I pay my respects to all Aboriginal Peoples - past, present and future and all Peoples who support and promote a continuity of Aboriginal culture as connectedness...
Together we are intergenerational species, spirit and environments.
Venessa Possum burramattagal Continuity, photographic documentation of a temporal site-specific artefact.
To follow are some images collected as early colonial graphic archives which relate to my ancestry and research.
The first is a map of the area that became known as "the Cowpastures" after explorers appointed by the English Crown found a cave painting of their lost herds.
The region is my ancestral ngurra (Country) murugnun, meaning paths-as-home.
(also recorded as Muringong in Kohen 1993).
The second and third images are early colonial paintings of our Country which show how our rich biodiversity was maintained prior to colonisation.
The fourth image is a detail of a map made by a Crown appointed botanist showing George Caley. The map reveals a cultural feature of my ancestral ngurra. A formation of grasses and small trees reveals traditional land management for example, the burning practices used to cultivate a u-shaped area for seasonal herding of kangaroo and wallaby. Caley has given the place a Eurocentric name "Green dingle."
The Cowpastures region: Joseph Lycett c1817, Image courtesy of NLA.
Female Orphan School by Augustus Earle c1825. In the collection of the National Library of Australia, object/281833
Detail: George Caley "The Limits and Boundaries of the Vaccary Forest" c1804; notice the letter E. cultivated as u-shaped area for seasonal herding of kangaroo and wallaby, and below this feature a sharp bend in durrubbin (Nepean River) is our kirbuwali (shallow crossing).