Projects
We have commissioned the Dowark Foundation to help with the consultation and Cultural Mapping process. This group is made up of Traditional Owners and Custodians who have maintained continual links to the traditional lands of the Wardandi People.
Dowark are using Applied Archaeology (AAA) to help investigate the Archaeological and Anthropological sites along the identified areas of the Sabina River Fish Traps, the Abba River and the Preston River, which are in the Vasse-Wonnerup and Preston River Catchments.
AAA and Dowark have had numerous site visits, consultations and workshops about these projects and have completed archaeological and anthropological work on all the sites. By visiting these areas with the Aboriginal groups, they were able to identify important Aboriginal sites, and put forward recommendations for on-ground work such as weed eradication, revegetation, rubbish removal and the need for appropriate signage to inform the community of the significance of the area to the local Nyungar people.
The working group is currently in the process of finalising the Cultural Mapping of these areas and the Nyungar groups will soon be able to add any appropriate cultural information that they wish, to the mapping. The final document will then allow the relevant Nyungar groups to have a physical document that can be used to illustrate to government agencies and NRM bodies how the Nyungar people used and continue to use the waterways and rivers through their cultural practices.
It is hoped this will assist in obtaining future funding to allow for more extensive on-ground work projects at these sites.
A film crew following the process of the cultural mapping and interviewed Nyungar Traditional Owners from the Geographe Bay area, the Wardandi people about their link to the land. A short video documentary highlighting the connection between environmental and cultural protection, ‘We are Wadandi’ was produced and is available for viewing below.
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