Nawi Boorun’s canoe ‘Boorun’s canoe’ is Boorun the Pelican, our Gunai ancestor, As an Australian of European descent, came to Gippsland carrying a bark canoe and a photographic artist, this project a collaborative arts project on his head. Canoes are part of our story was about making a connection with reviving the traditional of who we are and where we come from. Gunai/Kurnai Aboriginal culture, practice of bark-canoe I want to respect my ancestors by and then sharing that story with the continuing the tradition of canoe making public in a responsible and visually making in Gippsland, Victoria. and safeguard it for future generations interesting way. Aboriginal artist Steaphan Aboriginal artist Steaphan Paton Photographic artist Cam Cope Paton and photographic artist Cameron Cope based the project around the transfer of traditional knowledge from Steaphan Paton afloat on the canoe that elders to young men. is an essential part of his people’s traditions, their creation story. Photography by Cam Cope This article is a transcript of their session at the Nawi conference in May, when they spoke and screened a video and photographic presentation. 12 SIGNALS 100 SEPTEMBER TO NOVEMBER 2012 SIGNALS 100 SEPTEMBER TO NOVEMBER 2012 13 Senior Gunai/Kurnai elder Uncle There's not many There are lots of mountains and rivers Albert Mullett, a master craftsman, taught and lakes, so canoes are an important his grandson Steaphan Paton and other people in the State feature of Indigenous culture. young men in the family to build a bark Uncle Albert (speaking from the video): canoe, with knowledge that was passed who have the Cherry Tree track is a very significant on to him from his uncles and elders. knowledge, it’s very area. Old fellows camping here and It follows a tradition that has been spearing fish and hunting ducks. About practised for many thousands of years important to pass five months ago, me and my eight by Gunai/Kurnai people. In a close grandsons went out and picked a tree collaboration with Uncle Albert and the it on and these things to make the bark canoe. Today is a special extended Mullett family, Cam Cope has have to be passed occasion for us, for me and my grandsons, produced a series of powerful images that we’re launching a stringy bark canoe. capture vital elements of cultural pride, on to the younger We’ll pour the water in, and see if it’s intergenerational knowledge and the generations. going to leak. If it’s going to leak… canoe-making process. we’ll just plug it as it goes. Steaphan and Cameron won a City of Senior Gunai/Kurnai elder I went to school for six months of my Melbourne arts grant to fund the project Uncle Albert Mullett life, and I said, ‘Nuh’, I need to go and and their work has since been acquired by learn from my own people. I need to the Melbourne Museum for its permanent know things that are important to me as collection. The project has become the an Aboriginal boy, as a young Aboriginal major NAIDOC exhibition in Bunjilaka, man. I wanted to know about Lake Tyers, the Melbourne Museum’s Aboriginal and any elders who are present, and I wanted that knowledge and I paid Cultural Centre, July–November 2012. thanks to everyone for coming as well. respect at all times to those elders. I spent Steaphan Paton: Welcome everyone, What a gathering, with all the ideas, and a lot of time around the fire learning. I’m a Gunai Monaro Ngarigo man from stories coming together, it’s pretty cool. It’s so important that I teach my Victoria. I want to pay my respects My name’s Cam Cope, and I’m from grandsons, so that when my time is up to the Eora people, the traditional owners Gippsland. Steve and I actually went and I’ve gone, and my great grandsons, of this country we are meeting on today. to school together. I’m a European they will carry that on. That’s through our And all the elders who have travelled here Australian and the reason I got involved Mullett family. Young Gunai men are today, and the Aboriginal community in this project is that, growing up in the learning, and they will be able to teach who are here today. country, I always felt there was a bit that in their time, when they get to be Where I’m from, Boorun is the pelican, of a lack of connection in the community older men. So it’s very important in my so he is integral to our story of who we between European Australians and family. I feel very proud of those are, and where we come from. Boorun Indigenous Australians. I was always grandsons of mine. It’s teaching them travelled down into Gippsland, down curious about the history of the region about respect, and about learning about and about Aboriginal culture. I’ve always across the mountains to Gippsland Lakes. their culture, and don’t be ashamed felt uncomfortable about the absence of He was carrying a canoe on his head and of it. Be proud of who they are, young acknowledgement of Aboriginal presence the whole time he was travelling he heard Aboriginal men, and they have a duty and place in Gippsland. this tapping on the top of the canoe. over time, to carry on what I’m doing To get some idea of the colonial history He couldn’t figure it out until he got now, so the story’s never going to end. of our region, it took me as a young adult to Port Albert and put the canoe in the I think stories of Boorun come from to go to university and enrol in a unit water, and out came a Musk Duck which the west, carrying his bark canoe on his of Australian Aboriginal history. It was was a beautiful woman, and they became shoulder, carrying down the great lake a great course, run by Bain Attwood at mother and father of all Gunai people. to Port Albert, and he could hear this Monash University, and very eye opening, That’s our story of where we come from. tapping on the canoe, and when he put but it didn’t bring me any closer to With this project we wanted to bring the canoe down, it was Musk Duck, so finding out who the traditional owners the idea of that intergenerational they are the creators of the Gunai people. of Gippsland are. So, for me as a European knowledge and pass it on. It was passed Australian, this project was about Steaphan Paton (speaking from the on to Uncle Albert Mullett, my Pop, connecting with Aboriginal culture, video): My Pop told us that this area, previous pages 12–13: Traditionally the old fellas who can’t actually be here with us today. respect and getting involved. The process it’s a cultural place. It’s got stories kept a fire in the boat for fishing at night. He sends his greetings. That knowledge has been enriching and allowed me to feel attached to it. There’s so many rivers and Using bark-lit torches, they kept a small fire to was passed on to him by his elders in the relight torches or cook the fish. We do the same more comfortable with my own identity, lakes around here, that canoe is an traditional way, not from a book or an when we go spear fishing. The old fellas are in the way that I live together with essential part of our traditions and crafts, archaeologist. It’s from a traditional definitely there watching us. Indigenous people in Australia, with and things we should be paying our owner, the person who has this above: Prying off and collecting the bark is the people I respect. respect to, this culture and living it. knowledge. That’s what this project most intense stage of the process. It requires We’re going to show you a bunch of With Gunai people that canoe is a vital everybody to work together carefully. is about. This is about teaching young photographs that I’ve taken with Steve part of our creation story. One of the boys the knowledge that they should top right: Pop [Uncle Albert Mullett] makes sure and his family, while they made things that Pop always says to us is you that the bark is coming off the sapwood effectively. know. Now I’ll introduce you to Cameron, a traditional canoe, and we’re also going can’t get this from a book, you have he was my collaborator in this project. centre: Heating the bark sheet over a fire gives to show a short video. Unlike the other to get out there and do it, and it has to be the material plasticity for folding it into shape. taught by an elder who knows this stuff. Cam Cope: Thanks Steve, and before presentations there are no maps from right: Pop gets involved with a hands-on I say anything I’d also like to acknowledge us today, but Gippsland is the south- And that’s always been the way... working demonstration of the finer details. Most of the the Gadigal people and the Eora Nation, easternmost region of mainland Australia. with Pop to actually make a bark canoe time he just directs. 14 SIGNALS 100 SEPTEMBER TO NOVEMBER 2012 SIGNALS 100 SEPTEMBER TO NOVEMBER 2012 15 This significant project is reviving a tradition that was slowly or guide.