#eora nation

[slidesworthseeing]

Found slide: Rock fishing at The Gap, Watson’s Bay, Birrabirragal country, Eora nation, Sydney, 1958 (photographer unknown)

[asunfloweraday]

Kaurna Country

“I love a sunburnt country,

A land of sweeping plains

Of ragged mountain ranges

Of droughts and flooding rains”

I’m reminded of those words as I stand here on Kaurna country; hard earth beneath my feet and hot wind sweeping across my face. 

It’s this feeling that tells me that I’m home. 

Kaurna land is truly beautiful. The city is almost entirely encompassed by vast bushland that expands from the York Peninsula (Guuranda) nearly up to Port Augusta (Goordnada) and all the way back down to Cape Jervis (Parewarangk). To the West of Adelaide, we have the open water that is St Vincent’s Gulf (Wongajerla) and out to the Indian Ocean.

This may not be the place of my ancestors, but it was the place that I came into the world and spent my early years and childhood. 

I sit here and ponder that.

I ponder the deep spiritual connection I feel to this land and for the first time really consider what it means to be on Aboriginal Land. I think to myself, if this is the connection that I feel to country, how much stronger is it for First Nations Peoples. One hundred, one thousand, sixty thousand, four hundred thousand times stronger perhaps? And the weight of that really hit me. 

This moment was brought on by the Bachelorette and Brooke’s friend asking the final two if they know what country they live and work on. I felt smug about it at the time. Yes of course, I know the original custodians of where I live and work (The Gadigal/Cammeraygal People of the Eora Nation). 

But I was considering why I know that. 

I was still in school when Welcome/Acknowledgement of Country first came to be following Kevin Rudd’s official apology to First Nations Peoples. Every school assembly I would be reminded that I was on Kaura land. This continued into my university years. When I moved to Sydney and started tutoring in the middle of COVID, I had to look up whose land I was on as my classes were online so this information couldn’t be provided in the slides as it would be different for everyone. So in sum, I know because I’ve had to know, not because I did this on my own accord and all of sudden I felt ashamed by that. 

No my ancestors weren’t responsible for the atrocities whereby Australia came to be (my family migrated to Australia in the 1950s from an impoverished warn-torn Italy). But even if my ancestry was Ango-Saxon, who was responsible to me, is missing the point. What can we all do now to preserve and celebrate Aboriginal (and Torres Strait Islander) culture and I don’t think I am doing enough. 

I want to be a part of the conversation and I want to involve myself. Restoring the rights of First Nations peoples are and should be every Australians responsibility. 

So I’m here for it, I’m open and I’m willing to learn. I acknowledge that I cannot drive this, that should come from First Nations and only First Nations Peoples. But I will be an ally and I will do everything I can. 

This is my pledge. 

[slidesworthseeing]

Found slide: the Elizabeth Street entrance to Sydney’s Central Railway Station, probably taken shortly after the December 1955 federal election, Gadigal country (photographer unknown). In the left background a billboard for Fantales chocolates is starting to peel: it has been behind excavation work for new underground platforms since about 1949, which won’t be completed until 1979

[slidesworthseeing]

Found slide: Sydney, Eora country, slide developed April 1976 (photographer unknown)

[barbarabonanno]

Pemulwuy: killed by the British. The history of conquest and resistance continues today. da Barbara Bonanno BNNRRB Tramite Flickr: Pemulwuy: killed by the British. The history of conquest and resistance continues today. Names change, places change, but history repeats itself: a little power is enough to make men cruel. Pemulwuy (c. 1750 – 1802) was one of the most important Aboriginal resistance leaders against British colonization in Australia. He belonged to the Bidjigal people, part of the Dharug nation, who lived in the region between the Georges River and the Sydney area long before the arrival of Europeans. His name, in the local language, is often interpreted as meaning “earth” or “man of the earth,” although the exact translation remains uncertain. He grew up within the cultural and spiritual traditions of his people, whose society was based on a deep relationship with the land and governed by its own ancient laws long before British occupation. The colonization of the region began in 1788 with the arrival of the First Fleet led by Captain Arthur Phillip. Within a few years colonial settlements began occupying lands traditionally used by Aboriginal communities for hunting, gathering, and daily life. The seizure of land, destruction of food resources, violence, and introduced diseases created growing tensions between settlers and Indigenous communities. Pemulwuy emerged as a leader of Aboriginal resistance around 1790. According to colonial records, open conflict intensified after he killed a British settler who had severely wounded an Aboriginal man. From that moment he led more than a decade of guerrilla resistance against European settlements, organizing attacks on farms, storehouses, and supply routes. These actions aimed to resist the occupation of Aboriginal land and reclaim resources taken from Indigenous communities. Colonial authorities quickly identified him as a central organizer of resistance around Sydney. British documents from the period describe Pemulwuy as a determined and skilled opponent capable of mobilizing warriors from several local groups. Among settlers he became a feared and almost legendary figure. Some accounts report that he survived gunshot wounds and even capture, escaping and returning repeatedly to the fight. In one widely cited episode he was shot multiple times but survived, which strengthened his reputation among Aboriginal communities. In 1797 he led one of the most well-known attacks against the colonial farm at Toongabbie, an important agricultural center for the settlers. These actions prompted Governor John Hunter to declare him an outlaw and offer a reward for his capture. Despite increasing pressure from colonial authorities and militias, Pemulwuy continued leading resistance for many years. His guerrilla campaign lasted roughly twelve years, an unusually long period within the early Australian frontier wars. The conflict was not a conventional war between organized armies but a continuous series of clashes, ambushes, and reprisals that deeply shaped relations between colonists and Aboriginal peoples. In 1802 Pemulwuy was finally shot and killed by British settlers near the Parramatta area. After his death Governor Philip Gidley King ordered that his head be removed and sent to England to the scientist Joseph Banks, a practice unfortunately common during the colonial period when human remains were collected for pseudo-scientific study. The final fate of these remains is not fully documented, and their return has been requested many times by Aboriginal communities in Australia. Despite his death, Pemulwuy’s figure remained in Indigenous memory as one of the first great symbols of resistance against colonial occupation. Today he is recognized in Australia as a central historical figure in the struggle of Aboriginal peoples to defend their land, culture, and self-determination. Monuments, artworks, historical studies, and cultural initiatives continue to remember his role in the early frontier wars and in the broader history of Indigenous resistance in Australia.I publish this series to preserve historical truth and to honor those who paid with their lives for dignity, justice, and freedom. The rights we speak of today were not granted freely; they were defended and won by real people who chose conscience over silence. This project is especially addressed to younger generations, so that these lives are not forgotten and so that history cannot be erased or rewritten by propaganda. Remembering them is not a passive act of memory, but an act of awareness, responsibility, and resistance.

[glimmertriggers]

[glimmertriggers]

[slidesworthseeing]

Found slide: A crowd of Sydneysiders line Macquarie Street to watch Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip leaving Government House, Gadigal country, Eora nation, February 1954 (photographer unknown)