It was an honour to recently be part of a ceremony connecting Yarun Bribie Island and Aotearoa New Zealand to suppprt the work one of our jarjums (young ones), talented emerging artist Nicole Gulwell to create a possum cloak.
Nicole has been supported thought the RADF to create the cloak, a beautiful cultural revitalisation project honouring her Dhurug and Gamillaroi ancestors.
The ceremony was held with Nicole, her Mum Belinda, chair of PIEEC Michelle Watson and myself in the room with the possums with some of our Weaving Water family from Aotearoa, Pasha Clothier and Trudy Lane joining us via zoom.
The possums were imported from Aotearoa New Zealand, as in Australia, possums are a native species and protected by law, which makes creating a cloak with Australian possums extremely difficult. In Aoteaora New Zealand, they are considered an invasive species after populations got out of control, after jumping the Tasman in 1837 with the purpose of establishing a commercial fur trade. (https://www.gorgeouscreatures.com.au/blogs/news/the-history-of-possums-in-new-zealand).
Cultural revitalisation and restoration through this growing practice of making cloaks by First Nations peoples on the continent known as Australia also aids support to the issue of controlling invasive possums in Aotearoa New Zealand.
With such important cultural work as well, it’s inspiring to see this process enacts mutually benefical reciprocity between places and peoples.
Michelle Watson led the smoking ceremony and the proceedings. Nicole paid respects and the skins were smoked and blessed so the work can go well.
This was a really special event and I felt very honoured to be a part of it. Out of respect for the process I will not go into details about the ceremony except to say Nicole spoke very well. Some of her acknowledgements were in the Dhurug language of her ancestors. Dhurug is also a language being revitalised as it was the language spoken around Sydney and as such was the first to be subjugated by colonial rule.
Just out of interest, we found this website with 10 Dhurug words – https://www.timeout.com/sydney/things-to-do/10-darug-words-and-their-meanings
Our Weaving Water community continues to learn and grow together and we look forward to more connections at next years Weaving Water events.
Treecreate 