I acknowledge the traditional custodians of this land, the Wiradjuri people. This column is dedicated to those who have gone before us, to those present and to those who will follow us.
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LAST weekend I was invited to Woomargama, NSW Highlands, Wiradjuri garray (land) by the Local Land Care Group and NSW Parks Volunteer group. I was asked to join their groups to undertake and learn about “pollinator insects” and why they are so important to our environment.
The idea of the pollinator count is very simple. Sit at a madhan (tree) or plant that has bagabin (flowers) on it and observe what and how many gabang (insects) arrive to your chosen plant or tree. You document how many and what arrives, take photographs and record information like temperature, rainfall and landscape that you are in. All the information then gets put together from madhu (many) different garray (lands) and groups of mayiny (people). The information is then sorted and gets used to work out what gabang (insects) are where, and also why, what and how.
On the weekend I met people like Karen Retra, I call her “Darribun Ngarru” (Queen Bee) she is a person who knows a lot about ngarru ( bees) and gabang (insects). What I learnt from her, and the others that attended the Pollinator Count Day, was invaluable to me and my understanding of ngurambang (country) and the balugan (animals) and gabang (insects) that assist our garray (land) to grow and heal itself.
Another person I met was National Parks ranger Dave Pearse. His job is to protect Woomargama National Park from harm and to make sure that all travellers are safe. Woomargama National Park is only a short drive from Wagaan Wagaan (Wagga Wagga). Just over an hour will get you there.
At this time of year if you travel to Woomaragama you will get to see madhu (many) things like tea tree, blackwood and dogwood trees in full bagabin (flower). You will see plants like beautiful yellow everlastings, some places have yam daisies, as well as an abundant supply of native orchids in a wide variety of colours.
While I was up in the high country I took the opportunity to also record several Aboriginal scar trees that are in the area. I also cut bula gulaman (two Coolamons) which I brought home so as I can make some cultural tools from them. This traditional cultural art of cutting trees to make tools has be used for thousands of years by Wiradjuri mayiny (people). The tree is not damaged and will not suffer or die from this cutting. I also cut a gugaa (goanna) into one of the scars and recorded it back to the Office of Environment and Heritage (OEH) as a new living artefact that people from OEH can go back over time to record tree regrowth and cultural activities over madhu (many) years to come.
Whenever I go back into ngurambang (country) and touch, feel and smell our garray (land) I get more appreciation for our first peoples of Australia. We have been here for over 60,000 years, yet we did not devastate our garray (land) galing (water) and balugan (animals) we really only left behind baayi (footprints) in our melnunnie dhaagun (red soil), some artwork and some modified trees. We blended into our landscape, we didn’t try to change it.
Have we learnt much from our Wiradjuri mayiny (people)? Are we listening to ngurambang (country)? Are we listening to our lonely planet?
For more learning and sharing go to my community Facebook page at www.facebook.com/WiradjuriMob