The spring breeze—as always—initiates a new beginning.
My name is Jilda Andrews, and I am the newly appointed “audience spokesperson” of the New Environmental History Gallery of the National Museum, which is currently known Life in Australia. My background is a learning service and community outreach team in a museum, developing and promoting public projects to help non-traditional museum visitors enter the museum.I am happy to join Life in Australia As audience advocates, the team becomes part of the conspiracy to develop a new permanent gallery, and creatively collaborates with the team (communities, organizations, families and individuals we meet in the process), not only as collaborators, but as the core audience themselves To the new gallery.
The story we will explore and the path we will follow is unique in our “life in Australia” experience, and I believe that the concept of “country” is at its core. This concept is part of my aboriginal heritage (as Yuwaalaraay women in northwest New South Wales), but I believe its core is universal for anyone who walks on tracks, follows the tides and feels this southern land of.
The first community consultation for the project was held in the Yuin area near Eden on the southern coast of New South Wales. I hope to capture the essence of this country at an important moment in the region: when migrating whales pass south along the east coast of Australia, they drag calves back to the cold waters of the Southern Ocean.Our spring visit coincided with Whale Festival in Eden, To celebrate seasonal events in the area. In order to investigate the intersection of this unique Australian place, people and roads, our team took inspiration from the spring breeze and went to the Garden of Eden to meet with a group of custodians responsible for managing the amazing heritage.
Coastline of New South Wales Sapphire Coast It is picturesque with vivid stories of the migration of people and animals, as well as shipwrecks, squatters and strange gangsters. Whales are also very reliable when migrating up and down the east coast, whether by glimpsing blisters in the vast blue, or if you are lucky, you can also show aerodynamic performances, as shown in the picture above.Almost as reliable is the Eden Whale Festival, which is now the 20th editionday Year-an event that brings together yarns, songs, skills and dynasties related to this migrating magical road.
This Shanhaizhiyuan Since ancient times, they have been walking on the trails along the southeast coast of Australia.Their influence is impressive. Today their connection with each other and the land is constantly being evoked in the company of the elder Yuin, Uncle Ossie Cruse, and on the land of the local Aboriginal Land Committee in the Garden of Eden. Jigamy Farm. Through Yuin’s management, we understand the old track of the Garden of Eden and the nature of their contemporary management. Bondian RoadOne of these ancient tracks, connecting the coast of the Garden of Eden to the Kosciuszko plateau, is currently recognized as a site or road of important historical and cultural significance.Through works like John Bly’s book On the right track: Finding the way to BundianIt also promised that the Australian landscape is one of the keys to the future of national unity, reconciliation, and cultural guardianship rooted in the land. Through his thoughts, reflections and stories this weekend, Uncle Ossi will prove time and time again that the guardianship of this beautiful land will be guided by its guardian past, and will join like a season and continue again.
Just like the dynastic influence of Uncle Ossi and his extended family, there is another family in Eden who continue to define the character, strength, and tenacity of the colorful history of the town. The Davidson family has been deeply integrated into the history of the Garden of Eden since the foundation of the settlement established in the 1840s as a service for the property of the pioneer and entrepreneur Ben Boyd, to the fuel service for the town of Eden today. ! It is their unique cooperation with the killer whales that has aroused the wonder and imagination of the citizens and tourists. It is this story of the relationship between human beings and the land, the environment, the migration route, and each other that makes us on the last weekend of October .
Davidson Family Management Whaling station It started operations in the Garden of Eden in the 1850s, and its business included hunting and processing baleen whale blubber to manufacture whale blubber as fuel for lamps. The baleen of these animals was also used to make hairbrushes and whale bones to stiffly construct clothes of that era. The success of the Davidsons is partly due to the fascinating relationship between the family and crew and the local killer whales. Unlike other whales that pass by, killer whales are not migratory. In the 60-year whaling practice of the Davidson family, three groups of killer whales-each known by its name and almost respected as part of the crew, would round up, warn and herd the whales to the skilled and waiting six-man whaling ship, and then Harpoon. The slaughtered whales will be dragged to the Davidson Whaling Station in Bifold Bay, where their blubber will be cut into thin slices called “blankets”, sliced into thin slices, and then placed in a series of metal vats resembling large pots (try Pot) to boil. At this time, it will be cooled and finally distilled into oil, ready to be barreled and shipped around the world; the lights on both sides of the paved streets of major cities in the world will be illuminated by this arduous, spicy, tense and laborious work. At the moment between the death of the speared whale and its slaughter, the shepherd killer whale will be left on the whale’s lips and tongue, which Davidson regards as the “Law of the Tongue”.
Considered to be an extraordinary story of human-animal cooperation, today’s Davidsons insist on talking about the additional cooperation between their family and local indigenous people in the success of this practice-they often recall that their ancestors provided equal wages and equality To adapt. Aboriginal contributions to the whaling industry are celebrated in many memories of this fascinating story, and the consideration of the reincarnation of individual killer whales as important ancestor souls adds to it as a story that is more than just a working partnership between man and beast Complexity, but a continuous cultural (and intercultural) system. This period of Australian history coincided with the aboriginals moving into the Eden Gardens of Victoria’s Gippsland and the Lake Varaga Reserve north of Lake Tyres. The interaction between the Davidson family and the local aborigines took place in a complex era, and in the wider context of the interdependence of blacks and whites in pastoral areas and agricultural industries.
Garden of Eden Killer Whale Museum Proudly proves the history of Eden and Australia during this period. It highlights these cross-cultural stories and investigates the collaborative relationship between humans, animals, and their natural environment. The museum houses the complete skeleton of the last Eden killer whale “Old Tom”. Its death not only marks the end of cooperation and friendship, but also the end of Eden’s whaling industry. Knowing this, and reflecting on the many books, photos, and accounts of the whaling past in the Garden of Eden, George Davidson’s firm determination after wind and rain seems to have softened to some extent. Perhaps he foresaw the changes of the times, his aging crew and a constantly changing world, a world not so dependent on whale oil, which made him ominous. In a sense, the dissolution of the strong alliance between man and animal is to return him to the fragility of mankind. How would it feel? What is it like to know the greater power of such a partnership? Maybe the Davidsons and Yuin will be the only ones who know.
The Garden of Eden in spring made me feel the power of people, places and roads. They emphasized Life in Australia project. The connections we have established with the people and nations of the Garden of Eden illustrate the different ways of keeping such stories in their own way—rather than competing or competing for legitimacy. These complex, fascinating and beautiful stories portray the local, regional and seasonal nuances of “life in Australia”.
Above: Humpback whales in Twofold Bay, October 2016, Thomas Williams, Flickr Creative Commons
