Meet our Volunteers

IN CONVERSATION WITH CHRIS TOBIN

Darug Elder Chris Tobin may be a familiar sight to visitors at the National Trust’s Woodford Academy. On the monthly Open Day, Chris welcomes visitors and provides a meaningful connection to the site’s pre-colonial past.

Better known as Uncle Chris, Chris is a researcher, educator and artist. He answered the call when the National Trust reached out to the Aboriginal community in 2015, seeking to strengthen relationships. “In the course of those talks, we were talking about, well, a smoking ceremony was needed because they’ve still got spirit activity up at that place, and that led to other interactions with them,” says Chris.

A small team of volunteers came together to establish a place of understanding at Woodford Academy. Out of this new collaboration came the dedicated Aboriginal Interpretative Room, transforming the former science room in the Dairy wing into a space exploring the region’s indigenous art, culture and history. Chris’s first idea was a large-scale mural. “But it seems the National Trust is a bit particular about the walls.”

The compromise was a pair of wall-sized canvas paintings, which Chris worked on with his daughter. The paintings depict stories of Country, motifs from Darug rock art and dreamtime beliefs of the nearby Gundungurra people. They also reference the more recent history of the Frontier Wars.

“And that was a lovely thing to be able to do too,” says Chris. “Because it’s a prickly or tricky, difficult, uncomfortable subject for a lot of people and I do want people to know that this went on, because a lot of people know very little about the culture and the history of the country, and I think they often don’t think if they’re living in Sydney that there was anything that happened there.”

Chris’s work with Woodford Academy has also given locals a place to pool and enrich their knowledge of Aboriginal sites and snippets of history. “So it becomes a place of sharing and a source of new information because I wouldn't meet up with those people otherwise.”

Chris is pleased that popular sentiment is waking up to the importance of Aboriginal culture but notes the difficulty of getting enough volunteers to share the work. He used to worry about the torch being passed on to a younger generation but remains optimistic. “I'm actually believing that the good work is going to be in how a lot of our cultural messages are already starting to be picked up in the general mainstream culture.”

He refers to traditional values that prioritise community and respect for the environment.

“I love pointing out that we didn't have homeless people till two hundred years ago. Unless you're a criminal and got kicked out of your clan country. And that, even just a message like that for some people can be life-changing.”

Above: Chris Tobin (photo: National Trust).

Volunteer with us

Volunteering with the National Trust is a great way to learn new skills, meet like-minded people and support our valuable work. If you or a family member have been thinking about volunteering, please don’t hesitate to get in touch. Whether you’re in school, retired or somewhere in between, we have positions available right across New South Wales for gardening, event support, administrative assistance, and more. To apply, visit nationaltrust.org.au/volunteers-nsw

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Patrons J Calluaud L Calluaud Emeritus Professor D Carment AM K Eadie M Eadie P Flick R Flick A Hayward B Hayward H Hewitt P Homel The Kimalo Foundation The Nell & Hermon Slade Trust The Pratten Foundation C Sutherland L Taggart Anonymous (7) Corporate Members Allen Jack & Cottier Architects Cox Architecture Design 5 Architects GML Heritage Hector Abrahams Architects Lucas, Stapleton, Johnson & Partners Melgrand Winten Property Group Wollongong City Council

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Did you know?

Kangaroos weighing 400 kilograms, flightless birds twice the size of emus, tortoises the size of cars, snakes 10 metres long, echidnas as big as sheep, and diprotodons, wombat-like creatures the size of rhinoceroses – were among the many creatures that walked the land 50,000 years ago.

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