Assessment 1

Worimi – (hello in the Wangal language which was spoken in the suburb which I reside in,
Campsie.)

I’d like to pay my respect to and acknowledge all the Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander’s
elders, past, present and emerging. I acknowledge the vast number of clans and nations and
their individual languages, dialects and rich culture that make up the many regions of First
Nations peoples. I would like to bring attention to the many nations of Indigenous Australians
that lost their people, families and Country from the time British colonisation began to
spread and and when vast quantities of land was stolen from Aboriginal and Torres Staight
Islander people. (Cooks River Alliance, 2017)

I would like to pay particular respect to the Wangal, the Wangal are a tribe of the Durug who
lived in the area along the Cook River right next to where I live, in Campsie. Goolay’yari is the
original name of the river where my son and I walk, just as the Wangal did for tens of
thousands of years. Wangal fished for eel, fish and molluscs in Goolay’yari and lived in
harmony with their environment; the river providing sustenance and connection for the
Wangal. (Terrell, 2018) (Cooks River Alliance, 2017)

I come from a country which teaches the rich customs of language, song and dance of the
Māori from a young age. I place great value on the connection to Māori culture I made as kid
and it reminds me how imperative it is to embrace the Indigenous culture and heritage of the
land we inhabit. With regret, the same level of regard (in the NSW education system) was not
extended to the wonderfully rich Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander’s culture when I
immigrated to Australia as a child. I did not learn much at all about Aboriginal history and it is
therefore necessary that we now take part in truth telling and engaging in local Aboriginal
and Torres Straight Islanders history, traditions and knowledge. (Manning & Harrison, 2018)

I would like to reflect again on the brutal appropriation of the land in the Greater Sydney area
from 1788 by British colonisers. Despite the colonies emerging from this time, Wangal lived
alongside and nearby Goolay’yari into the nineteenth century. I can imagine the joy
Goolay’yari would bring to the Wangal with activities such as swimming, canoeing and
cooking with the food the river provided. (Cooks River Alliance, 2017) Although it is likely too
late for Goolay’yari in regard to its likelihood of ever becoming a healthy ecosystem, it is not
too late to make changes for the betterment of ecological systems further afield. May we all,
as Australians really take responsibility to care for Country with the values that have guided
Indigenous peoples for millennia.
Tyrrell, I. R. (2018). River dreams  : the people and landscape of the Cooks River. NewSouth
Publishing.

Cooks River Alliance.(2017).Aboriginal History Along the Cooks

River.https://cooksriver.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/Cooks_River_Aboriginal_Histor
y_WEB.

Manning, R., & Harrison, N. (2018). Narratives of place and land: Teaching indigenous histories
in Australian and New Zealand teacher education. Australian Journal of Teacher Education
(Online), 43(9), 59–74. https://search.informit.org/doi/10.3316/ielapa.914908912289938