HAPPENINGS ON GUNGGARI DANDHI
Yowalla
Welcome to this edition of our newsletter. Read on to find out what’s been happening on your Country.
We’ve had our fair share and more of rain this summer and autumn, and
Gunggari Country is looking magnificent! All this rain has filled up the waterways, brought back the native grasses and generally made us all happy.
In this issue:
- Looking After Country Project
- Community Possum Cloak workshops
- Date Claimer: AGM & Community Celebrations
- What’s your Jurdi?
- Volunteer with GNTAC
- Donate to GNTAC
Looking After Country Project
GNTAC has successfully secured a $74,500 grant from the Qld Department of Environment and Science (DES) under their Looking After Country grant program.
The project is called Mount Moffatt Cultural Heritage: Site Survey and Management Plan It involves a number of visits to Mount Moffatt National Park to conduct a thorough cultural heritage site survey. Mount Moffatt is one of the richest cultural heritage sites in Australia, with many artworks and other features not seen anywhere else in the world. The last time a comprehensive survey was done at Mount Moffatt was some 30 or 40 years ago, so the information currently available through the State’s database is very much out of date and inaccurate.
The funds also enable GNTAC to purchase an online database from Environmental Systems Solutions to hold site data for Mount Moffatt and all other cultural heritage across Gunggari Country. The database will provide a safe, secure place for almost all of Gunggari business, including our intangible cultural heritage such as songs, language, dance, poetry and other literature.
We look forward to sharing more about the database in future newsletters.
For more information about the DES Looking After Country grant program, go here: https://statements.qld.gov.au/statements/95180
Some of the stencil artwork at Mount Moffatt National Park
Community Possum Cloak Workshops
Over the last 12 months, Gunggari people have been working on a community possum cloak. The project under “Art of the Skins” was funded by the Indigenous Research Unit, Griffith University and facilitated by Dr Carol McGregor (Wadawurrung). Carol’s research showed that mobs from Western Queensland had a rich tradition of possum cloak making and decorating and she offered to show us how to create a community cloak of our own.
After community discussion and consultation with local Elders, it was decided that the project could go ahead. Workshops were held in January and November last year. The cloak was stitched together with a number of possum skins purchased from a company in New Zealand. You may not know this, but, though the possum is a protected animal in Australia, in New Zealand it is considered a pest animal. Possums were exported to New Zealand last century and, not being native to the country, they’ve had and still are having a detrimental effect on the biodiversity of New Zealand’s natural fauna and flora.
ABC Southern Queensland took an interest in the project and filed this story: Possum skin cloak making workshop to revive culture. Here is the link to the story and below are some pictures of how the cloak looks so far: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/southqld/programs/saturday-breakfast/possum-cloak/13652050
The community cloak is held at the Yumba and Gunggari families are invited to contribute to the cloak with your artwork and family story. There is a skin on the cloak for each known Gunggari family group and spares skins as well.
Workshop participants working on the cloak’s design
Tracing the path of the Maranoa River and other waterways on to the possum cloak
Date Claimer: Come to the AGM and stay for the celebrations!
This year’s AGM will be held on Saturday 1st October. All members are encouraged to attend to hear what GNTAC has been doing the past 12 months, and what is planned for the future.
On Sunday 2nd October, a Community Event will be held to celebrate our final native title determination in 2019. Previously planned celebrations had to be postponed because of Covid, but now we’re going ahead with it.
It’s also 10 years since the Gunggari Native Title Aboriginal Corporation became the registered native title corportion for the Gunggari People.
More information on the AGM and Community Celebrations will be available in the coming weeks. For now, put it in your diary and plan to be there!
What’s Your Jurdi?
In the Gunggari tradition, we have Jurdis (yerr-dees) rather than totems. Jurdi is the Gunggari word for ‘meat’ and each Gunggari person belongs to a Jurdi depending on which family group you come from. What’s your Jurdi?
VOLUNTEER WITH GNTAC
The Gunggari Native Title Aboriginal Corporation relies on the hard work of volunteers to manage the Corporation and its business. Volunteers may be able to:
- join committees or working groups;
- help to plan and run events;
- undertake administrative tasks; or
- get involved with various projects.
If you are a Gunggari person and you would like to offer your time, skills and experience to the Corporation, we invite you to fill out a form by going to this link: https://www.gunggaripbc.com.au/volunteering/
The information you provide will be sent to the Board, so they can contact you when a suitable opportunity arises.
DONATE TO GNTAC
Did you know that GNTAC is a not-for-profit organisation and is also a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC)? This means that you can make tax-deductible donations to your own mob’s organisation. For more information, call the office on 0439 204 986 or write to secretary@gunggaripbc.com.au