Pakana ranger Brenton Brown wants to ensure his children and future generations know about their ancestors.
Key points:
- The community at Preminghana are building traditional Aboriginal huts to help educate people about the region's Indigenous history
- One hut has been built so far, with another under construction
- The group hopes to build huts along the state's west coast in areas once occupied by Indigenous Tasmanians
He is helping re-build traditional Aboriginal huts at Preminghana on Tasmania's west coast to educate the public about the region's Indigenous history.
Mr Brown said the aim of the project was to keep the area's history going.
"To try and get it strong and get it back for myself and my children and the other children of the community," Mr Brown said.
"People will learn to respect through knowledge."
The rebuilt project was born after children visiting Preminghana for community events and camping trips wanted to engage in "old Indigenous practices".
Preminghana is an Indigenous Protected Area north of Marrawah and is owned and managed by Tasmania's Aboriginal community. It is also home to some of the world's most significant petroglyphs.
One hut has been built so far and work has begun on another.
Forestry Tasmania is assisting in the hut builds by providing bark for the outside of the structures, while other elements like the tea tree is being sourced from bush nearby.
Tim Lowery, who is also a pakana ranger, said the first hut took about three months of "on-and-off" work to build.
"It's not always the same every time you do it, because in the bush not everything always grows the same, you've got to work with what you've got," he said.
The group is using cable ties to hold the huts together for now, but it hopes over time it can use kangaroo sinew to make them more authentic.
"Our techniques are going to get better and we'll try and get them as close to original as what our ancestors did back in the day," Mr Brown said.
Middens are 'remnants of our people'
The remains of Aboriginal huts remain along Tasmania's west coast in the forms of hut depressions and shell middens.
The dips in the dunes at Nungu/West Point, near Arthur River, are where huts would have once stood.
Carleeta Thomas said Aboriginal families would have occupied the site and lived in the huts thousands of years ago.
She said families would have cooked shellfish — including warreners, abalone and limpets — on campfires inside their huts and then thrown the shells outside and left them.
"People actually think that it's a trash site or a place that people have come to bring their shells to dump, but our people actually lived in this area," Ms Thomas said.
Plan to 'put these huts where they belong'
Graeme Gardner, who is the Aboriginal Land Council manager, said the group had no limit as to how many huts it wants to build and will continue as long as they can.
"We will do as many as we can because it's great for a number of people to be able to see these huts, how they're built, their purpose, the structure, and how the use of natural fibres worked to protect people," Mr Gardner said.
He said anyone was welcome to visit the huts at Preminghana and hoped one day the huts could be all along the west coast.
"What we want to do is put these huts where they belong," Mr Gardner said.
Tasmania's Aboriginal Land Council has called for land once occupied by their ancestors, including Nungu/West Point and Laraturunawn/Sundown Point, to be handed back to the Indigenous people.
"They are critical in telling the story of Aboriginal occupation in this place, this occupation goes back thousands of years, it's the story of how the people are connected with the land to survive."
Premier Peter Gutwein and Aboriginal Affairs Minister Roger Jaensch met with the land council last week to start discussing future land handback arrangements.
Mr Brown said he would love for more tourists to visit Preminghana and see the team's work.
No comments:
Post a Comment