Hopkins River has been the centre of much of my family history where we fished for eels and swam and is a place where our families gather throughout the seasons.

Paint, wool, canvas

72 x 35 cm

They did a lot of spear fishing [at Bunyarnda, or Lake Tyers in Gippsland] with the kangaroo bone.

They had these big rocks for sharpening bone and axes on and they’d sharpen up points on the bone, then get the sinew from a kangaroo tail and fasten the bone with it to a lump of tree neatened into a stick. Next the resin from a tree was heated and poured over the binding and they were ready for fishing.

Ink, paper

23.5 x 30 cm

Life within the Birrarung (Yarra River). Its swirling nature is represented by the blue lines. This painting was inspired by sitting on the banks of the Birrarung at Healesville and seeing a school of redfin and catching a young eel.

Acrylic, paper

51.5 x 64.5 cm

This painting tells the story of how Woongies (Aboriginal People) used the forest in the flood time when there were still ceremonies held in certain areas.

There was an abundance of food as animals would go to dry ground making them easier to be caught. There was plenty of fish and mouth-watering crayfish. The white figures are Mookies (spirits). It is the Yorta-Yorta belief that the Mookies are still there today.

Paint, canvas

67 x 89 cm

This is a map of Port Phillip Bay and all the rivers that flow into it. The Southern Cross represents the Kulin nation. The swirling motion of water in Birrarung (the Yarra River) travels to Port Phillip Bay in the centre.

The five circular shapes represent the five clans of the Kulin Nation: Dja Dja wurrung, Boon wurrung, Taun wurrung, Woi wurrung and Watha wurrung. The border represents the land of mountains and valleys around Birrarung and the connection of animal, land and water.

Paint, kangaroo skin

128 x 80 cm

This type of spear was used for spearing eels. When the rivers were in flood and the rabbits were stuck in the water, they could be speared and caught with this type of spear.

Wood, nails, wire

188 x 4 cm

There was plenty of fish in the lake and there were prawns: big and juicy. There were plenty of mussels, crabs – the really big mud crabs – they used to catch, I remember. And they used to be brought home and boiled in these really big black copper pots over the flames. That sort of food was really delicious.

Fishing used to be a great thing down there for us. The parents would take us fishing. There’d be still spears made in those days. We would be out there – and it’s night – catching prawns with our grandfather, my father, my uncles and my cousins. And my cousin Clara, she had one of these little small spears made, walking along in the water there. And she thinks she spied or spotted a sort of, a fish and she said ‘Oh I’ve seen one’ and all of a sudden she let go and she’d got me in the big toe. Hahaha! That was painful!

Paint, canvas

60 x 80 cm

I dreamt about weaving a net. So I did just that. I wove a net! When I started weaving my net my mind wandered back in time and I thought about how it must have been for my ancestors who lived along the mighty Murray River (Miloo).

Weaving (fibre work)

Approx 500 x 50 cm

They made the foot-holds first – white stringy barks [trees] were used for canoes because the yellow splits. Well, [he] would split some bark from a sapling and tie it round the tree and then to the back of himself, fastening it with more bark. He used that to support him while he worked on the tree with his tomahawk, and when he was ready to move up the tree onto another tree hold he just leaned forward and moved the supporting bark sling up the tree.

When the bark is off the tree for the canoe it’s put down on the ground and fired – the heat softens the bark, the smoke pours through it like a chimney. Then the bark is put inside-out over a big log and hit with a tomahawk to get it soft enough to pull into shape. One end is curved in and fastened with bark, and a sapling poked in the nose with soft bark to plug it. They’d fix in a couple of ribs and there it was, ready for fishing.

One big tree had a fourteen foot canoe taken off it – well over a hundred years ago by the way it’s barking over – and others have barked over so far they must have had the canoes cut out three or four hundred years ago.

Lake Tyers c. 1894

Photo print, John Bulmer Album

The secret was given to me to make a bark canoe in 1973. It was a part of my life that I will never forget. Now the gentleman what showed me how to do it and told me when to do it, was Uncle Les Briggs. One day he said to me, “How would you like to make a bark canoe?” and I said “Uncle, that would be my ultimate dream”. I said “I would love to”. I said “That is me, because that is my culture, that is what I want to know”.

So we did a bark canoe and it was the most amazing thing you have ever seen in your life. He did it in about one hour, he chopped it and we just popped it off the tree with an ease you wouldn’t believe. Then we went and finished it and it probably took us a day and a half to cure it with the fire and then he just turned it up and it was magic. And then he said to me “Did you learn anything?” And I told him exactly what I had seen and he said “Well does it mean anything to you?” and I said “Not really, but I have learnt how to do it”. He said to me “Take the time to look at your environment, take your time to look and learn of where you are.” I was meant to be the next canoe maker.

Emu egg

12.5cm x 9cm x 9.3cm

CULTURAL WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander users are warned that this material contains images and voices of deceased persons and images of places that could cause sorrow.

Uncle Albert Mullett and Gunai community members make a bark canoe. Filmed at Lake Tyers, Victoria by Uncle Sandy Atkinson, c.1993.

Video editor: Megan Cardamone

CULTURAL WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander users are warned that this material may contain images and voices of deceased persons and images of places that could cause sorrow.

Uncle Les Cooper collecting freshwater mussells with Sonny and Feathers Cooper. Talking on the bank with Uncle Wally Cooper. Uncle Wally explains how a fishing spear is made.

Video editor: Megan Cardamone

CULTURAL WARNING: Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander users are warned that this material contains images and voices of deceased persons and images of places that could cause sorrow.

Uncle Sandy Atkinson relates the ancient story of the formation of the Cadell Fault landscape feature north of Echuca.

Video producer, co-director & editor: Megan Cardamone

Video co-director & camera person: Daniel King

Sound recordist: Mark Tarpy