Upper Murrumbidgee: Oral History of Adrian Brown
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/1511' target='_blank'>Places of significance</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/581' target='_blank'>Community cooperation</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/280' target='_blank'>Land custodianship</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/255' target='_blank'>Aboriginal culture</a>
<a href='http://indigenous.sl.nsw.gov.au/communities/wiradjuri-0' target='_blank'>Wiradjuri people</a>
<a href='http://indigenous.sl.nsw.gov.au/communities/Walgalu' target='_blank'>Walgalu / Walgal people</a>
<a href='http://indigenous.sl.nsw.gov.au/communities/ngarigu#' target='_blank'>Ngarigo / Ngarigu people</a>
<a href='http://indigenous.sl.nsw.gov.au/communities/Ngunawal' target='_blank'>Ngunawal / Ngunnawal people
</a>
<a href='http://archives.samuseum.sa.gov.au/tindaletribes/kurnai.htm' target='_blank'>Kurnai / Gunai people</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/2955' target='_blank'>Burial sites</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/6865' target='_blank'>Sacred sites</a>
<a href='http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects/sh2003006652' target='_blank'>Traditional ecological knowledge</a>
<a href='http://vocabulary.curriculum.edu.au/scot/15435' target='_blank'>Connection to Country</a>
An interview in five parts with Adrian Brown.
Adrian talks about growing up along the River (around Queanbeyan River, Jumping Creek, and Wanna Wanna Creek) and the way that he and his brother learnt the land by walking it and fishing the river with their Dad. He talks about historical sites and significant sites; expressing continuity with Country; making Coolamons; the significance of Country; traditional ceremony; initiation rites; right of passage; the duty of care for different animals as part of an interconnected environment; and recognising law and responsibility for Country. He also discusses the interaction and movements of peoples along the catchment (relaying the history of the Ngunawal and their responsibility to the Murrumbidgee corridor and their relation to coastal peoples); trading; and shared vocabulary across language groups from the top of the Murrumbidgee to Lakes Entrance.
Adrian covers the effects of housing developments on cultural practice; weeds; variance in fish population according to river flow; lighting fires; cultural burns; site management; discrimination; ignorance; and work with the ACT government to promote the recognition and understanding of Indigenous Australian interests.
Adrian also shares his experience as an Aboriginal Liaison Officer with the ACT National Parks and Wildlife Service and his sense of pride and belonging. He talks about efforts to refocus the connection to Country of Indigenous Australians employed as rangers, and to promote a cultural mindfulness among them. He speculates how Indigenous people could again be welcomed by the Ngunawal as National Parks officers - all learning and walking the land together.
Adrian discusses how fish travel up the river when it floods; mixing traditional and modern fishing methods; sources of sediment (sand from Tharwa, dirt from Cooma, Bredbo and Numeralla Rivers); clay baking fish; mussels (saltwater and freshwater); abalone; native plants.
Heather Goodall
Jodi Frawley
University of Technology, Sydney
2010-10-05
Murray-Darling Basin Authority
NSW Department of Primary Industries - NSW Fisheries
Copyright University of Technology, Sydney
application/msword
audio/mpeg
English
Upper Murrumbidgee River
The data from this study region includes 5 oral histories (audio as mp3s, and transcripts) and a georeferenced hand-drawn map of the area.
The Upper Murrumbidgee meanders through the Snowy Mountains in south‐eastern New South Wales, snaking its way south, then turning north before dropping into the lowland and heading west to join the Murray downstream of Swan Hill. The Upper ‘Bidgee floodplain is only a couple of hundred metres wide, a stark contrast to the kilometres‐wide floodplains in other parts of the Murray‐Darling Basin. When the floods come, they come up quickly and roar through the narrow valleys.
Since Europeans arrived the health of the river and its fish has been shaped by the people who came to live there and the industries that developed. Mining and grazing, and the development of Canberra brought new people with new needs. Once, river levels would rise with the spring snow melt before falling slowly over the summer. Today the snow melt is collected in Tantangara Dam before being returned to the ‘Bidgee below Burrinjuck Dam. The river between these dams is a shadow of its former self.
These are the traditional lands of the Ngunnawal and Ngarigo peoples. They fished the river and surrounding waterways and the seasonal rise and fall of the water guided their travels and featured in their stories.
(Source: Frawley, J., Nichols, S., Goodall, H. and Baker, E. 2011. Upper Murrumbidgee: Talking fish, making connections with the rivers of the Murray‐Darling Basin, Murray‐Darling Basin Authority, Canberra.)
<span>Map image attribution: Murray-Darling Basin Authority, Talking Fish Project </span><a href="http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0015/442140/FINAL-Talking-Fish-booklet-compilation-Jan-2013_for-web.pdf">see details...</a>
2015-06-10
Frawley, J., Nichols, S., Goodall, H. and Baker, E. (2011). Upper Murrumbidgee: Talking fish, making connections with the rivers of the Murray‐Darling Basin, Murray‐Darling Basin Authority, Canberra. <a href="http://www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/411772/Upper-Mbidgee_FINAL-Jan2013-for-web.pdf">View or download from publisher...</a>
<a href="http://geonode.research.uts.edu.au/layers/geonode%3Afrawley2012page140">http://geonode.research.uts.edu.au/layers/geonode%3Afrawley2012page140</a>
Eng
Dataset
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