|
The work of the Dharriwaa Elders Group to manage Aboriginal culture
The DEG manages a fledgleing Aboriginal cultural centre which includes:
- Support for elders’ leadership activities. All activities are based on decisions made in monthly members’ and Elders Council meetings. They include working for the development of the community, troubleshooting and problemsolving. The DEG encourages and welcomes service providers to the town and works with them to meet community needs. The DEG provides Aboriginal cultural leadership and the only Walgett independently-constituted forum for local Aboriginal governance.
- A nationally significant collection and archive. The National Library of Australia has funded the DEG to develop with UNE Heritage Centre a Collection Management Plan. Significant parts of the collection include a substantial collection of video recordings of local elders’ cultural knowledge; a collection of wooden and stone artefacts; a multimedia site register which locates places of cultural significance within a Geographic Information System and which contextualises elders’ recordings; a photographic archive; research locating items and information about Walgett Aboriginal culture in Australian and international institutions; a small collection of first edition rare books documenting local Aboriginal cultural matters; a policy reading room. The DEG aims to provide in the future informed access to its collection for younger generations with the purpose of keeping Walgett Aboriginal cultural transmissions alive and strong. Exhibitions of collection content are planned for the future and DEG held its fuirst exhibition in August 2008.
-
The DEG provides often the only Aboriginal voice in natural resource management legislation and policy development inquiries. The Group has workshopped many submissions and has celebrated victories when it can. A sacred spring has been saved from destruction by domestic water users in Cumborah, the coolibah - blackbox woodland in our region has been listed under the NSW Threatened Species Act as an endangered ecological community, and the NSW Government has purchased two properties to add to the RAMSAR-listed wetland, Narran Lakes (Dharriwaa).
-
The revival of the local Yuwaalaraay / Gamilaraay language is promoted by the Dharriwaa Elders Group, for its life-giving benefits. DEG's monthly magazine Yundiboo teaches language and literacy by presenting cultural matters alongside community news. Other resources are produced, funding permitting and our language program works with the community and schools to develop sustainable langauge initxiaves.
-
The six Dharriwaa Walaay youth and elders camps conducted by the Dharriwaa Elders Group and the elders program for the schools are other methods the Dharriwaa Elders Group members have used to try and to carry out their urgent task of passing on language and cultural knowledge and pride in identity to future generations.
-
The Dharriwaa Elders Group conducts cultural business by welcoming people to meetings and events, by attending and officiating at school and community functions. Another aspect of cultural business is the attendance at funerals in the region which are still too many.
- A major part of managing cultural business is helping others recognise elders' leadership and stake in this role. This task is often a struggle, particularly as personnel the DEG works with are constantly changing. Initiatives have included the development of an MoU proposed to Walgett Shire Council re how the two organisations should work together on Aboriginal cultural matters, the production of a video resource welcoming non-Aborignal professionals working in Walgett, and conducting leadership by example.
|
|
 
Left: George and Margaret Rose at State Records Office with Department of Aboriginal Affairs archivist Richard Aldridge, and State Records Office archivist, Kristen Thorpe. They went there to research family history and more general historical information to use in DEG's teaching resources. Right: George and Margaret Rose with the large amount of items from the Walgett region stored in the Australian Museum. DEG is producing a resource for the Walgett Aboriginal community to raise awareness of these objects
 
Left: DEG took its elders and family of elders who had been taken from their families to live at Cootamundra Girls Home, to visit the building. The trip grew by word-of-mouth and turned into a large reunion with women and their families travelling great distances to spend the weekend together, visit the Cootamundra Heritage Centre display and meet with the Cootamundra Reconciliation Group and senior citizens. Right: DEG took Kinchela Boys Home inmate George Rose, to its first reunion in Kempsey. This reunion gave birth to an organisation of Kinchela Men.
 
Left: The Dharriwaa Elders Group has been negotiating with landholders through negotiator Joan Treweeke (local landholder and Councillor), to reinterr Aboriginal human remains that Sydney University wishes to return. Right: Lightning Ridge Central School is located in Yuwaalaraay country and senior Yuwaalaraay elder George Rose is please to provide support for their valuable local Aboriginal language teaching program. Here the Group is pictured visiting the language resource room and enjoying a morning tea put on by the teachers.
|
