Stories country tells about places, people, holding knowledge and passing it on, connection, belonging, being, identity and perpetuity.
Songlines of Country is an ARC (Australian Research Council) Indigenous Discovery project based at the University of New England. The project is led by Dr Lorina Barker, Director, Taragara Research, School of Humanities and Social Sciences, and supported by Taragara Researchers Michael Brogan and Dr Eliza Kent.
The project is seeking to recruit two Aboriginal PhD candidates.
Find out more about the projects, and scholarship details at the links here:
The Taragara team enjoyed working with the Purai Global Indigenous History Institute and Wollotuka Institute, University of Newcastle to present Looking Through Windows: Tablelands, the coast to outback NSW in Newcastle.
Looking Through Windows: Tablelands, the coast to outback NSW is a travelling exhibition that has grown from the original Looking Through Windows project.
Alongside the exhibition, the programme included performances of immersive theatre work Trucked Off, and musical compositions created during the project. It featured a talk and tour for young adults in the Hunter area’s refugee cohort, and a weaving workshop at Wollotuka Institute – connecting with others weaving as part of Yarning Online OnCountry Kurra Purra Pila.
Thank you to Purai Global Indigenous History Institute, University of Newcastle for this great photo carousel and snapshot of the programme! HERE
In the spirit of public pedagogy, young adults belonging to the Hunter region’s refugee cohort, visited the University of Newcastle’s (UoN) Gallery to see the Looking Through Windows exhibition and learn about Aboriginal Australians who grew up and lived on the missions, reserves and fringe camps at places like Tibooburra, Bourke and Brewarrina.
Young men and women from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds browsed the exhibition which uses different artistic mediums, including oral history, filmmaking, photography, music, performance, as a way of expressing history, culture and knowledge.
More HERE
Story courtesy of University of Newcastle
A COVID initiative to reduce the isolation of Elders living in regional New South Wales has used weaving to link the communities of Bourke, Armidale and Uralla.
Every Tuesday, between 10am and 1pm, women from three weaving circles connect to Zoom to weave, troubleshoot, share design patterns and, best of all, show and talk about the artefacts they create.
More HERE
Story courtesy of University of Newcastle
Taragara is proud to be included in the Close the Gap Campaign Report 2022.
“This year’s report, produced by the Lowitja Institute for the fourth time, highlights how Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are leading the way in transforming health and community services, policies and programs, with foundations of culture and Country at the centre, despite unprecedented health challenges from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.”
The Close the Gap case study, ‘Yarning Online OnCountry: Technology supporting cultural connections’ is on pages 40 and 41 in the report.
“While the COVID restrictions were necessary to ensure the safety of our Elders and our communities, the increased isolation and loneliness impacted health and wellbeing. Elders were missing the chance to participate in their usual activities – and to gather with extended family and friends.” Dr Lorina Barker
Read more HERE
It started with a yarn that was transformed into a poem and grew into a video documentary, a community exhibition with a one-act play, opera piece and travelling exhibition.
Looking Through Windows: Tablelands, the coast to outback NSW is an oral history, artistic and multimedia project exploring the removal, dispossession and ‘protection’ of Aboriginal people in New South Wales and parts of Queensland and South Australia.
More HERE
Story courtesy of University of Newcastle
These are hard times. Stories of this time are being felt and will be shared by Country.
Taragara projects and research are led by Elders and Community – many in western NSW currently being ravaged by COVID.
Our projects follow Songlines, and we connect to Country through kinship – family.
While we have been finding new ways to stay connected Online and OnCountry, COVID and the limitations of technology in western NSW, are making it tough.
And there has been Sorry Business. There is Sorry Business.
Some of the Taragara team are mourning.
We are yarning online when and where we can. Elders are weaving and yarning in their own homes.
We cannot physically follow the Songlines at the moment. We are still, but we are still connected to each other and Country
.…
Taragara is thankful for the support of partners including the Australian Research Council, AIATSIS, Heritage NSW, Western Local Land Services, Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife, Oxfam, Create NSW, University of New England, AU and Maranguka.
We are very grateful for the support of Elders and Community.
Looking forward to taking the next steps alongside them and Typecast Entertainment when we can again. Stay safe everyone.
For many weeks we have been yarning and weaving on a Tuesday morning – together in person or on zoom, Yarning Online OnCountry KurraPurra Pila.
Today is different as we are all at home. This is important as we are staying safe and helping our whole community stay safe.
We will be together in person again soon!
We are VERY excited to be able to announce that Taragara Aboriginal Corporation’s ‘Mura Maarni: Chasing Mob through the Archives’ project is one of 14 projects funded under the AIATSIS Indigenous Research Exchange grants program.
Mura Maarni is an oral history and interdisciplinary multimedia research project that focuses on the Mura of the Corner Country now held in collecting institutions such as archives, galleries and museums.
Find out more HERE
Aboriginal Elders from six Western NSW communities are leading a new project that will create wide reaching environmental and Cultural benefits.
Yarning Online OnCountry – Kurru Purra Pila provides a culturally safe place for sharing knowledge and skills – enabling the transference of Cultural Knowledge between Elders and extended family while producing both creative and environmental outcomes.
“This project grew from another,” said Lorina Barker, Director of Taragara Aboriginal Corporation.
“In 2020, Bourke Elders were weaving and yarning during the original Yarning Online OnCountry project. They used raffia and other purchased materials but were keen to work with the broad range of materials that have traditionally been used for weaving – and they were very aware that the Cultural Knowledge around caring for, harvesting, and weaving with those materials could potentially be lost.”
Master weaver and Ngarrindjeri Elder Aunty Ellen Trevorrow joined the Bourke Elders online during the 2020 workshops. She described how she had developed partnerships with landholders to ensure some areas of native spiny sedge remained excluded from grazing and that she had access to harvest the grasses for weaving at appropriate times.
The group looked at areas around Bourke where spiny sedge and other grasses were still occurring naturally, and some areas that had been previously revegetated. While vegetation had been hit hard by drought, the plants had survived and were making an environmental difference on the Baaka.
“The Bourke Elders wanted to build on what they had begun during Yarning Online OnCountry, and were keen to facilitate a process that would both preserve Cultural Knowledge and care for Country,” said Dr Barker.
“They reached out to Elders in other Western NSW communities via their kinship networks and, in partnership with Taragara, devised Yarning Online OnCountry: Kurru Purra Pila Weaving.”
Aboriginal Elders and Knowledge Holders, as well as younger people, from Bourke, Brewarrina, Weilmoringle, Enngonia, Goodooga and Wilcannia will contribute to the project that will connect people, the river, the spiny sedge and weaving techniques to the Mura (Songlines) – Baiame, Water Snakes, Seven Sisters along the Baaka Barwon river systems and its tributaries – Ngarntu (Culgoa), Paroo and Warrego Rivers. It includes private and public lands as determined by Aboriginal Elders in consultation with landholders and land managers. Traditional Owners include Ngemba, Barkindji, Wangkumara, Murrawarri and Kunja people.
“This is a Cultural and regeneration project that will pass on oral history – reconnecting with and preserving Cultural Knowledge and skills while also regenerating sites to enable this process,” Dr Barker said.
“Taragara is excited to be able to work alongside ours Elders and we are looking forward to what is ahead!”
‘Yarning Online OnCountry’ has been created in partnership between Community and Taragara Aboriginal Corporation. This project is funded by the NSW Government through Heritage NSW and Western Local Land Services NSW, and by Foundation for National Parks & Wildlife through its Community Conservation Grants program. It is supported by the University of New England.
Special thanks to our Elders, community members, local partners, landholders and land managers for their support of this project.
The Aboriginal Elders and Cultural Knowledge Holders leading the Songlines of Country project have begun mapping the project’s physical journey.
“It is great to be able to be back On Country,” said University of New England’s Dr Lorina Barker, a Wangkumara/Muruwari scholar and Lead Chief Investigator of Songlines of Country.
“While the project team, Elders and communities have remained connected and engaged, COVID-19 delayed our ability to travel.”
Read the full post here
“A collaborative composition project at UNE is bringing emotive musical meaning to UNE’s Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP). A musical composition commissioned by the Vice Chancellor of UNE has been underway since late 2020, and the composition was recently played and recorded for the first time.
This project has been a collaboration between Dr Lorina Barker, Dr Paul Smith, Aboriginal Elders, Wiradjuri soprano Georgina Hall and local Armidale musicians… “
Read the full post here
Bourke Aboriginal Elders who have been weaving during the Yarning Online OnCountry project, are keen to explore strategies to ensure culturally and environmentally significant native vegetation remnants are preserved, and that other Country is revegetated.
“Spiny sedge is one native plant that has both environmental and cultural benefits,” said Lorina Barker, Taragara Aboriginal Corporation Director. “The sedge has traditionally been harvested for weaving. However, the Cultural Knowledge around managing and harvesting the sedge, as well as the sedge itself, has declined since colonisation.”
The Yarning Online OnCountry project began in August. Since then, Elders and Community who have a shared history and experience, have been gathering weekly in small, socially distanced groups in Bourke – and via zoom.
Participants have been weaving with raffia and other purchased materials. At the same time, Elders have described the broad range of materials that can be used for weaving – and have traditionally been used.
With support from Local Lands Services Western NSW, the group investigated areas at North Bourke that have been previously revegetated with spiny sedge. While plantings had been hit hard by drought, plants have survived and are making an environmental difference on the Baaka.
“In addition to the obvious environmental benefits of revegetation, we recognise significant cultural benefits,” Dr Barker said. “This was reinforced when we yarned with Aunty Ellen Trevorrow during our workshops.”
Master weaver and Ngarrindjeri Elder Aunty Ellen Trevorrow joined the Bourke Elders Online OnCountry from Ngarrindjeri Country at Camp Coorong, South Australia. She described how she had developed partnerships with landholders to ensure some areas of native spiny sedge remained excluded from grazing – and that she had access to harvest the grasses at appropriate times.
“The Yarning Online OnCountry creative workshops aimed to improve Elders’ health and wellbeing by minimizing the impacts of social isolation due to COVID-19 restrictions. They have provided a culturally safe place for sharing knowledge, stories and skills – enabling the transference of cultural knowledge between Elders and extended family,” said Dr Barker. “This series of workshops are ending. But we are very excited that, not only will the Elders continue to meet and weave, but that the workshops have been the catalyst for future projects that will have wide-reaching environmental and cultural benefits.”
“With Aunty Ellen’s advice, and the support of LLS, we hope to pursue opportunities to preserve existing areas of native vegetation around Bourke – and revegetate other areas.”
‘Yarning Online OnCountry’ has been created in partnership between Community and Taragara Aboriginal Corporation. This project is funded by the NSW Government through Create NSW and Western Local Land Services NSW. It is supported by the University of New England.
Special thanks to local partners Maranguka Community Hub, Bourke Aboriginal Health Service and Morralls Bakery for their support of this project.
The final Yarning Online OnCountry workshop for 2020 was held today.
Elders, Community, and some of the Taragara Aboriginal Corporation team gathered in person at Maranguka Community Hub in Bourke. Others, including Songlines of Country filmmakers Typecast Entertainment joined us on zoom.
Yarning Online OnCountry began in August. While this series of workshops is ending, we are very glad that the Elders will continue to meet and weave regardless – and that there are plans for future projects. Stay tuned!
‘Yarning Online OnCountry’ has been created in partnership between Community and Taragara Aboriginal Corporation. This project is funded by the NSW Government through Create NSW and Western Local Land Services NSW. It is supported by the University of New England.
Special thanks to local partners Maranguka Community Hub, Bourke Aboriginal Health Service and Morralls Bakery for their support of this project.
“Words, plans and good intentions can only carry a vision of reconciliation so far. A new collaborative musical project is one innovative way UNE is giving voice and meaningful expression to the ambition behind UNE’s first Reconciliation Action Plan (RAP), released in July.
Combining European and Indigenous knowledges and traditions, UNE music lecturer and composer Dr Paul Smith and oral historian and multimedia artist Dr Lorina Barker are developing the creative work, commissioned by UNE, which will tell both a personal and universal story critical to understanding Australia’s divisive history and need for reconciliation …”
Read the full post here
Taragara 