjigal), Untitled [Jewellery box], 2022, shells, yellow velvet, glitter, glue, paper, plywood, collection of the artist.

Marilyn Russell (Bidjigal), Untitled [Sydney Harbour Bridge], 2022, shells, blue velvet, glitter, glue, paper, plywood, collection of the artist.

Marilyn Russell (Bidjigal), Untitled [Sydney Harbour Bridge], 2022, shells, light blue velvet, glitter, glue, paper, plywood, collection of the artist.

Marilyn Russell (Bidjigal), Untitled [Sydney Harbour Bridge], 2022, shells, mauve velvet, glitter, glue, paper, plywood, collection of the artist.

Marilyn Russell (Bidjigal), Untitled [Sydney Harbour Bridge], 2022, shells, red velvet, glitter, glue, paper, plywood, collection of the artist.

Paul Ovenden , From Turban shell to shellfish-hook: the manufacturing sequence as recorded in the archaeological record, date unknown, facsimile photograph of specimens from Captain Cook’s Landing Place, Kurnell Peninsula. Australian Museum.

Turban shell, date unknown. Hurstville Museum & Gallery collection; 1980.1500.

Acknowledgements

Georges River Council acknowledges the Bidjigal People as the Traditional Custodians of all lands and waters in the Georges River region. Guraban: Where the Saltwater meets the Freshwater highlights Aboriginal People and their connections to the Georges River through historical materials, photographs, documents, and commissioned artworks, providing insights into this little-known history of the St George region. The exhibition has been developed in collaboration with local First Nations groups, individuals, Elders, artists, and the Gujaga Foundation. It has been made possible through generous contributions, assistance and loans provided by a range of public institutions, private individuals, and community groups.

The quotes, video and images of Aboriginal People in this exhibition have been included with consent, where possible, from Traditional Owners, descendants and community representatives.

Hurstville Museum & Gallery would like to thank the following for their support and involvement with the exhibition:

Aboriginal Reference Group, Georges River Council

Artereal Gallery

Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies

Australian Museum

Australian War Memorial

Bayside Council Local Studies

Graham Blewett collection

Jenine Boeree & Nicole Monks

Thea Butler, former Social Justice Project Officer, Georges River Council

Annemaree Dalziel

Georges Riverkeeper

Georges River Council Libraries

Local Studies

Sally Walker, Kirsty Beller, Ash Walker, Dr. Shane Ingrey, Uncle David Ingrey and Ray Ingrey from the Gujaga Foundation

Dennis Golding

Dr. Paul Irish

Kurranulla Aboriginal Corporation

Aunty Jo Love

Sharlene McKenzie OAM

Charleene Mundine

Djon Mundine OAM

McCallum Mundine

National Archives of Australia

NSW Land Registry Services

National Library of Australia

NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service

Oral history participants Dr. Shayne T Williams, Dharawal Elder and Kirsty Beller, Dharawal person from the La Perouse Aboriginal Community Powerhouse

Randwick City Council Library

Aunty Marilyn Russell

Aunty Deanna Schreiber

Aunty Barb Simms, Bidjigal Woman and Traditional Owner of the area

State Library of New South Wales

State Library of Victoria

Jason Wing

Publications by Prof. Heather Goodall and Dr. Paul Irish

GEORGES RIVER COUNCIL

Guraban: where the saltwater meets the freshwater is supported by the NSW Government through Create NSW.

The Gujaga Foundation is the peak organisation leading Dharawal language, cultural and research activities. They provide Language and Cultural advice to educational, government and corporate organisations within their cultural boundary of eastern, southern and southwestern Sydney. Gujaga Foundation staff have direct familial connections to several Ancestors featured in the Guraban exhibition including Biyarrung (Biddy) Giles, William Rowley, Ellen Anderson and King Burraga, Joe Anderson.

The following Gujaga Foundation staff have made a significant contribution to the development of the Guraban exhibition:

Kirsty Beller, Project Officer and Dharawal person

Uncle David Ingrey, Dharawal Elder

Ray Ingrey, Chairperson and Dharawal person

Dr. Shane Ingrey, Research Scientist and Dharawal person

Ash Walker, Director and Dharawal person

Sally Walker, General Manager and Dharawal person

Published

ISBN: 978-0-9876314-2-8

02 9330 6444 | museumgallery@georgesriver.nsw.gov.au | https://www.georgesriver.nsw.gov.au/HMG

Project Team

Acting Coordinator Cultural Services: Claire Baddeley

Curator (history): Vanessa Jacob

Curator (visual arts): Renee Porter

Assistant Curator for Guraban: Marsha Canning

Education & Public Programs Officer: Arianna Deer

Collections Officer: Sarah Judd

Museum & Gallery Officer: Laura Martinez

Cover image: Made by Ancestors, Collection of miniature souvenir boomerangs, mangrove wood, various locations, 1926-1938.

Collection: Hurstville Museum & Gallery (detail) | Dennis Golding, Remnants, 2022, epoxy resin, concrete, dye. Collection of the artist (detail)

Contents & Acknowledgements image: Guraban: where the saltwater meets the freshwater exhibition view, 2022.

Copyright © 2022 Georges River Council | Text copyright the respective authors.

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GEORGES RIVER COUNCIL