Aboriginal Women’s Fishing
in New South Wales
An Annotated Bibliography of Documentary Sources
www.environment.nsw.gov.au
Cover photo: Unloading a boatload of fish on the Murray River, c. 1910.
Reproduced courtesy of Museum Victoria.
This publication was compiled and written by Johanna Kijas and Alex Roberts.
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ISBN 978 1 74232 558 3
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May 2010
Using this document
This annota ted reference list is arra nged in alp habetical or der by author’s name. A
context and interlin king discu ssion, where relevant, is pro vided for each entry. The
annotated references can thus be read from A to Z as part of an ove
rall narrative
about Aboriginal women’s fish ing practices, o r can be dipped into if readers are
interested in the work of a particular author. An index at the end of the document can
guide readers directly to topics, places, or names of interest.
Each reference is followed by two te rms in blue. The first denotes the type of
reference. Examples include:
Academic; Autobiographical; Biographical; Cultural heritage, General
The second term deno tes the typ e of geographical place the source document
relates to, or occasionally a specific geographical place. Examples include:
Beaches and ocean; Inland rivers, North coast rivers; Sydney region
Methodology used to compile this document
This review of documentary historica l evidence f or Aboriginal women’s fishing in the
twentieth century was carried ou t through secondary library research, interne
t
searches and primary research in local historical societies on the north coast of New
South Wales. Similar evidence for t he eighteenth and ninet eenth centuries was lat er
added to the list of sources.
Regarding secondary sources, a survey of relevant
general texts on
Aboriginal life in the twentieth cent ury was carried out to ascertain what coverage
there was of Aboriginal women’s fishing practices. Little was found. Mo re productive
were sources which in cluded Abor iginal women’s biograp hies and au tobiographies
and specialist anthropological and cultural heritage texts. The survey of secondary
literature att empted to cover New South Wales as a whole , but the e mphasis ha s
been on th e south co ast, north coast and w estern regio ns of the st ate, plus the
Sydney reg ion. Academic analyses, local histories and
personal accounts we re
surveyed. Library collect ions surveyed were the State Libra ry of NSW, including the
Mitchell Library; Sou
thern Cross University Library;
Yarrawarra Aboriginal
Corporation Library; an d some e xploration of the University of New En gland Library
and its thesis collection.
For an in-depth discussion of the post-1788 history of Ab
original women’s
fishing in New South Wales, plea se see the companion text Aboriginal women’s
fishing in New South Wales: a thematic history. 1
A variety o f spelling s occur regar ding the names of Aboriginal gr
oups
currently and historically. Throughout the te
xt, the spellings used a re from the
documents from which they are cited. In the index, the spelling used is taken from the
Aboriginal New South Wales Map (NSWALC, NRAC, DECC, 2009)
1
Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water NSW, Aboriginal women’s fishing in New South Wales: a
thematic history, Department of Environment, Climate Change and Water NSW, Sydney, 2009
A
Allen, Harry. Aborigines of New South Wales: People of the plains, NSW
National Parks and Wildlife Service, Sydney, n.d. 2
General; Inland rivers
This text is part of a
NSW National Parks series fro
m the 1980s about t
he
predominantly pre and early contact ways of lif e of Aboriginal groups across New
South Wales. In this bo ok Allen discusses the ‘Wiradjeri’ a nd ‘Bagundi’ groups of t he
broad Darling River re gion. The author is generally clear when refe rring to either
male or female fishing p ractices. He is also clear when referring to the whole group
including men, women and children , as oppo sed to many other texts where the use
of ‘people’ or ‘Aborigines’ often denoted men only.
p.4: [During times of sufficient rain] … ‘Aborigines moved to the river margins and set
up small villages of gr ass-thatched huts. The re, in group s of fifty or sixty people
spaced every 59 km
or so along the river, communal
hunting and gathering
techniques were used to harvest the resources of the river and plains.
One important method of exploiting t he river plain environme nts involved the
large-scale use of hunt ing and fishing nets. Net s used f or fishing were up to 100 m
long and 1 m wide. They had reed floats and were weighted at the bottom with lumps
of fired clay. The entire community dragged them through waterholes to catch perch,
catfish and the occasional Murray cod. Sto
ne fish tra ps, such a s the one at
Brewarrina, and traps of clay or brushwork were placed in
favourable locations to
catch fish as water flowed out of billabongs and creeks. Women tended the shallower
weirs, while the men caught fish by spearing fro m the bank, canoes and underwater.
Fishhooks do not appear to have been used on the Darling.
Shellfish, fr eshwater mussels and yabbies were gathered by women, who
dived for them or felt th em with thei r toes in the soft mud. T he catch was placed in
net bags and brought back to be roasted in the fires at the camping place.’
Ainsworth, John. Reminiscences of James Ainsworth, Beacon Printery,
Ballina, 1922. [Richmond River Historical Society]
Archival; North coast rivers
Ainsworth has a large, sympathetic section o n Aboriginal li fe around Ballina in the
late 1840s to 1850s. There are long description s of fishing by ‘them’, b ut there is an
assumption in the tone of the text that he was referring to men. In particular he refers
to the use of spears when referring to ‘them’.
2
The terms ‘Aborigine’ and ‘Aborigines’ are used throughout this Bibliography where they are part of
direct quotes or book titles. These terms accurately reflect the language of the time when these texts
were written, and are not intended to cause offence.
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
1
Ardler, Gloria. The wander of it all: recollections by Gloria Ardler, Burraga
Aboriginal History and Writing Group Inc, Darlinghurst, 1991.
Biographical; Coastal rivers
Stories are predominantly of the Burragorang Valley on the south coast.
p.13: ‘… The Shepherd children attended the Catholic School… They loved to fish for
perch in the Cox’s River.’
Attenbrow, Val. Sydney’s Aboriginal past: investigating the archaeological and
historical records, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2002.
Academic; Beaches and ocean
p.82: Referring to archaeological a nd ethnographic evidence Attenbrow says that
women ‘in coastal groups of the Sydney region played a predominant role in catching
fish.’ The fir st British co lonists note d that the women were in their canoes fishin g
‘which is th eir constant employmen t’. Men and women used different equipment to
each other when fishing, with women using shell hook an d line, sometimes using a
spear to strike and haul in a large fish, while m en used spears and were never seen
to use line s in the very early colonial period. Once steel ho oks were int roduced men
were seen fishing with lines. Women fished fro m canoes and less ofte n from roc k
platforms.
There is little mention in the early observations of the colonists about she llfish
collecting. A ttenbrow speculates th is could be because pe ople were not often see n
collecting, or that it
was not considered important enough to r
ecord, bein g
‘unspectacular, unobtrusive and humdrum’.
p.62: Fish a nd shellfish made up an important part of the diet of Aboriginal people
living in the Sydne y reg ion. However, there were regional variations in the types o f
seafood eat en. For example, more shellfish we re colle cted and eaten on the coa st
then in the hinterland and upper reaches of the Hawk
esbury River. Eels and
freshwater mussels were widely eaten in the hinterland, but not closer to the coast.
p.81: ‘Fishing in communities where traps and weirs were used was often
communal activity.’
a
p.82: ‘Women in coast al groups of the Sydney region played a predominant role in
catching fish. The first British colonists noted th at “[t]he women, when we first came
on the beach, were in their canoes fishing,
which is th eir constant employme nt”’.
Furthermore, Attenbrow says that this differ s from fishing pr actices in other parts o f
Australia, where fishing was more of a male p astime. In the Sydne y region, women
generally fished with hooks and line s from canoes and men fished with spears while
standing on rock platforms, in shallow water or in canoes.
p.82: ‘…fish ing gear, including metal hooks, was amongst the first objects that th e
British gave from the time of first contact, initially as gifts and ‘trade’ items and later in
order to encourage fishing ventures.’ There is some suggestion that Aboriginal me n
would fish with Europe an metal fish-hooks and line, but not shell-hooks, which were
made by Indigenous women.
p.82: Observations of t he First Fleeters indicat e that Abori ginal men i n the Sydn ey
region collected shellfish, which suggests that there was not always a strict gendered
division of labour when it came to hunting and gathering.
2
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
p.83: ‘In co ntrast to fishing there is only a small number of descrip
tions about
shellfishing or plant collecting in the Sydney reg ion. In other Australian communities,
men did collect shellfish, but women were the main collectors.’ Attenbrow speculates:
‘In the Sydney region shellfishing by m en ma y have been an opport unistic activity
when they were fishing from rock platforms.’
p.83: ‘Statements by recent resear chers that women in the Sydney reg ion were th e
principal collectors of shellfish and plant foods are based on observations in ot her
areas, usually northern Australia. If women h ad the primary responsibility for the
routine gath ering of sh ellfish and plant foods in the Sydney region, one can on ly
assume the colonists did not observe them, as these activitie s either happened away
from the British set tlement, in woo ded env ironments (in th e case o f plant foods) o r
were “unspectacular, u nobtrusive and humdru m”. In addit ion, on ma ny occasions
men made sure that their women were kept at a distance fro m the British men, and i t
may be that the women hid themse lves w hen they heard the British ( usually men)
coming. Th ese combin ed practice s and op inions may account for t he dearth of
references t o women a nd their activities, except when the y were fishing on open
waters.’
p.84: ‘As the British settlement expanded, areas of land and wa
ter that were
accessible to the local inhabitants b ecame smal ler and smaller, and traditional food
resources were removed through land clear ance for fa rms, buildin gs and oth er
activities … Along the coast, fishin g was one of the few activities th at provided a
viable avenue for exchange for ot her items such as food and clothin g as well a s
alcohol and tobacco. Phillip and la ter governors (particularly Macquarie) were eager
to convert the local peop le to a British way of life and in this context several attempts
were made to encourage fishing ventures. By mid-1791
several people, includin g
Ballederry, began trading in fish with officers w ho lived at Parramatta. In exchange
for mullet, bream and other fish they received a small quantity of either bread, or sa lt
meat. Later, from about 1815, Bungaree and his group traded fish usin g a boat an d
fishing lines provided by Macquarie. Neit her Ballederry’s nor Bunga ree’s ventures
continued long.’
p.84: ‘By the end of the 1820s, there was no-one in the Sydney region that was not in
some way affected by the British presence … For coastal people, fishing was one o f
the few pre-colonial subsistence a ctivities that continued to provide them with a
substantial source of food as well as a medium for exchange. In the mid-1820s nava l
surgeon Peter Cunningham described how people still
caught fish with hooks
provided by individual colonists, so me of which they traded for clot hes, bread a nd
rum. People were seen spear-fishing as well – f or example, from bark canoes along
the Cooks River until the mid-1830s, and in Middle Harbour in the 1850s.’
pp.86–8: description of f ishing equipment, including fishing spears, hooks and line s,
nets and traps, and canoes.
Attenbrow, Val and Steele, Dominic. ‘Fishing in Port Jackson, New South
Wales – more than met the eye’, Antiquity, vol. 69, no 262, March 1995,
pp.47–60.
Academic; Sydney area
This article focuses on the fishing methods
used in Port Jackson. It assesse s
archaeological evidence and the written evidenc e left by members of the First Fle et
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
3
in an attempt to draw conclusions about Aboriginal fishing methods and equipment in
the late eighteenth century.
p.47: ‘In the earliest historica l records for Po rt Jackson (those of the First Fleet
diarists and artists), fishing is the most frequently mention ed subsiste nce activity of
the local Ab original peo ple. Only two methods are describ ed and illust rated: spear fishing and angling. First Fleet documents state that spear-fishing was undertaken by
men using multi-pronged spears (o ften called ‘fizz-gig s’ or ‘gigs’) fro m the rock y
shores as w ell as from bark canoes and in shallow waters. Angling (or line-fishing)
was carried out by women who fished from canoes using shell hooks and line s in
deep water.’
p.47: ‘The gender division in fishing was not ab solute and Tench, for example, noted
that: ‘women sometimes use the gig, and alwa ys carry on e in each canoe, to strike
large fish which may be hooked, and thereby facilitate capture.’
p.49: ‘In other parts of Australia historical and ethnographic accounts describe a wide
range of fishing methods: not only spear-fishing and angling, but also tidal weirs and
traps, communal drives and a variety of nets and poisons.’
p.49: ‘To the north and south of Port Jackson, the use of poisons as well as brush
and stone weirs or traps have been describ
ed … South of Port Jackson, the
historically described weirs were all made of bru sh; no stone traps are d escribed for
that region.’
p.49: ‘Fishing nets were used on the NSW north coast, and in the Hunter Valley, near
Newcastle, hand nets were used in shallow water.’
Attenbrow and Steele suggest, based on archaeological evidence,
that a
greater variety of fishi ng methods were utilise d by Aboriginal peop le in the Port
Jackson area than are recorded by European observers. They suggest that the use
of traps and weirs ma y not have be en as visible as spear and line fish ing becaus e
they may h ave taken p lace in closed and less visible estuarine and bay settings
(see p.58).
p.58: ‘Many women’s a ctivities (except fishing in canoes on the harbour) ma y have
had very low visibility a s much of t he plant an d shellfish gathering would have taken
place away from the area of (British) settlement … Collecting fish caught in tidal traps
or rock pools may h
ave been embedded within women’s shellfish gatherin g
activities.’
4
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
B
Bayet-Charlton, Fabienne. Finding Ullagundahi Island: a story of family, place
and belonging, Allen and Unwin, 2002.
Novel/autobiography; North coast rivers
The author declares
that while her book is a
novel it
is pr edominantly
autobiographical. The r elevant sections are about Fabienne’s journey from Adelaid e
where she grew up, to the Clarence, to learn
more of h er grandmo ther’s life a t
Ullagundahi Island (author’s spelling) before she moved to Coober Pedy.
pp.34–6: An elderly man at the mission at Yamba tells the story of the d olphins who
used to be t he old peopl e’s friend un til the ‘greed y man’ killed one to se e if he could
gain its spirit. Although the old people killed the man and threw his body into the sea,
the dolphins were never again so friendly.
p.34: ‘They’d [elders/old people] all go down to the river, they could feel the fish
swimming through the water. A whole mob of t hem … the river would be full of f ish.
Then, when everybody was down there, they would get together and beat their
spears and coolamons on the wat er. They’d be calling o ut to the d olphins. Se e?
They’d be calling them to round them fish up. The men wou ld beat for the dolphins to
come and t he women would walk with the nets into the water. The dolphins would
come and chase those f ish into the nets. That way the old p eople would catch a big
mob of fish. They’d scoop them up with their nets and everybody would share.’
The story about the dolphins is oft en told as if it was only a relationship
between the men and the dolphins, whereas in this story wo
men are equa l
participants and the ones who take out the nets. In Ruby L angford’s memory of he r
holiday at Yamba, accompanying th e annual Ca sino Christmas camps at the beach,
it was a woman who
called to th e porpoises each day while everyone was on
holidays, to keep the swimmers safe (see Langford 1988, p.38).
Becker, Alice. Grace Roberts: her life, her mystery, her Dreaming, Northern
Rivers College Press, Lismore, 1989.
Biography; North coast rivers
Alice Becker came to know Grace Roberts in h er later years. Grace ha d been stolen
from her home at Boxridge Mission near Coraki on the Richmond Rive r, far north
coast New South Wales. When she returned after her teenage years at Cootamundra
Girls Home and later working life as a domestic, she returned first to her Bundjalung
Country an d later moved to Coffs Har bour after marrying , where sh e became a
significant figure in fighting for Aboriginal rights. Becker says of her return to Coraki:
p.14: ‘Back in her own territory … Grace began to make up for the lost years of her
teens. She mixed in wit h a young g roup, she loved to go d ancing, swimming, fishing
and follow the boxing which was a very p
opular spor t among the Aboriginal
community.’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
5
p.27: Alice says ‘The river was and still is a very happy place for these people and
they have a rare knowledge of the fishing in t he district . They watch the flowers:
when the white ti tree is in full blo om the dogfish are bitin g; it is the flowers that tell
when the tu rtles are fat and plentiful; and when certain clouds appear in the sky it is
the time fo r bream, and when th e silky oak blooms th e time has come to g o
hunting …’
Alice refers to the ongoing traditional stories of Bundjalung people
. ‘A
grandmother, a friend and confida nt of Grace’s, speaks h er thoughts, beliefs and
actions which would also be those of Grace. “It is something that goes a long wa y
back. You know there in Coraki, w ay back the re is a little creek, with a water hole
here and there. I went fishing there one day. Grace loved to go fishing t oo. This da y
there was n obody about yet all the time I could feel peo ple around me. I cou ld feel
them very strong, I caught fish too. After a while I asked the people back at the camp,
about the place. It was alright for us to be there, it was ve ry old, something sacre d
was there, it was very strong. It was alright for me to be there but if I too k a stranger I
would catch fish but their line wouldn’t even pull.
I take my sister in law fishing, but I can’t take h er to all the places, there are
some she can’t go to. We know the places. Th ere’s a bend in the river, a lagoon, we
cast out our lines and w asn’t catching any fish, so I called out in our lingo and then
we caught fish. But if I didn’t call o ut, or get some of the old ones to call out, she
would sit there all day and not catch fish. It is strange but it is true. It is a spiritu
al
thing with us. It is a spiritual thing with us.
There are some parts of the river we are not allowed to go. If we disobeyed
the older on es, (p.28) a nd it is important that we do obey t hem, certain things would
happen that I couldn’t tell you about. I’ve been places I sho uldn’t go, but I’ve neve r
been back. There’s this strong thing” – placing her hand over her heart.’
p.28: ‘“… There are sa cred places that are happy places. We get a drawing back to
those places. I’m drawn back to the river, it’s peaceful and happy. I can speak to the
spirits and I do for the children so metimes. I t alk to them before they go to the river
and tell them where they can go and where they have to be very quiet.
When we go up to the lagoon, if we can’t ca tch any fish I can ta lk t o the
spirits. That lagoon belongs to our people, so I can talk to
them, but some people
don’t believe this.
My grandchildren are learning Bundjalung. That is why it is important to speak
our language. When they grown up they will need to speak to the spirits.”’
p.28: continued, with the older woman remembering Grace: ‘“Certain animals are
looked upon as sacred – protected. When we went fishing one day o n a bridge in
South Australia, we fish ed on the le ft hand side but caught no fish. The n I saw this
willy wag tai l going o n and on flapp ing his wing s … I got up and moved to the o ther
side. It followed us over and started again. So I got up and went across the bridge t o
the other side of the river but it kept on goin
g on in the same way. I took it a s a
warning not to come round and fish. We gave up.”’
p.29: ‘Near Boxridge is the junction of the Rich mond Ri ver and the no rth arm. Thi s
junction is very sacred to the Aboriginal people. Spirits of the past linger there, so it is
a place the people dare not linger. They do not fish nor swim there … Among the
Aboriginal people not only are peo ple created custodian s of stories a nd of sacred
sites but bir ds, animals even fish can also be custodians f or sacred sites and are
known to react to encroachment …
In all triba l districts ther e were special pla ces t hat belonge d to the wo men.
Many still exist today, but unfortunately some have di
sappeared i n the path of
progress. T hose that re main are to be found in quiet gullies, seclu ded areas awa y
6
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
from prying eyes. They were always by a creek, river or sea , where water and food
could be got easily …’
Bennett, Michael. ‘The economics of fishing: sustainable living in colonial New
South Wales’, Aboriginal History, vol. 31, 2007, pp. 85–102
Academic
p.87: Bennett points out that much of the research into Aboriginal fishing has focused
on the far south coast of New Sou th Wales, as part of preparations in 1992 for the
defence of seven Aboriginal men charged with breaches o f the NSW Fisheries Act
1935 (e.g. works by Brian Egloff, Wreck Bay: an Aboriginal fishing community an d
Scott Cane, ‘Aboriginal fishing right s on the New South W ales south coast: a cour t
case’ in Nicholas Peter sen and Br uce Rigsby (eds), Customary marine tenure in
Australia, Oceania Monograph 48, Sydney, 1998).
p.87: ‘The historical a nd anthrop ological evidence com piled for the case sho ws
continuous fishing activ ity in the ni neteenth and twentieth centuries b y nu merous
families occupying land between Batemans Bay and Eden.’
p.87: ‘Egloff’s study of fishing at Wreck Bay shows a group of closely related families
establishing a community in the late nineteenth century and continuing to occupy and
fish from the area throughout the twentieth century. Pro minent among the residents
were me mbers of the Campbell, Nyberg, Ardler, Bloxsome, Timbery, McLeod and
Chapman families. Some came from as far north as Kempsey, bu t others we re
originally from the Coola ngatta Estate on the Sh oalhaven. By the 1950s, up to eight
boat crews were operating out of Wreck Bay using nets to h aul in their catch, most of
which was transported t o Sydney for sale. The f ishing season lasted from Christmas
to Easter.’
p.88: ‘Ther e is conse nsus that A boriginal w omen along the Sydney coast we re
responsible for catching fish, a major component of the diet, with hook a nd line. The
fishhooks were generously curved and made mainly from shell. Fishing line consisted
of two strands of bark fibre twisted t ogether although other materials such as anima l
hair were sometimes used. Women sat in bark canoe s a nd dangled their hook a nd
line overboard. The successful cat ch was some times cooked there and then upon a
small fire in the canoe. Men fished with multi-pronged spears called ‘fizz gigs’ by th e
British. Shaf ts ranged in length bet ween 3.7 m and 6 m, and were ma de from the
protruding spiral shoot of the yellow gum tree. Men stood on rock ledges or balanced
themselves on bark can oes to launch their dar ts at the fish below. Other aspects of
the sexual division of labour are n ot evident from the reco rds of t he o fficers of th e
First Fleet. Women were rarely seen and there are no direct observations, as ther e
are from other parts of t he country, of them specialising in t he gathering of shellfish
and plant foods.’
p.91: ‘In the 1830s, Obed West observed the u se of weirs, or “mouls” made of sticks
and brushes at Mullet Creek near La ke Illawarra to trap fish for large gatherings. The
large numbers of fish caught at w eirs allowed large socia l gatherings, sometimes
exceeding 200 people.’
p.91: Bennett points out that European accounts of fishing o n the south coast rarely
specify the gender of fisher people . Yet one o bservation suggests that there was at
least some partial division of labour along gender lines. ‘In January 1840, Reverend
Clarke of the Illawarra asked an A boriginal man named Frying Pan to obtain, if h e
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
7
could, a po rtion of pra wns; Frying Pan drew himself up angrily and replied tha
t
catching pr awns was women’s work and that men fished only with s pears. This is
little to go o n, but it does suggest th at the divisions noted in Sydney also applied on
the south coast.’
p.92: ‘Fishin g also drew Aboriginal people into the European economy of the south
coast. As in other pursuits su ch as guiding set tlers acro ss the landscape, trackin g
lost cat tle through the bush and stripping bark from trees, Aboriginal people
possessed a comparative ad vantage in fishing that few recent arrivals could match.
Most were ignorant of the cycle of the fishing season and unaware of the best fishing
spots. Takin g advantage of their su perior k nowledge, Aboriginal fisher men supplied
an unknown number of fish to the Coolangatta Estate in January 1837 for which th ey
received three pounds of flour. Ma rgaret Menz ies commen ted two yea rs later that
Aboriginal men and women often brought in fish and crayfish for the residents o f
Jamberoo for which they received tea and sugar.’
p.93: ‘Thro ughout the second ha lf of the nin eteenth cen tury traditional practices
continued to be modifie d with the introduction of new techno logy, particularly boats.’
The NSW g overnment distributed boats to co astal communities beginning in 1868
when it gave a boat to Aboriginal people at Jervis Bay.
pp.93–4: ‘F or the remainder of t he nineteen th century, boats and f ishing gear,
including nets, were regularly supplied to south coast groups and some on the nort h
coast as well.’ Over 20 b oats were supplied to communities on the south coast in the
late nineteenth century.
p.95: ‘Mrs Lizzie Malone of La Perouse was one of the few Aboriginal women to own
a fishing bo at, although it seems th at she did n ot fish herself because she suffere d
from bad kn ees. In the late 1880s, she let her boat out to other Aboriginal people in
return for money or fish.’
p.95: Bennett argues that many Aboriginal men identified as fishermen and gave it as
their occupation on government and church forms.
pp.95–6: ‘As the ninete enth centur y proceeded, Aboriginal people increasingly so ld
fish to local white resid ents as ano ther means to raise m oney. Samu el Elyard of
Nowra wrote in August 1874 of purchasing 13 fish from local Aboriginal people after
returning from a boating trip on the Shoalhave n River. Th e APB ann ual report for
1890 recorded that the Aboriginal residents of Greenwell Point raised a “fair” amou nt
of cash selling fish to
local inha bitants. Similar comme nts were made for t he
communities further south at Ulladulla, Bega and Eden. The fishermen at La Perouse
were so successful that by the late 1890s they complained to the APB of interference
from white commercial operators.’
p.98: ‘The introduction of boats and nets diminished t
he importance of so me
traditional f ishing techn ology. In October 1879, a reporter for the
Shoalhaven
Telegraph could find only one Aboriginal woman who could manufacture shell hoo ks
and fibrous lines in the o ld style. Her implements were collected by Henry Moss and
taken to Sydney for the Garden Palace Exhibition.’
p.98: ‘Overall, there is n o clear evidence after 1 850 of the continued op eration of the
traditional gender division of labour. Observers rarely specified the sex of the person
doing the fishing. Some traditional knowledge, however, was retained, particularly the
important skill of spott ing schoo ls of fish from th e land whi ch continued to be used
into the twentieth century.’
8
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
Blomfield, Geoffrey. Baal Belbora: the end of the dancing: the agony of the
British invasion of the ancient people of the three rivers: the Hastings, the
Manning and the Macleay, in New South Wales, Colonial Research Society,
Armidale, 1981.
General; North coast rivers
This book is well known as a b ook about massacres aroun d the mid-north coast o f
New South Wales. But it also ends up being a good example of how one can f ind
evidence of Aboriginal women also being fishe rs in spite o f the dominant messag e
that it was the men onl y who fishe d. This message about men being the fishers is
demonstrated in a number of the photos and te xt in the book – and is noted below.
However, s ome of the photos and captions not ed below also provide examples of
evidence by accident that women were also fishers.
Second ima ge in the b ook: a cheerful looking Aboriginal man with a spear
and head dress and a smiling woman beside him holding a big fish. Caption: ‘Cranky
Tom and Dilburee, natives of the
Yarrahapini Tribe. Called “Cranky Tom” for his
irrepressible hilarity.’ [no acknowledgements – however the painting is by Clement
Hodgkinson]
p.17: Quote from te xt 4, The Australian Aboriginal People: ‘The men di d the hunting
and the women gathered the vegetables.’ [References are mainly to Elkin]
p.23: Painting by Clement Hodgkinson of the men spearing fish on t he bank of t he
Macleay River and other men spearing fish from canoes. The two canoe s also have
someone sitting in them (gender not discernable).
p.66: Thomas Dick photo of two men fishing in a canoe – one standing with his spear
poised at th e water and the other sitting, also w ith a spear. Caption: ‘Aboriginal men
fishing with pronged spears on the Hastings River … The c anoe is quickly made of a
strip of bark and the man usually has his wife with him. They also usually had a small
fire on a clay base.’
p.74: Thomas Dick pho to – this time of a man with his spear poised at the river fro m
the end of a log on the bank of the river [hence another dominant imag e of the me n
as the fishers].
p.123: Presumably anot her Dick photo (although it doesn’t say) of a young woman.
The caption talks abou t her good figure – h
ence not yet ‘corpulen t’ from the
Europeans … Despite all the images and text in this book which point to men being
the fishers, within this caption Blomfield quotes from a squatter who says ‘… In return
for the fish she had given me … [he gave her a looking glass]’. The assumption could
be that the girl handed on the fish f rom a male who had caught it – but it’s just a s
likely that she had caught the fish herself.
Boileau, Joanna. Community based heritage study: thematic history, report for
Tweed Shire Council, 2004. [Tweed Heads Historical Society]
Heritage; North coast rivers
The central aim of this thematic history of the Tweed Valley area of the far north
coast was t o identify heritage sites (places and objects). C hapter 2 concentrated on
the Bundjalung, predominantly in the pre and early contact period.
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
9
p.26: An ea rly observer of the area JJ Byrne commented about coastal technology:
‘They made stone axes, spears and fishing nets from twine spun from the flame tree.
The women used to we ave beautiful, peculiar a nd artistic b ags from the rushes an d
reeds, which they treated by some process to
give them colour and durability …
Women carried the material of which their huts were composed together with fishin g
nets …’ [JJ Byrne. ‘More about the Tweed Aborigines, The Tweed Daily, 5 January
1946, p.2]
p.27: Boileau reports that: ‘The use of fishing nets by groups in estuarine and riverine
zones was r ecorded by several Europeans. Sandy Logan, a child aged ten living in
the Tumbulgum [far north coast river country] in 1870 report ed that: “The nets were
made a couple of yards long with a stick at ea ch end and used individ ually or in a
combination with many of the
sa me.”’ Boileau argues that ‘… all the availa ble
evidence points to a high level of skill amongst the women in the manufacture of nets
and bags.’
She says ‘The use o f long net s described b y [Mary] Bundock for h unting
kangaroo a nd fish ing o n the Upper Richmond are also rep orted on th e Tweed bu t
only for fishing.:
“ … they could combine man y of th em to form one net some fifty feet long
then move along the bank trappin g them [the fish] in a selected spot .”’ [Footnote:
Personal communication between Sandy Loga n and Mr B Seymour, Tweed Heads,
no date].
p.31: In the section on twentieth ce ntury history, Boileau notes that Aboriginal an d
Islander populations established a camp at Fingal, where th ere were few Europeans
between the 1930s and 1960s, living relatively i solated lives from the Europeans at
Tweed Heads. ‘The men found sea sonal work fishing, cutting cane et c… while the
women worked as do mestics or took on lau ndry work. They supplemented their
income by keeping go ats, cows and chicke ns, fish ing and colle cting tradition al
marine resources such as mud crabs, oysters, pipis and other shellfish.’
Boileau, Joanna. Caldera to the Sea: A History of the Tweed Valley, Tweed
Shire Council, 2006.
Heritage; North coast rivers
This book was developed out of the community based heritage study re port (above)
on a thematic history of the Tweed Valley. In Chapter 5 the fishin
g industry is
discussed. The section talks about the men’s commercial fishing, and like the fishi ng
communities on the south coast, there is no mention of women and fishing.
Board of Studies NSW. Talking Lapa: a local community history of La Perouse,
Board of Studies NSW, North Sydney, June 1995.
Biographical; Beaches/ocean
This book d ocuments some of the memories of the older Aboriginal co mmunity who
grew up at La Perouse, Sydney.
They spent much time at the beach where the
predominant memory of the women is co llecting sea she lls with their mothers or
watching for the mullet with their fishermen fathers.
p.10: Dulcie Simms: ‘W hen we were children w e were told that if you were troubled
and you wanted the answer to something, you had to go down, on the beach, and put
10
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
your two feet in the wet sand and you’d feel the vibes of the spirits of your own. You’d
come away without any troubles on your mind.’
p.25: Collecting shells; Lola Ryan: ‘Well we used to collect a lot on Narrabeen Beach,
Cronulla Beach, Boat ’arbour, Wanda Beach. An d if we wanted the real pretty ones,
you’d have t o go down t he south coast to Wreck Bay. There were butt on shells, star
shells and brown ones we call nuppies or gubbens.’
p.36: ‘Fishin g in the bu sh’; Shirley Murphy and Lucy Sutto n: ‘Mum’d sit us on the
table and there was always mullet from the fishermen when there was a haul, so she
used to give us a line and say if we sat there long enou gh with a line out the door
we’d catch a fish. Of course we believed it. Wh en we was f inished scrubbing, she’d
tie a mullet on the end of our line s and we’d think we caug ht a fish in t he middle o f
the bush. We were very gullible kids.’
p.42: Shellwork; Christie Moore and Sandra Mu rphy: ‘… Th e glue is sp ecial and to
make it they used Davis Gelatine then they boiled it. After t hey boiled it they added
plain flour.’
Bowdler, Sandra. ‘Hook, line and dilly bag: an interpretation of an Australian
coastal shell midden’, Mankind, vol. 10, no 4, 1976, pp.248–58.
Academic
p.249: ‘In h unting so cieties world o ver it is women who gather and th ey gather th e
shellfish. T his is so in t he so cieties o f t he n orthwest P acific co ast o f America, and
among the Yahgan, Ono, Chono and Alacaluf huntergatherers o f the Chile an
archipelago. The gathering of shellfish as the task of wome n has been observed i n
many parts of coastal Australia: Arnhem Land, the Daly River region, Cape York and
Tasmania. Men ma y g ather a few shellfish for immediate consumption to stay thei r
hunger while engaged on other pu rsuits; it is not, however, a male ta sk to collect
shellfish for delayed consumption.’
p.249: Bowdler argues that there were a number of techniques for cat ching fish in
Australia – spear, line a nd hook, nets, traps, da ms and weirs, poisoning with bark or
other vegetable poison s. Furthermore, Bowdler argues th at the most widesprea d
method of fishing was with spears, which was an almost exclusively male practice .
However, Bowdler also suggests t hat this shif ted with the introductio n of the shell
hook approximately 60 0 years ag o, which saw wo men becoming increasingly
involved in fishing (p.254–6).
p.249: ‘The use of poisons to kill fish is quite widespread in Australia and seems also
to have bee n a male practice. However, it is of necessity used in fresh water pools
and lagoons.’
pp.249–50: ‘Nets may be used by e ither sex, with much local variation. Thus, in the
Darwin area nets were employed by two peopl e, ‘usually female’, and in the Archer,
Holroyd and Edwards Rivers area of western Cape York net s were likew ise used by
women. In northwest Queensland – an inland situation – nets were used by men and
boys; and nets were used by men around the Moreton Bay area. In western Arnhe m
Land, in inland pools, nets were used by both men and women.’
p.250: ‘Line fishing with hooks may also be done by either sex.’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
11
p.250: ‘More communal methods may invol ve seine nets, a s on Dunk Island where
men carry t he net out into the sea and wome n pay it out from the s hallows; an d
various sorts of traps, weirs and dams. Most of these are used in creeks or estuaries;
but they are also found on the open coast in situations where they can trap fish on
the tide. Stone dams may be erected in small shallow bays; and on the north coast of
New South Wales a stone-built fish trap has been described built on a rock platform.’
p.250: ‘Another commu nal method is for a group of people to wade o ut to sea an d
drive the fish in before them; men only or men and women may participate.’
p.250: Another method was ‘the cat ching of sm all fish by women in their dilly-bags,
which might be construed as a form of netting.’
p.250: ‘Another more or less communal form described for southeast Queensland is
getting “porpoises” (i.e. dolphins) to herd schools of tailor into the shallows where
they were speared or netted by men and th rown onto t he beach where wo men
picked them up.’
p.252: Bowdler suggest s that ‘fish caught by wo men is treated like othe r gatherable
foods, i.e. e aten on the spot or kept for family use; and fish caught by men is eaten
by men. If the fish is large enough, or if there is a large haul, it is probably distributed
amongst other men.’
p.253: Bowdler argues that ‘wome n except when out in their canoe s on Sydne y
Harbour had very low visibility as far as the First Fl
eeters were concerne d.
Systematic gathering of shellfish and perhaps plant foo
ds may well have been
carried out away from the area of settlement: Hunter comments of the men that “we
had frequently observed , that they t ook particular care upon every occasion to kee p
the women at a distance.”’
p.253: ‘women were s een to spend much time fishing. Here we ha
ve one of t he
clearest in stances of th e division of labour according to technique. Men invariably
used the four-pronged, bone-barbed spear; women fished with hook and line, using a
shell hook and a vegetable fibre line.’
p.254: ‘Surgeon J White saw on the harbour women fishing who then came ashore
and cooked and ate their catch.’
Brayshaw, Helen. Aborigines of the Hunter Valley: a study of colonial records,
Scone and Upper Hunter Historical Society, Scone NSW, 1986.
Academic; Lower north coast
p.60: ‘Canoes at Port Stephens were “nothing but a sheet of bark pressed and tied
together at either end”, and at Maitland they we re “made of bark”, the e nds tied wit h
curridgeon [ sic] bark, a nd sealed with grass-t ree gum. T hose seen on the lowe r
Hunter by Barrallier were propelle d along the river by a long pole, a nd went well
against the current. In d eeper water “short battledor like pa ddles” were used, one in
each hand.’
p.60: The manufacture of canoes: ‘… the bark was softened and shaped by the u se
of fire an d tied at the ends with vine s. Stays were placed across at either end and a
vine cord tied across the centre to maintain the shape. A hea rth of clay was made in
the centre for cooking freshly caught fish and a source of warmth and light at night.’
12
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
p.63: Women made string from bark. Ebsworth described how: ‘they twist and roll the
bark in a curious manner with the palm of the ha nd upon the leg; with this string they
form nets of curious workmanship.’
p.75: ‘Shellfish formed a particularly significant element of the diet of coast
al
Aborigines. At Lake Macquarie, Threlkeld wrote, “Cockles were the every day dish on
the lake, no t because t hey are the favourit e fo od, but, be cause they can be at all
seasons, most easily obtained.”’
p.75: Brayshaw argues that substa ntial numbers of oyster s were con sumed on the
coast evide nced by co lonial ob servers’ accou nts of oyst er collectin g and shel l
middens. For example, the party from the Lady Nelson foun d ‘the shore covered to a
great depth with oyster-shells’ on the Hunter estuary.
p.76: ‘There is no direct evidence as to wh
o traditionally collected the shellfish.
However, F itzpatrick re membered that it was the women who colle
cted oyster s,
cockles and pippis 3, and who dived off the rocks in search of crayfish.’
p.76: ‘Early observers believed that fish constituted the main item i
coastal Aborigines.’
n the diet of
p.76: ‘Vario us methods of cat ching fish ap pear to have be en employe d. The hoo k
and line, not used on the north coast of New South Wales and believed to have come
into use further south only within the last 2,000 years, was used in the Hunter region.
The hook was “of a sh ell ground d own on a stone until it became the shape the y
wished.”’
p.76: ‘This mode of fishing was usually undertaken by the women in canoes, a fire lit
on clay in t he centre to roast the b ait, which might be cockle, a piece of starfish o r
other fish, and to roast the fish as soon as it was caught.’
p.77: ‘Weirs were used. Grant came across th e remains of one in a small cree k
flowing into the Hunter estuary; part of a net made of strong grass was lying on th e
creek bank. The net he assumed to be of European manufacture, bu t the weir was
“the work of the native i nhabitants, this being one of their pri ncipal devices for taking
fish.” Threlkeld descr ibes a method of “planting sprigs of b ushes in a zig-zag from
across t he streams, le aving an int erval at the point of every angle where the men
stand with t heir nets to catch what others frighten towards them by splashing in the
water.” … Hand nets were also u sed in the shallow waters by mean s of forming a
circle and enclosing the fish.’
p.77: ‘It is p ossible that nets were used further up the river, near Morpeth, where the
lagoons of Wallis Plains “swarmed with deliciou s fish.” Peter Cunningham noted that
during the dry summers, when the water was low, the Aborigines would wade in “and
actually drag out cartloads thereof, including immense eels.”’
p.77: In the Port Stephens area ‘the fishermen, generally about half a do zen at once,
would rush into the wat er up to thei r middles, with spears and womera hs all poise d
ready, then when the school was within striking distan
ce, the leading fisherman
would give the word “muh” (now) and the spears would all be launched together.’
3
‘Pipi’ is the correct spelling for this kind of shellfish, however is sometimes spelled ‘pippi’, ‘pippis’ or
‘pippies’ throughout this document where that was the original spelling in the quoted source
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
13
p.77: ‘According to Vinn icombe, the shoaling of the sea mullet begins in late March
and continues through April and May. Grant remarked on their being v ery numerous
at Newcastle even in June and July. Overall fish tend t
o be most numerous in
summer and least so in winter.’
p.77: ‘Apart from sea mullet and fresh water eels, there is evidence
of a variety of
other fish species being consumed in coastal areas, including perch, flathead, bream,
schnapper, whiting and flounde
r. Stranded whales represented
a feast for
Aborigines, and Threlkeld noted
that on t
hese occa sions messe ngers were
despatched to all the n eighbouring tribes who gathered to partake. Porpoises also
were eaten if occasion presented them, although there is no evidence of their being
actively pursued.’
Briar, Tibby. Tibby Briar my story, as told to Phyllis Collie, Wilcannia, no date.
Biographical; Inland rivers
Tibby was born near Ivanhoe and th e family worked on the surrounding stations until
moving to Carowra Tanks in the dr ought and d epression years of the 1930s. When
they were forcibly removed to Menindee they thought the Darling River must be like a
huge tank and were very confused when they c ouldn’t get around it. The meeting o f
the desert people and the river peo ple was very difficult. In later years Tibby talks
about loving the bush around the river country where the
y would hu nt – but she
doesn’t mention fishing.
Briggs-Pattison, Sue and Harvey, Bev, Illustrated by Elaine Russell. Fishing,
Scholastic, Sydney, 1998.
Children’s book; Inland rivers (Victoria)
This is one of a series of colourful children’s books written about Yorta Yorta Country
on the Rive r Murra y. W hile Yorta Yorta Country is in Victo ria, the stories are about
the same river that flows through Ne w South Wa les. As is co mmon amongst written
and oral stories of Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people from the Murray, it tells of
the colonisation of the river by European carp and how it is regarded.
Back cover: ‘Being river people, fish was one of the staple f oods of the Yorta Yorta
people. When European carp was introduced t o the river it quickly began to compete
for food with the native fish. When anyone went fishing and caught carp, it was either
left on the river bank or cooked up for the dogs and cats. It had too many bones and
was too tough to eat.’
Inside text: ‘When Nan went fishing and caught one carp, at tea time one dog wa s
happy. When Nan went fishing and caught two carp, at te a time two dogs were
happy.’ And so on to six – ‘When Nan went fish ing all day and caught lo ts of carp, at
tea time all the dogs were happy.’
Bruce, Mary Grant. A little bush maid, Angus and Robertson, 1996 (first
published 1919).
Children’s novel; Inland rivers
14
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
This is one of Mary Bru ce’s famous Billabong children’s series begun in 1910, and
describes w hat her character of the non-Aboriginal girl No rah (aged 12) did in the
bush. In th is book ther e is a whole chapter called ‘F ishing’ where Norah’s fishin g
excursion with her older brother and a ‘hermit’ is described. For Norah the bush life
which inclu ded stock work, horse riding and constant e xploration o f the bush,
including fishing, reflects the real life childhood of Mary Ellen Bundock in the previous
century in th e Upper Richmond Rive r Valley. Wh ile there’s n othing much to make of
this – fish ing seems to have been a part of m any non-Aboriginal girls lives in inlan d
river areas.
Buchan, Rosemary. The Aborigines of New South Wales: Murray people, NSW
National Parks and Wildlife Service, Sydney, n.d.
Heritage; Inland rivers
Although fish and other river foods and the me ans of catching them a re discussed,
the gender roles in fishing are not d iscussed. But unlike earlier texts wh ich presume
that fishing was a man’s role, no such underlying assumption exists in this book.
Bundock, Mary Ellen. Notes on the Richmond River blacks c.1890 [Richmond
River Historical Society]
Archival; North coast inland rivers
Mary Ellen Bundock was the daug hter of Wellington and Mary Bundock who were
one of the first settler fa milies on the Upper Ric hmond River in 1847. Their station at
Wyangerie close to present-day Kyogle was near the banks of one of the Richmond’s
many tribut aries, and Mary Ellen writes abou t a blissful childhood p laying on its
banks, ridin g, and expl oring. Her writings about ‘the blacks’ are widely read, b
ut
unlike Katie Langloh Parker, she takes much less interest in the specificit ies of daily
life of the Aboriginal p eople around her. In the few places where she discussed
fishing she refers only generally to ‘blacks’. Elsewhere she said that the men hunte d
and the women cooked – it may be assumed from this that she
was generally
referring to men as the fishers. She also re lays stereotypical notions of gender roles
and the idea that the women were downtrodden.
Byrne, Denis and Maria Nugent. Mapping attachment: a spatial approach to
Aboriginal post-contact heritage, Department of Environment and
Conservation NSW, Sydney, 2004
Cultural heritage; North coast rivers
Mapping attachments d ocuments some of the heritage pla ces of pred ominantly th e
Biripi and Worimi people of the Manning River and Forster areas of the mid-nort h
coast of New South Wales.
In Chapter 10 ‘Purfleet & Saltwater’ Aboriginal men are ide ntified as those who were
the professional fisher s in the mid twentieth ce ntury. Like Wreck Bay on the sout h
coast, from the late nin eteenth century the Ab origines Protection Board had started
providing boats and nets to the communities a t Taree and Forster (see p.44 Ch. 5).
Although the Board d ocuments referred to the boats and nets being used by
‘Aborigines’ they were given to the men and the men were expected t o carry on t he
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
15
commercial fishing. Pag e 88 discu sses the men’s practice in the 194 0s, ’50s an d
’60s of leaving their fish ing boats, n ets and oth er gear on t he banks of the creeks
around Purfleet Mission and other creeks near the Mannin g River. However unlike
the unintended silence s about women’s fishing practices in other Aboriginal
communities where fishing has bee n a commercial enterprise, women’s stories ar e
included below.
p.88: ‘These were places asso ciated with professional fishermen, those who sou ght
to make a living from fi shing and who sold their catch through the local fish co-op.
Many other Aboriginal people from Purfleet fished for pleasure and to feed their
families. Betty Bungie, who moved to Purfleet f rom Nambucca in ab out 1950, loved
fishing, and would go out every
weekend with her husband and children. H
er
favourite places were Saltwater, Redhead, Blackhead, Old Bar and Forster. She told
us that she’d “stay all d ay fishin’”. Her husband Johnny (Bungie), usua lly had an ol d
truck or car, so they’d drive to their fishing places. If they didn’t go to the coast, they’d
go along th e Manning River to the bridges a t Coopernook and Cu ndletown a nd
around Pampoolah.’
The photo on p.88 is of Betty Bungie fishing off the bea ch at Saltwater in
c. 1960 with her young daughter Isabel. Page 89 is a map showing the site of the
Saltwater Christmas Camp and fishing places.
Ch. 13: ‘Forster & Wallis Lake’; ho wever, despite the story of Betty Bungie’s love of
fishing, the authors diff erentiate beach-going a ctivities alo ng the following gender
lines, for the mid twentieth century, where women are not remembered as the fishers
amongst the interviewees in this part of the book:
p.113: ‘Bea ches’; ‘Aboriginal men used the b eaches aro und Forster mostly for
fishing, diving for lobst ers and collecting bea ch worms for bait, while women’s
activities included taking children there to swim, to have picnics and to collect shells
and shellfish … ‘
pp.113–14: ‘Being Aboriginal’; ‘Goin g to the beaches, espe cially on Sundays, was
part of the process by which Aboriginal peop le were able to develop and maintain
“their sen se of themselves, part of what it me ant to be Aboriginal an d kin” [Bain
Attwood The making of the Aborigines, p.79] . Intergenerational inter actions wer e
particularly important an d highly val ued. For example, older Aboriginal women are
remembered as taking the young children from the mission to the beach for picnics.
They would cook dampers in th e sand and th e children would swim or play aroun d
the rocks … In the same way, during the 1950s and 1960s, men in their thirties would
take young teenage boys, usually th eir nephews, on fishing and diving excursions to
Burgess Beach. The older generation men in their fifties a nd sixties, would regularly
go along to o. These w ere important occa sions for passin g on cult ural knowledg e
from one generation to the next.’
As speculated in the report above, in place s where commercial f ishing along
the coast was important, it is the men who are most often re membered as the fishers
and not the women. Unlike Aborig inal women’s biographie s along the rivers where
women fished while looking after the children, similar stories rarely appear for coastal
women.
It was also the men
who took the tourists
out for fishing trips (p.114),
presumably confirming the Anglo colonial gende r roles where in the pu blic realm it
was the men who owned and operated the boat s. However women remember back
to their childhoods with glee in remembering their boating and fishing adventures as
follows:
16
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
p.116: ‘Near the Little Baths were boatshed s, where Aboriginal pe ople would
sometimes hire boats. Fay Pattison recalls that boat hire was cheap in the 1940s and
1950s: “You know what we used to get boat s f or? When we was kid s? Fifty ce nts
and twenty-f ive cents! … Yeah, we used to run home fro m school and straight out
fishing. Because we loved fishing. We’d row
out. We’d get about a hundred and
eighty six mullet. Now you’re lucky if you get twenty or forty now. Yeah, because they
was thick then, you know…”’
p.117: ‘Fay Pattison t old us: “Gladys Simon used to t ell me that down at the
breakwater Aborigines years ago u sed to talk to the porp oise in the lingo and tell
them to round the fish up and they’d bring the f ish in.”’ It is assumed that the authors
knew that Fay was talking about both women a nd men when referring to ‘people’, as
in other sections of the text where Fay has meant men they have clarified that in
brackets. Women also called in the dolphins around Yamb a – see Ru by Langford ’s
reference.
Ch. 17: ‘Ma dge Bolt’, p. 147: [childhood memories around Forster] ‘We used to walk
out that wa y [to One Mile Beach]. We’d walk out that wa y. But we u sed to walk to
Little Beach too … Yea h, we used to walk out there and fish and have a picnic and
that.’
p.148: ‘Going Fishing’; ‘We used to go fishing. One day we went and we caught a lot
of lovely bream. My sister still go es fishin’. S he likes her fish. Both my sisters go
fishin’. We ’d go out on the lake. W e used to g et a pullin ’ boat and g o fishin’ ove r
there. Go prawnin’. We used to go prawnin’ some nights. But we had a really goo d
life. Now, it’s nothing now. Yeah, we used to hir e a pullin’ boat, and go fishing. Oh, it
used to be good around the lake . We used to get some nice big f latheads and tha t.
And look ’ow it is now!’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
17
C
Campbell, Valerie. ‘Two fish traps located on the mid-north coast of New South
Wales’ in Isabel McBryde (ed.), Records of times past: ethnohistorical essays
on the culture and ecology of the New England tribes, Australian Institute of
Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, 1978.
Academic; Mid-north coast
p.122: The most well-known exa mple of fish tr aps in New South Wales ‘is the vast
network of traps in the Darling River at Brewarrina in northern New South Wales.’
p.123: Campbell identifies four fish traps on the mid-north coast of New South Wales,
one on Broughton Island , north of Port Stephens, one at Point Plomer, north of Port
Macquarie, one at Arra warra, north of Woolgoolga, and one at Ango urie, south of
Yamba. Campbell cites evidence, which suggests that the Arrawarra fish trap s were
in use until 1900 (or perhaps later) by local Aborigines. ‘Mr England of Coffs Harbour
has reported meeting a n Aboriginal party in the 1930s that had just collected about
one hundred pounds of fish from these traps.’
p.130: ‘Mr L aurie Ferguson of Yamba recalls t hat bream were caught in the trap at
Angourie and that winter was the best time for this fish. As bream spawn in the winter
they are most plentiful in the shallow harbours in the colder months an d are readily
caught in b aited traps along the fo reshore. Both “Australian salmon” and sea mullet
come close to the shore when spawning; Ainsworth and
Hodgkinson mention th at
these fish were valuable elements of the Aboriginal diet.’
p.130: ‘Sea mullet are available t hroughout t he year, but in April a nd May wh en
spawning occurs they appear in large numbers close to the shore. It is such an event
that W Scott describes at Port Stephens: “The schools u sed to travel from west to
east close inshore on the northern side of
the harbour, at high
water … th e
fishermen, generally about half a dozen at once would rush into the water up to their
middles … then when the school was within striking distance the spears would all be
landed at once.”’
Campbell, Valerie. ‘Ethnohistorical evidence on the diet and economy of the
Aborigines of the Macleay River Valley’, in Isabel McBryde (ed.), Records of
times past: ethnohistorical essays on the New England tribes, Australian
Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, 1978.
Academic; MacLeay River
p.91: Clement Hodgkinson, who officially explored the Macleay River region in the
early 1840s, emphasised the importance of fish in the diet of local Aboriginal people.
‘Hodgkinson claims that “… the blacks … at t he Macleay and Nambucca rivers spear
in a few mi nutes sufficient fish for the whole tribe, on the shallow san d-banks an d
mud-flats on that part of the river, which rise
s and falls with the tid e.” He also
describes them spearing sea mullet and salmon in the surf.’
18
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
p.91: John Henderson, a squatter in the Macleay district in the mid-nineteenth
century, ‘reports the use of “smart-weed” to stupefy fish in small pools, and this would
appear to have been a traditional fishing method. Nets, “in size and sh ape like two
large kites … joined together down one side”, were also employed to capture fish.’
p.91: ‘Fish t raps were also constru cted, small cr eeks and tid al streams b eing fenced
off with brush and sticks. There is a stone fish weir some fifty feet square at Point
Plomer. While it is completely submerged at hig h tide it is g enerally exposed during
the ebb, and local people remember it catching fish about thirty years ago.’
p.91: ‘The waters of t he ocean and tidal zone were
also rich in crustacean s,
Hodgkinson recording t hat large cr ayfish and crabs were “caught among the rocks ”
along the coast, and lobster from the tidal creeks.’
Cane, Scott. The Red Rock mob: Aboriginal relationships with the Red Rock–
Corindi area, NSW: a report to the Grafton Lands Office, ANUTECH Pty Ltd,
Canberra, March 1988 [Yarrawarra Aboriginal Corporation].
Cultural heritage; North coast beaches
The back section of Scott Cane’s report cont ains transcr ipts from in terviews with
elders of the area who once lived around Corindi Lake
s on the mid-north coast.
Cane’s inter views are amongst the early interviews with p eople who became key
informants in their own organisation (Yarrawarra Aboriginal Corporation) and became
involved over the coming decades in partner ships with academic researchers from
the University of New England (for example, see the Yarrawarra Place Stories series)
and the NSW National Parks and
Wildlife Se rvice (see Tony English 2002) an d
carried out further interviews.
In these transcripts there aren’t any particular fishing stories – rather fishing is
referred to as just something everyone did. For example, Marie Edwards talks abou t
the regular weekends o r weeks tha t they would move fro m their place around th e
lake to a camp at Red Rock: ‘… you know, when my fathe r went to se ll worms and
that’s where we made the place. They built there … and then we used to come down
here camping to the corner, you know, just fishing and that.’
Val (no sur name) talking about her older people: ‘They used to fish , a lot of
fishes, and they used to go out to that farm … spuds, corn, stuff like that. But mostly
they lived off fish, shellfish, nothing they didn’t eat off the beach and the sea.’
On the whole the women remember the men as the fishers:
‘Scott: Did you get much fish out of the river and stuff, crabs and crayfish?
Marie: Oh yes, Jewfish like that, from that river, crabs. My father used to know
every spot, you know.’ However in a later interview in 1997, reproduced in sections in
the Yarrawarra Place Stories 4 (see below) she and Vi Wilson give a vivid description
of their own worming practices.
Marie talks about getting oysters a nd prawns. Stories of abundance of fish
and other marine life are also told as a way of demonstrating the death of the Corindi
Lake through pollution runoff from septic tanks of the
encroaching holiday and
permanent white settlers moving into the area from the late 1960s.
Marie: ‘Used to go down the lake … the grandfather was fishing and I vy and
Cecil and I came down the truck [ track?] up th ere camping. We’d co me here and
we’d get the bark off the ti-tree and wound it up and made a light. The prawns woul d
jump out of the water in the lake – three ker osene bin s full in about half an ho ur.
Took it home, got home about 11p m got the salt water and put them on and cooked
them. Kerosene tin full. Sat down with bread and butter and ate them that night’.
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
19
Cane, Scott. Welcome to Fingal: Aboriginal associations with Fingal Head,
NSW: a report to Ocean Blue Pty Ltd, National Heritage Studies, ACT, March
1989. [Tweed Heads Historical Society]
Cultural heritage; Far north coast beaches and ocean
Cane was c ommissioned by the developers Ocean Blue Resorts, who had selecte d
Fingal Head as a potential site for a hotel and related tourist developme nts, to carry
out an anthropological report in accordance with requirements for their Rezoning and
Development Applicati on. The report utilizes a large amount of transcript material
from Cane’s interviews with the Ab original and Islander community. I was interest ed
to read what I could about Tweed Heads a nd hence F ingal as b eing a famous
meeting place for Aboriginal group s from the north around Beaudesert as well a s
Bundjalung from the south beca use of the rich fishing and other marine foods
available. However the sections of interviews reproduced in the report either don’t
differentiate the gender s or give th e impressio n that women didn’t fish, and that it
was a male leisure activity. Men worked in t he fishing in dustry. Women’s fishin g
practices are either implicit or they remain invisible in this text.
Cane does not refer to any of his informants by name, but rather as ‘Elderly
man’ or ‘Elderly woman’, etc.
p.22. Transcript 6: Elderly Man:
‘S: [Scott] And your dad was working all the time – fishing?
A: [ Aboriginal] Fish ing. My father wasn’t fish ing all the t ime. He was in the marine
business in building wharfs and things like tha t … He use d to fish in the spare
time, but mostly he was employed at the harbour.
S: And what about your mum, what sort of stuff did she do?
A: Just a domestic in the house.’
This excerpt provides a me mory of a time o f less official restrictio ns and
therefore suggests possibilities for people to make some money:
p.23. Transcript 4: Elderly Woman:
‘S: What sort of work w ere people doing when they were living there [ Fingal, known
as ‘The Caves’].
A: Fishing and oystering.
S: The oystering, what was that? Going along the rocks and collecting them? People
talk about leases?
A: So me of them used to just go. Well those days they weren’t fussy, you could go
on the stone wall and open oysters and sell them and no one would be any the
wiser. Fishing mostly, they dug pipis, and mussels but mostly seafoods …’
p.31: Refering to life at the Ekerebah Island Aboriginal Re serve (across the Tweed
River from Fingal) in th e 1920s an d 1930s: ‘… Added to this [Europe an rations] t he
Reserve pe ople supple mented their rationed diet with nearby natural resources o f
fish, oysters, mud-crabs, ukeres (pippis) and hunting … Men, wherever possible,
obtained work which mainly consisted of farm labour … and also commercial fishing.’
Cho, George, Arthur Georges and Ros Stoutjesdik (eds). Jervis Bay: a place of
cultural, scientific and educational value, Australian Nature Conservation
Agency, Canberra, 1995.
Academic; South coast beaches/ocean
This edited text refers to Jervis Bay and th e Jerrinja people of the Beecroft
Peninsular ‘considered the spiritual birth place of 13 Aboriginal tribes of the south
20
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
coast’ (p.7). This publications offers an understanding of pre-contact women’s fishing
practices in a place which became a significant site of Abor iginal commercial fishing
in the twentieth century. Further contextual ma terial on the south coast Aboriginal
fishing communities is as follows from E Egloff with Wreck Bay and Jerrinja
Aboriginal Communities’ chapter ‘Aboriginal landscapes and seascapes’ pp.9–16:
p.13: Aboriginal men were involved in the whaling industry from the
1870s. Th e
Aboriginal reserves: Ro seby Park was suited to the purpo se of keeping Aboriginal
people off the arable land and ‘was ideally situ ated for a fishing community so long
as it didn’t compete with Europeans …’ Fishin g was enco uraged by the authorities
with the Protector of Aborigines providing boats and fishing gear. Roseby Park is now
called Jerrinja. p.14: ‘Europeans … saw their livelihood under threat as most Roseby
Park Aboriginals were also fishermen …’
p.14: Long Beach Reserve: Just before the turn of the century, the NSW government
set about to establish a number of Aboriginal re serves along the coast. Few remain.
There was one at Long Beach. ‘In t his same ar ea Aboriginal people ha d established
a fishing lo okout and on the northern point of Long Be ach they are said to have
camped. T he location was ne ver permanent as people continued to reside
at
Currambene Creek but it was used for fishing a nd camping and only a few families
came to stay there in a semi-permanent fashion.’
Wreck Bay: The isolat ion appeale d to people at Mary’s Bay. ‘Aboriginal
fishing families moved there shortly after the turn of the twe ntieth century … Women
cooked over open fires and hauled and washed in kero tins … The goo d times and
fish go to gether in th e memories of Aboriginal people
… Although fishing was
promoted b y the State Government as a suitable activity fo r Aboriginal people and
they were e ncouraged t o sell their catches on the local market, it was difficu lt fo r
them to bring the loca l catch to market [ referred to in more detail in Egloff et al .
reference above]. Transport from the isolated beaches to the markets relied upon
motor or horse drawn vehicles. However, fishing remained the most important source
of self-generated income for the community at Wreck Bay.’
p.15: ‘Unde r the provisions of the Fish Protection Ordinance 1929–1949 (NSW)
Aboriginal residents of the Territory of Jervis Bay did not ha ve to pay licence fees. In
1965 the provisions of the Capital Territory Fish Protection Regulation (ACT)
referring to Aboriginal people was revoked.’ ( see Hawkins and Wilkinson in this
annotated reference list for ongoing issues around traditional fishing and collecting
rights and government policy).
Despite the inclusive terminology of ‘Aboriginal community’ and ‘people’, the
only names that are no ted in this a ccount are men. On the one hand, it is vital to
include women and c hildren in di scussing th e marginal viability of the industry at
Wreck Bay, etc., and that is acknowledged in the use of the term ‘Aboriginal families’.
However, beyond that women disappear from the text as the fishers w ere men an d
the part women played in the Aboriginal fishing industry remains invisible.
Cohen, Patsy and Margaret Somerville. Ingelba and the five black matriarchs,
Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1990.
Biographical; Inland rivers
Ingelba was once a thriving Aboriginal commu nity 80 km south of Armidale. Patsy
Cohen traces her famil y history related to Ingelba with University of New Englan d
author, Margaret Some rville’s assistance. Ingel ba was on the MacDon ald River and
Patsy went to live there as a nine year old in the late 1940s.
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
21
Ch.4 Relationship to place:
p.58: ‘a strategic place … A sense of Ingelba as a place rich in natural resources and
offering a secure camp site was evident from all the people we spoke to. Ingelba was
known for it s fish ing an d the variety of animals that could be hunted and for th e
secure camp site on the banks of the river.’
pp.64–5: ‘using the resources of the land … Lola, Patsy’s young aunty
who helped
her adjust to Ingelba described fishing and catching rabbits as the very basis of th eir
life:
Leah: Did you used to fish, Lola?
Lola: Yeah, oh yeah.
Patsy: That’s what they mainly did, fishin’ through the day.
Lola: Fishin’ and chasin’ rabbits was our life.’
p.66: ‘Knowledge about the river
was central to their knowledge of the land a
t
Ingelba. Patsy, Maisie and Lola all spoke about this:…
Lola: Wonder if there’s any fish in there?
Patsy: There’s fish there.
Lola: Down there wher e we used to catch th e little bla ck fish, over there in th e
willows.
Pasty: And ‘ere too, but there’s trout in ‘ere, rainbow trout – Bim caught ’em that big.
Lola: That’s what we should have bought – a line too.’
‘Maisie’s mother’s memories also centred on the river: “My mother must have
loved Ingleba, she’d tell us about th e river. They’d go fishin , they’d fish for perch or
red fish – what do you call those little red ones, they do it down in Walcha too. Oh,
we used to go there at Walcha and they used to get red fish and we used to always
get those mussels too, t hey were like they were pippies fro m the beach, cook tho se
on the coals too they used to. Turt le’s eggs too, they used to eat a lot of turtle’s egg.
When we c ome home from school, go on the ri verbank there, the crick. And dig th e
anthill where you always get the tur tle’s egg. B oil ’em or co ok ’em in th e ashes. You
never cooked egg in the ashes?”’
Crawford, Evelyn as told to Chris Walsh. Over my tracks: a remarkable life,
Penguin Books, Ringwood, 1993.
Biographical; Inland rivers
Evelyn talk s of her childhood at
the ‘back of Bourke’, Yantabulla, near the
Queensland border, where she remembers catching crayfish as a child.
pp.31–2. ‘W e got crayfish – boogoli – out of t he holes in the hard m ud along th e
creek ban k. You’d put your hand o r foot in on e hole a nd sort of pump it, like wh en
you unblock a sink. You’d see where the water came up
in other places, so th at’s
where the c rayfish would come out. They al ways come out backwards, so someone
would stand over that h ole while you pumped a t the first hole. In the waterholes we’d
catch crays and shrimp s with a lump of meat on a string, and we’d scoop ’em out
with a wire net. Our liveliest time was when we were finding mussels – thilli. We’d go
into the shallow water, walk around on the mud and we’d fe el the mussels, hard and
lumpy. They travel in a line, five or six one behind the other. We’d dive down, pull ’em
out and chuck ’em on the bank. The smallest kids heape
d them up ready to take
home.’
22
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
Cruse Beryl, Liddy Stewart and Sue Norman. Mutton fish: the surviving culture
of Aboriginal people and abalone on the south coast of New South Wales,
Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 2005.
South coast beaches
The three authors wanted to write this book about the south coast Aboriginal people’s
relationship with the coast becau se they can see that the camping and fishing
traditions w hich they knew as children and younger adults are gett
ing harder t o
access for the younger generation. This is in part because t he increasing popularity
of the coast, with rampant housing development as well a s closing of p ublic areas to
unrestricted camping, has increa singly excluded and
narrowed t heir previous
camping access to the coast. The other issue i s the dwindling of fish stocks throug h
pollution of breeding estuaries and over-fishing.
In the early section of t he book on pre and ea rly contact times the authors
briefly descr ibe the wo men and children comin g to the be ach to fish with lines a nd
shell hooks – the women finding t heir favourite spots on the rocks o r beach, or
collecting th e shellfish. Once the book turns t o the colle ction of mutton fish, an d
particularly t he last chapter on the abalone ind ustry once t he ‘muttonfish’ become s
increasingly sought after from the 1 960s, the st ories predo minantly turn to the me n
who were/are part of the commercial industry or who procured the shells for families.
No further mention of adult or contemporary women’s fishing is made.
pp.3–6: Cruse, Stewart and Norma n describe a typical da y in the life of Aborigin al
people on the south coast of New South W
ales pre-white contact. Women a nd
children spent the day gathering vegetables and shellfish, and fishing. Women fished
at high tide with fishing lines and h ooks. At lo w tide they gathered walkun (mutton
fish or abalone).
pp.4–5: ‘Walkun are a big broad shellfish, a type of snail, which live in deep crevice s
and have to be prised off the rocks, which is w hat the wo men did with their digg ing
sticks. At times they would feel for the walkun with their feet and then dive down a nd
prise them off the rocks, but most times they were so ple ntiful they could just wa lk
around at low tide and get large walkun. Even the children could get them in this way.
They only ever took what they needed to eat for the evening meal.’
p.9: Archaeologists, such as Bowdler, have speculated that on the NSW south coast
‘the development of fish hook te chnology seems to have a llowed women to become
fishers where previously only men u sed the fish spear. Women who spent more time
fishing had less time for gathering shellfish and there is evidence of certain species
of shellfish become rare in the middens at this time. Divisions of labour between men
and women are described throughout Aboriginal societies everywhere, but the role of
children is a lso important. Women look after the young children while gat hering food
and the children learnt from them how to get basic foods to ensure their survival. This
means that all adults a nd most child ren had the skills to gat her these fo ods. On the
south coast walkun was gathered as a survival f ood by all a nd it was probably dive d
for by the men.’
pp.9–10: Cruse, Stewart and Norman point out that cultura l practices r elating to th e
traditional use of wal kun have continued into modern times. F
or exa mple,
immediately removing the meat of the shellfish from the shell and leaving the shell on
the shore line; sharing mutton fish with others in the community.
p.27: ‘Pre-contact methods of fishing and gathering have been handed down fo
r
generations through stories and songs, ensur ing a contin uing connection with the
environment.’ In the 19 60s, Janet Mathews re corded some of these songs: ‘Percy
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
23
Davis grew up in the Tu ross River a rea on land preserved by the senior men in the
1870s. He was in his eighties wh en Janet re corded him singing the song of th e
westerly wind. The song calls on Gurrugumar, the westerly wind to blow and flatte n
the seas so the fish ca n be caught. At about the same time Janet recorded Jimmy
Little senior singing a song about gathering oysters, taught t o him by his mother from
Wallaga Lake.’
pp.27–8: ‘Fishing and shellfish gath ering contin ued to be a n important part of the
south coast livelihood well into the twentieth century.’
pp.29–30: During the gold rush of the 1850s, Chinese people arrived in Twofold Bay
because of its proximity to the Victorian gold fields; many of these people stayed o n
after the gold rush and established market gardens and fishing
businesse s.
Aboriginal people traded with the Chinese and collected mutton fish for export t o
Sydney and China.
p.30: Ossie Cruse describes how th e Aboriginal community, including his father and
uncles, gathered mutton fish to trade with the Chi nese in the early 1900s. ‘They used
to take the meat out of its shell an d while they were doing this it would really be a
family gathering, where men would be diving, g athering the mutton fish, bringing it to
share and women and kids would be lighting the fires. And they’d have these big
drums to put the mutton fish in. The y’d boil it for about three or four minutes and this
would take all the impurities off the outside of th e mutton fish, and they would come
out of the boiling water looking a nice golden brown. Then the mutton f ish would be
laid out on t he rocks in the sun to d ry.’ The drying process took two to three days,
then the dried mutton fish were placed in cor
n bags and sold to the Chinese fo r
export.
p.31: ‘Some families made a living entirely from fishing and lived in permanent camps
at good fishing spots, su ch as the Br ierlys at the mouth of the Moruya River and the
Nyes at Barling’s Beach near Toma kin.’ Other families spe nt part of the year fishing
and the other part in seasonal fruit and vegetable picking jobs.
pp.35–6: ‘Jean Squires, now in her sixties, worked all her life fishing. At a young age
she lived with her grandparents, the Brierlys, and learnt from them. They continued a
tradition of commercial fishing learnt from their family’s first contact with white culture
in the 1840s at the whaling station in Twofold Ba y. They were based on the Moruya
River at Garland Town near the Moruya airport and Jean h auled nets f rom a youn g
age. Later she raised her own family while continuing to fish for a living.’
p.36: Jean Squires – She used to take her children to the beach with her. ‘When the y
were babies I’d dig a little hole in the sand, put the blanket in it and lay them in there.
And man y a time I drag ged a big cane pram with two of th e babies in it along the
Bingie there , just fishing in the n ight-time for salmon. Hand-lining. When it was too
rough to fish, I always had the han d-line, I had a kid on my back, another one in my
arms, going along the b each … We used to go to Moruya. I ’d pack the kids up at 2
o’clock in th e morning, put them in the car, bla nkets and e verything an d take the m
out to the beach for mullet; I had six or seven of them the n. Weekends we’d go out
and camp out there save getting the kids out of bed so early, that was our life. That’s
all we did.’
24
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
p.38: Jean Squires – ‘My grand mother used to do a lot of fishing. I think that’s wh ere
I got it from; they used to think sh e was a man. Used to be out at night hauling in the
rivers and t hat with po or old Pardi. She used to be always fish ing they used to ju st
think she was another man. I was that way in the finish, I was just classed as another
man.’
p.62: Whol e families worked together to ga ther abalon e for sale. David Squires
recounts how he and hi s brother went diving for abalone while his mother sat in the
boat taking the abalone from them and shuck a nd clean them. At the same time his
father would sit on a hill keeping look out for sharks.
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
25
D
Dargin, Peter. Aboriginal fisheries of the Darling-Barwon Rivers, Brewarrina
Historical Society, Dubbo, 1976.
Heritage; Inland rivers
There is a lot in this little book abo ut fishing, b ut little of it refers specifically to eith er
women or men – instead referring to Aborigines as groups. While so me of it do es
refer to the whole group , often there is the pre sumption that they are t alking about
men. The few exceptions which refer specifically to women are noted below.
p.16: The explorer Mitc hell said of the many ‘tribes’ on the Darling ‘…Their roads
appeared in all directions, and their gins were fishing in the river at a distance.’
p.23: Referring to the small olive la nd crab which rarely exceeds three inches: ‘Many
of these small aquatic animals were also caught in the d illy bags and small funnel
nets used by the women for catching small fish.’
pp.25–6: ‘Nets were valued possessions an
d charms were sung
over them to
increase their yields … Twine manufacture from the inner bark of the kurrajongs tree,
reeds, grasses and fibrous roots, fur and hair, was the provi nce of the older men and
women who chewed th e material until it was pliable, then r ubbed it int o strands o n
their thighs. Two strands were then fed, with a twist, from one han
d to the thigh
where it was rolled, twisted and tightened into a single cord. Either thigh was used, a
change being made as one grew tired or irrita ted: while the teeth, from years of
constant chewing, were worn to the gums. Twine was made in various thicknesses,
according to its u se. Mitchell noticed large qua ntities of “native flax” and bundles of
twine in the huts a long the river. Th e twine was wound ont o a bone awl which wa s
used as a meshing needle to execute an evenly meshed net … Nets were not
confined to the capture of fish [used to trap various types of birds].’
In the chapter called ‘Brewarrina fisheries’ ther e is very little gender specific
material on fishing, although men are shown as the builders and managers of the fish
traps in the illustrations. Again it is assumed that men were t he fishers. Women were
only mentioned in the following instances:
pp.39–40: RH Mathews 1901: ‘The Aboriginal fishers, men and women, were on the
look out, and as soon as a sufficient number of the … tribe had entered the labyrinth
of traps, openings were closed up by means of large stones which had been placed
alongside r eady for us e. If the op ening was too wide, to be thus blocked up b y
stones, a number of natives posted t hemselves across it to prevent the egress of the
fish. The natives next e ntered the pens and splashed the water with t heir hands or
feet, thus fr ightening th e fish into t he smaller enclosures, where the y were more
easily caught.’
p.49: Whereas Dargin assumes that it is the me n who caught the fish by diving and
grabbing them by the gills, Doreen Wright’s recollection indicates that both men and
women fished that way: ‘The old pe ople wouldn’t have to spear the fish. They could
26
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
just walk int o the water and catch them under
dilly bags, up with them.’
the gills an d fill their b uggadu, their
Davis-Hurst, Patricia. Sunrise Station, SunBird Publications, Taree, 1996.
Autobiographical; North coast rivers
Sunrise Station was lat er known a s Purfleet Mission where Patricia grew up ju st
outside of T aree on the mid-north coast of New South Wales. Saltwater is the area
on the coast where local Aborigin al people set up their annual Christmas Camp
where they holidayed for five to six weeks each summer, escaping the scrutiny of the
reserve system.
p.156: ‘Saltwater (Sacred Place of the Dreaming)’. Saltwater has always been
a
place were Aboriginal p eople came for ceremo nies and rit uals – held at Saltwate r
lagoon. An important meeting place – for different tribes.
Dennis, Pauline and Fields, Ted. From Walgett to Narran Lake with Aunty
Pauline and Uncle Ted, Catholic Education, Armidale, no date. [Australian
Museum]
Inland rivers
This small educative book is full of stories of how to act properly in the land aimed at
Aboriginal and other school children. Like a number of reminiscences from the inland
river country there is a sense of loss of the rivers with pollu tion and over-use of the
water – and the loss of the Murray cod and invasion of the European carp.
Last page ( no page nu mbers): ‘Once the Barwon River used to be a mighty
river with mi ghty big fish . During floods is st ill rises high. But most is now wasted for
crops. There are only a few cod in the river now.’
Department of Environment and Climate Change (DECC) NSW. Aboriginal
women’s heritage: Nepean, DECC NSW, Sydney, May 2007.
Oral history; Western Sydney rivers
p.9: Oral testimony by Glenda Chalker (born 1950, Camden) – ‘My grandfather would
take my brother and me fishin g, rabbiting and foxing all around Camden Park. There
was never an issue as far as a ccess to land a nd fishing o n the Nepean River wa s
concerned in those days. We went anywhere from the Me nangle area right up to
Douglas Park.’
p.9: ‘Grandfather was able to sit th ere all day, crouched do wn on his haunches, ju st
sitting there fishing for black fish. That was his favourite fish. When we were up there,
fishing on the Nepean River, it was mullet, perch or catfish we’d catch. Unfortunately,
I haven’t been fishing like that for a long time.’
p.10: Around 1973, Camden Park was sold an d access to the land was restricted .
‘Access to t he river wasn’t available any more either … S o now, I do n’t think my
father’s been fishing on the Nepean River for the past thirty years.’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
27
Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) NSW. Aboriginal women’s
heritage: Wagga Wagga, DEC NSW, Sydney, June 2006.
Oral history; Inland rivers
p.8: Oral testimony by Pat Dacey (born 1940) – ‘We used to catch a lot of fish an d
spear them there in the big channels that ra
n along the outskirts o f town. The
channels u sed to go do wn really low, so you could see th e fish swimming along!
We’d catch some good size fish to o, just with nets right th ere in the channel. We
used to cook them up a nd have a g ood feed. We’d get lots of yabbies too. We’d use
nets that we made ourselves.’
p.22: Oral testimony by Joyce Hampton (born 1933) – gives an account of fishing in
the Darling River. ‘We mainly caught yellow-belly and catfish. We used a cord type of
line. You had to buy it. I t wasn’t like today’s fish ing line. We used old car bolts and
things like t hat for sinkers. And we’d get the corks off wine bottles t
o use as our
floats. We used a hand line and we’d whirl it around and throw it in. We mostly use d
yabbies for our bait. We’d catch the yabbies by tying a bit of meat to the end of a line
and dangling it over the muddy ri verbank until a yabby gra bbed it. The n we’d pull it
really careful. Sometimes we pumped them out of their hole with our fe et. Then you
really picked them up carefully.’
Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) NSW. Aboriginal women’s
heritage: Walgett and Collarenebri, DEC NSW, Sydney, April 2006.
Oral history; Inland rivers
p.32: Oral testimony by Eileen Peters (born 1918) – ‘I do remember ho w we did a l ot
of fishing in those days. We fished with cord line and hooks. Our sinkers were either
made of mu d or were old bolts th at we found around the place. Our sp ecial pla ce
was the “old bub” at Angledool and t he “Cato” at Brewarrina and then do wn from my
home near the camp at Collarenebri.’
p.50: Oral testimony by Florence Kennedy (born 1925 in Angledool) – ‘I remember
how Jim and Ted used to carry the clothes down to the river for washing. I rememb er
how our gra nny would take her f ishing line dow n and we’d stay down t here in th e
bush until t he washing was done … Granny would fish a nd we’d swim. She’d fish
with a hand line.’
p.57: Oral testimony by Gladys Walford (born 1926 in Walgett) – ‘The boys used t o
go off hunting. We often ate the e mu. The girls would go fishing. We’d fish afte r
school. The re was an old lady, Mrs Sharpley, she would collect the kids and take
them down fishing … When we went fishing we just used lines and little hooks. And if
we didn’t have any hooks we used to make them out of a safety pin. We’d just get the
safety pins and twist them round t o make the hook. We used to use squid, some
shrimp, grubs, feathers and some meat or eve n frogs for our bait. We’d always use
feathers be cause you see, when the fish see t he feathers moving the y snap at the
bait.’
p.64: Oral testimony by Hazel Winters (born 1931 in Walgett) – ‘I reme mber how we
loved fishing and I had my own spe cial line. I u sed to catch yellowbellies and I think
they were tastier back th en. We didn’t have this carp ruining the river as we do now.
We used to fish just stra ight down from home and I remember I had a purple cork on
my line.’
28
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
p.69: Oral testimony by Jenny Wright (born 1946 at Lightning Ridge) – ‘There was a
big dam out there at Lightning Ridge and that’s where we used to go yabbying, and
we always caught yabbies in there. There was enough for everybody. You just didn’t
get greedy and take it all, not back then. You only took what you needed for a feed.’
p.74: Oral testimony by Josie Thorne (born 1920 at Dunglebill Station then moved to
Angledool) – ‘When we did go fishing we’d go down and u se a hand line. We’d get
bait and fish down at the water. We’d use car bolts as sinkers.’
p.86: Oral testimony by Lola Dennis – ‘There was a story about a Water Dog. And
the story goes that if you didn’t get yourself home before sundown, then you would
see this dog near the water. It was some sort of spirit it was. They would tell us about
it, warn us and so we never ever stayed out after sundown.’
p.92: Oral testimony by Lola Murray (born 1951 in Walgett) – ‘I still go fishing now .
Sometimes my sister Mavis will pick me up or me and Au nty Ma vis will walk dow n
here. Or sometimes we walk down to the weir. Sometimes my eldest son Mark takes
us, or we jump in the car with my other son Jason, and go out to Yellowbelly Point.
We just set up there and we try to be really quie t and wait for the fish to bite. My son
will come and check on us every so often and drive us to another place i f the fishing
isn’t any good. We just sit and wait for the line to start bobbing or for the cork to star t
moving around.’
p.93: Lola Murray – ‘My grandfath er taught me how to co ok fish … he put the fish in
gum leaves, then he put it on the coals in the fir e and he co vered it up with ashes.
Another time he covered the fish in mud then put that in the ashes. It bakes it you
see. The mud goes hard and when you pull the mud off, t he scales a nd all come
away and you’re just left with the flesh.’
p.107: Oral testimony by Noreen Kennedy (born 1938, Walgett) – ‘You know my
father would take us out fishing and crayfishing every weekend. That’s when we’d put
the red ribbon on our hook, and we’d always catch fish . Plus we’d get buckets and
buckets of crayfish, we’d just put them in a big pot and boil them up.’
p.113: Oral testimony by Rose Fernando (born in Collarenebri) – ‘Now when we used
to go fish ing the first thing we’d do, if we didn’t have fishin g lines … (in those days
the lines were made out of cord not nylon) we’d go fishing for crayfish instead – you’d
pull the logs out of the river and the crayfish would fall out. And with th e fish, if ther e
were backwater washes and the holes were full of water, we’d get in the re and we’d
hunt all the fish up to one end, and you might g et three or four fish out of it … and of
course you cooked them then and there. You’d roll them u p in mud and stick them in
the fire.’
pp.113–14: Rose Fernando – ‘A special fishin g place we had was up near the
cemetery, a nd today – it’s f enced off – but it was a pla ce where all the people
seemed to go. Right u p that riv er there from where the white rocks go, we’d all go
fishing. That was our place, but a s I say, today it’s all fenced off and we can’t get in
there. We don’t have a fishing place today.’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
29
Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) NSW, Aboriginal women’s
heritage: Bourke, DEC NSW, Sydney, January 2005.
Oral history; Inland rivers
Oral testimony by Dot Martin (born 1945, Bourke):
p.12: ‘my grandfather, mum’s dad, he used to take us fishing. In tho se days we’d
have to play up one end of the river and grandfather would go fishing down the other
end.’
p.14: ‘One of my best memories, was just be ing down th ere at the r iver with the
family. You know, just fishing and having a good time.’
Oral testimony by Alma Jean Sullivan (born 1949, Bourke):
p.26: ‘Every weekend th e family wo uld go down fishing a t the Bourke weir. Both my
parents fished. They were darn go od at it too. The weir was only abo ut three mil es
down from the reserve where we lived. We’d walk there. We kids played and fished. I
have good memories o f those years. And so that’s how I started fish ing and I’ve
never stopped since.’
p.26: ‘There was no carp in the Darling River ba ck then and we could always catch a
feed of catfish, cod, bla ck bream or yellow belly at the wei r. And I should tell you
about how we fished in the old d
ays, my fa mily could never afford sinkers, so I
remember we’d hunt a round and p ick up old nuts and bolts and we’d use them a s
sinkers. And I learnt to fish using barbed wire hooks too. We’d get a pair of pliers and
bend the wire to make the hooks.’
p.26: Alma Jean Sullivan takes her grandchildren fishing. ‘One of my good memorie s
was back in 1997 wh en I came second in Bourke’s annual Fishing Challenge
competition. It’s been held for about the last ten years now and people come from al l
over the place to compe te. Well in 1997 I landed a four poun d yellow belly and there
must have been about 600 people out there fishing, along the banks of the Darling on
that day.’
pp.26–7: ‘The river can be dangerous, let me tell you. I can remember I was about
ten years ol d this one time and we were coming home fro m the Bourke weir after a
day’s fishing with my mum and dad. The sun had just gone down and there was a full
moon. That’s when we saw it, sitt ing on this riv erbank, just looking at us from across
the river. W e call it Moodagutta and we say th at it lives in what we call the river’s
living hole. I t looks a bit like a seal but it hasn’t got a tail. When the river’s high you
shouldn’t go swimming there because it will pull you down with the current.’
p.27: ‘Today I so metimes come down to the ri ver with the young one s and I try t o
pass on the things I’ve learnt and the things I know. I want them to und erstand that
they have to love the river and they have to give it respect. They have to do that first,
and then they will grow to understand how dan gerous it ca n be and how bad things
can become if we continue to take under size fish or if we continue t o pollute th e
river.’
Oral testimony by Mary Matilda Sullivan (born 1935, Weilmoringle Station, north of
Brewarrina close to the Queensland border):
p.33: ‘I th ink I’ve fished all along th e river here. I used to f ind a good fishing spot
where I could sit down under a sha dy tree and I loved it. I used a han d line, we all
used hand lines. But if you caught a cod, they put up such a fight you need a couple
of people there to help you pull it in.’
30
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
p.33: ‘And we used to go yabbying too. You rake the yabbies out from the mud
banks there along the side, so it’s no good looking where the water’s clear.’
dy
Oral testimony by June Smith (born 1948, Enngonia 100 km north of Bourke):
p.37: ‘Well my old mother she used to get the gum leaves, put them on the coals a nd
put the gridiron over the top of the m, then wh atever she’s cooking we nt on top of
that, even fish.’
p.38: ‘I love it here, esp ecially this e nd of town, because it’s nice and quiet.’ ‘I never
want to move from here. I’m not far from the fishing down the back.’
p.38: ‘When we were n ear the Warrego River we’d go and fish all the time, we’d g o
diving for mussels and cook them right there on the river bank. All the family was
camped right by that river.’
Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) NSW. Aboriginal Women’s
Heritage: Port Stephens, DEC NSW, Sydney, August 2004.
Oral history; Lower north coast rivers and beaches
pp.2–3: Oral testimony by Viola Brown – ‘A lot of the time when we went out fish ing
we’d set up by putting bottles down on the water’s edge with dough in th em, to catch
the little mullet.
The mullet would go in after the do ugh and get trapped, th en we’d use them
for bait. Or we’d go out digging for worms for b ait and that was hard work … if yo u
got any extra you sold them to the bait shop a nd that was a bit of ext ra money fo r
food, for the family.’
p.8: Oral testimony by Viola Brown about new restrictio ns on fishing in the Port
Stephens a rea. ‘Aboriginal people have always looked aft er the fish stock - they
would never have gone out and deliberately kill ed little fish. They knew that the little
fish were th e next year’s fish sto ck. They just didn’t do it. I can und erstand wher e
they’re coming from with these fishing restrictions, because I’ve seen people take the
little fish.’
Oral testimony by Val Merrick (born 1943)
p.21: ‘My dad’s name was Stanley Lilley. My dad was a f isherman a nd so was his
father Herb Lilley. They would supply the mission with plenty of fish. And fish was the
main source of food at Karuah. We always had seafood to e at and there was always
sharing in this community – we always shared what we had – I think tha t was just a
blackfellows way. But people really relied on that sharing.’
p.22: ‘My d ad used to have a smo ke hut – to smoke the fish, mainly mullet. And it
was lovely too. My brothers and everyone helped with the smoking. We had to cle an
the fish and hang it up f or so many days, then salt it down. That got us through the
winter.’
p.22: ‘We used to go and get o ysters. O ur m um would do c urried oysters and
flathead, which isn’t bad food. I still have that today with my kids and w e still spend a
lot of time o ut at Stockt on Bight fishing. Nowadays we take our grand kids out there,
and they have a wonde rful time, there in the sand hills, fishing and ge tting a few
pippis. So they still carry on our traditions.’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
31
p.25: Val Merrick tells how fishing restriction s affect Aboriginal people: ‘We used to
dig for mud worms. We’d use them for bait. It didn’t cost u s anything. But now that’s
been taken away from us, we can’t get our ow n any more. And fishing , now you’re
only allowed to catch so many fish. (Our mai n fish used to be flath ead, brim and
whiting.) And one of the main things that hurts is not being allowed to collect the
pippis. We all loved getting our pippis off the beach, but now we are o nly allowed to
get a certain amount.’
p.27: Val Merrick on the effect of restriction s on Aboriginal culture and traditions: ‘…
now we can’t do what we used to do – like getting bait and fishing. We can’t run a net
out to get enough food for our families any more.’
Oral testimony by Colleen Perry (born 1932)
p.30: ‘We used to do a lot of fishing … We’d take our lunch and spend the day down
there, fishing all day off the rocks and especially on the big rocks out on the Point.
We would catch some nice squire th ere (that’s young snapper). Nice big bream an d
flathead, and occasionally we’d catch some blue swimmer crabs.’
p.31: Collee n Perry – ‘I used to always take my children crabbing. I had a knack, I
used to be able to know how to put my hand d own and grab the crab fr om behind …
Other times we’d take a mattock and a piece of wire with a hook on one end to poke
into the cra b hole and hook it arou nd the crab and pull it out.’ Now her daughter
teaches her son how to catch crabs.
p.33: Colleen Perry on the impact of over-fishing – ‘It wasn’t that long ago when you
could go down to the river bank at high tide and catch three or four nice bream. (You
can really only fish off the river bank at high tid e; it’s all mu d flat when the tide goes
out.) You can’t do that now, beca use the fish are definitely diminishing. I think it’s
been overfished.’
p.33: Colleen Perry – ‘I am a keen f isher woma n and there are not ma ny places in
Australia where I haven’t fished. I like going inland to Wilca nnia and to Menindee to
fish in the Darling River when the fish are bit ing. I like the big rough she ll crays you
get out of the Murrumbidgee. I’ve also been outside on the ocean fishing – it’s great.’
Oral testimony from Carol Ridgeway Bissett (born 1946)
pp.35-6: ‘Sometimes we’d go out and catch bait fish between Oakey Isl and and One
Tree Island; that’s the best spot for little baitfish. We used little bits of dough as bait.
We’d mix the flour up with water and put that on our line – when we caught as many
as we needed, we’d go fishing with them. Anot her thing we used to do was to put a
bit of bread in a milk bot tle and put t hat on the edge of the tide; when the fish came
along they’d swim in after it.’
p.36: Carol Ridgeway Bissett – ‘I ca n remember when we were kids we’d make our
own traps, we’d put them out around there (at Soldiers Point) and the next mornin g
when we went back we’d have a feed of leather jackets. Y ou know wh en we went
crabbing we ’d take a ro und trap an d put thin gs like fish he ads on it. We’d lower it
down on a rope, to attract the crabs, and when they nibbled we’d make sure we had
a scoop net there ready to scoop them up. At night, we’d go prawning with a throw
net, lantern and bucket. We’d bring our own prawns home to cook in a big boiler on
the stove.’
32
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
p.38: Carol Ridgeway Bissett – ‘I ca n remember my father d rying fish over the open
fire. Smoking it so that we could have fish at Easter time and all throu gh the winter.
Coming from a big family, we had to supplement our diet.’
p.40: Carol Ridgeway Bissett – ‘The thing is – we can’t fish like we did when we were
kids becau se for a start there are so many rest rictions. Ab original peo ple can’t use
things like they used to. Like fish poisons. That was just the sap from different trees,
used to stun the fish in water holes and even i n salt water. We can’t use traps now.
Not that we had a lot of traps, but we had a couple, and traditional nets.
Things like oysters – we’d get the m off the rocks – they were just th e best –
but now, I think it would be a bit unsafe to get them in this harbour.’
Oral testimony by Gwen Russell (born 1933)
p.44: ‘All the communit y people fished. And when you got a big catch of fish, you
shared it. Sharing was a big part of life. They still do that sort of thing now. You know,
if someone went out and got a feed of fish, an d if it were more than t hey needed,
they’d share it with everyone in the community. The fish was there to have. It was the
same with the prawns; same with whatever we’d get.’
p.46: Gwen Russell – ‘It’s the mullet that you smoke. You just open them up and take
out all the g ut. Salt the m down wit h that stron g salt, that rock salt, a nd let it sit f or
awhile. After awhile you hang them up and let all the salt drip off, then you hang them
in the open fireplace for smoking.
And that would see the family through the winte r. We had more than enough
fish for winter and it would never go off because smoking protects it. My grandmother
loved the mullet and the taylor [sic]; she used to do it like that, (smoking it).’
p.46: Gwen Russell – ‘Worimi peo ple are supposed to own Stockton Bight, all along
there, but I’m a Worimi person and I still can’t go out there, to get worms or pippis. At
times I feel like going out and getting a feed and getting caught and just seeing what
would happen.’
p.47: Gwen Russell – ‘You know if people cou ld take thre e or four dozen pippis,
they’d have their feed … I would need, say, a bucket full, to feed th is family. Bu t
that’s it. That would do . But the to urists take too many and that’s what has to stop.
Traditional society balanced their food resources. If one area had enough gone, the y
moved on up to another area.’
p.48: Gwen Russell – ‘F ishing is just part of the lifestyle here . Especially around this
area. One o f the aunts still goes ou t fishing with her son, she’s really crook now and
she can’t g o anywhere much anymore. But she used to love fishing especially out
there amongst the whiting.’
Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) NSW. Aboriginal women’s
heritage: Wollongong, DEC NSW, Sydney, June 2004.
Oral history; Illawarra rivers and beaches
Oral testimony by Muriel Davis (born 1937, Sydney):
p.2: ‘We never went hungry. Our weekends would always consist of at least one walk
to the beach and to the rocks to ga ther pipis and muttonfish, which is also known a s
abalone. We gather conks, periwin kles, crab s and any oth er small shellfish which
could be used for bait.’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
33
p.2: ‘Sometimes I would take a sheet of tin down to the bea ch when digging for pipis
and I would light a fire o n the beach, put the tin on the fire and cook the pipis straight
on the sand.’
pp.2–3: ‘Th e older men would often dive for lobsters and t hey would walk or get a
ride for many miles to p revent the conti nuous d iving into on e area which interferes
with breeding and jeopardises future food gathering.’
p.3: ‘Dad and my oldest brother would go and fish for groper or whateve r they could
get. And we used to go and get the pipis from Port Kembla Beach. Mum used to give
me a sugar bag and I’d take my sister Alma with me and a few of the o ther kids that
lived on the camps.’
Oral testimony by Alma Maskell-Bell:
p.7: ‘Mum used to te ll us to go u p the sandhills, down to th e beach and get a feed of
pippis. We just had to get home before dark.’
Oral testimony by Louise Davis:
p.21: ‘My fa ther, Jim Davis, taught me to dive. I was about the age of eleven when
Dad taught me how to get the abalo ne from around the rocks, out aroun d Hill 60. He
taught me to use a mask and snorkel.’
p.21: ‘We u sed to get our pipis an d mutton fish (abalone) from out at Hill 60 too.
There’s hardly any mutt on fish around here at all now. Now you have to go right out
to sea. We also colle cted conks and periwinkles from around the shoreline. From the
age of five years I was harvesting the shellfish and I collected pipis, mussels, and
oysters too.’
p.21: ‘I can remember we’d go out in the b
oat towards Koonawarra to get th e
bimblers. They’re really big down th ere. You get heaps of b imblers along the shore.
You can feel for them with your feet among the weeds. We had a lot of good times.’
p.23: ‘You have to go fu rther away now to get a good feed and to get to your special
harvesting spot. And th ere are also restrict ions. You’re only allowed thir ty pipis per
person per day. When we were young we’d only ever take as much as we needed for
that night’s feed or a s a feed for t he nex t day. My eldest two kids ar e really goo d
divers now days. So I’ve passed that knowledge on to them.’
Oral testimony by Thelma Brown-Henry (born 1937, Sydney):
p.33: ‘They used to walk all the way there to W indang Island. That was a long walk:
walk it there and walk it back. There was a tree there we called ‘One Tre e’ and that’s
where we used to get pipis. That’s where there was a con crete pyramid with barbe d
wire right through it and we used to call it the Tank Trap. We still call it the Tank Trap
today. Go down the Tank Trap and get a feed of pipis.’
Oral testimony by Rita Timbery-Bennett (born 1937)
pp.41–2: ‘My father was a fisherman and use d to spot the fish from the top of Hill 6 0
with Uncle Dennie Bell. Great grandfather George ‘Trimmer’ Ti
mbery ro wed a
government boat from Sydney to Port Kembla in seven hours with Willia m Saddler in
1876, they had a commercial fishing operation and supplied both the Aboriginal and
non-Aboriginal communities with fish. Late r they were supplied
with more
government boats. Our family was in the fishing business until the 19 40s when we
were moved off Hill 60.’
34
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
p.43: ‘Our fathers used to dive for lobsters, oysters, groper, mullet and leather jacket.
I remember how our par ents made fires around t he middens. And we ca n remember
how we swam in the Nun’s Hole a nd Honeycomb (at the b ack of Hill 6 0). Aboriginal
parents were very clever because
they sent their kids o ut to work (harvesting
seafood). You got oysters when the tide was right out there from Hill 60.’
p.43: ‘We used iron file s to remove the mutton fish which we could get up on the
rocks; (but we) never took the young ones. We were poor people then and we even
ate the perriwinkle which you can’t find now. Sometimes we’d make damper on the
beach out of flour and water.’
p.45: ‘But t here was p lenty of se afood. Heaps of b ig conks (shellf ish Anadara
trapezia). Periwinkles (Bembicium sp.) and conks were harvested at Windang Island,
Shellharbour and Bass Point. We’d boil the conks or put them in the hot ashes. We’d
wriggle out the opening with a pin and eat the lot. Sometimes the pip is would just roll
down the beach. We used to have the pipis curried too.’
p.45: ‘Big gropers were cut up in to huge ste aks and sh ared around to all the
households. The cunje voi was cut with a big knife and t hat was the bait for th e
groper. We cleaned the muttonfish down on the rocks. So metimes we’d bash the m,
then wrap them up in a cloth. Mum used to slice them and fry them up with onions or
cook vegetables. Sometimes she sliced up onio n and tomato with potat o and made
soup. Some times she minced them (through an old-fashioned mea t mincer) a nd
made little rissole s. We (Aboriginal people) were the only o nes who ever ate them,
because th ey were too tough for t he rest of t he community. It wasn’t until Asian
people came to Australia and showed people h ow to cook abalone that they became
popular resulting in the price of abalone going sky high.’
p.45: ‘We used to get bimblers too. They are very good for people with diabetes. We
used to jar t hem up ourselves. People mainly buy them for bait. You get bimblers in
the lakes. We get a fe w now and then. We d on’t take t hem all away. We only e ver
took what we needed. We never over-fished. We just took enough to eat for that day.’
Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC) NSW, Aboriginal women’s
heritage: Brungle and Tumut, DEC NSW, Sydney, April 2004.
Oral history; Inland rivers
Oral testimony by Winnie Marlowe (born 1934, Gundagai):
p.21: ‘The r iver was pretty important to peop le because that’s wher e we swam.
That’s where we got ou r water. We’d colle ct it with a horse and cart. T hey’d get the
drums, fill them up with water and take them up to the house. We were never allowed
to go to the river by ourselves, especially when we were young. But we fished in that
river too. The Tumut River has some pretty good fishing places.’
Oral testimony by Mary Williams (born 1952, Gundagai):
p.45: ‘The river is very i mportant to me. We we nt down there fishing, b ut we couldn’t
go down there on our own. You see, dad used to frighten us with the Bunyip and he’d
always say, “If you’re at the river before sundown you’d be OK”. He ne ver took us to
the place w here the Bunyip hole was, but he showed us t hat it was t here between
two poplar trees. We weren’t allowed to go there.’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
35
p.46: ‘We weren’t even allowed to fish t here. Like, even today when the sun’s going
down, and my husband and I are fi shing, we get out of the re before sundown. Dad
would take us fishing on a Sunday, that was our day.’
Department of Environment and Conservation DEC NSW, Aboriginal women’s
heritage: Nowra, DEC NSW, Sydney, January 2004.
Oral history; South coast rivers and beaches
Oral testimony by Cheryl Carpenter (born 1949, Berry):
pp.8–9: ‘Dad made his living doing seasonal work and by fishing. He was a good
fisherman. That was t he main ba sis o f our diet. He ha d lobster pots down at
Crookhaven Heads just there where the lighthouse is today. He’d
catch plenty o f
lobster and mutton fish.’
p.9: ‘When we were at home at Roseby Park, the kids would go down to collec
t
oysters and pippies, Mum would t ake us down to the fro nt of the mission. She’d
stand up the top there and watch us, from the top of the hill, while we went down
there collecting. That was one of our chores, collecting the oysters and pippies.’
Oral testimony by Grace Coombs (born 1931, Wallaga Lake):
p.14: ‘We’d go fishing, we’d get a feed of fish. Mu m woul d go out fishing for eels,
fresh water eels. She’d bring them home, clean them and cook them u p; they were
like fish, white fish.’
Oral testimony by Lynette Simms (born 1947, Berry):
p.28: ‘There was lots of seafood. We were taught how to fish from a really young
age. We were always fishing. We’d go down after school f or the oysters. But Dad
wouldn’t let us go ne ar the rocks, he did the rock fishing. H e didn’t want us ne ar the
rough sea, so we could only fish down in front with a handline.’
p.28: ‘But w e learnt ho w to dig for nippers an d we knew what bait to use. Nippe rs
look like little prawn and you have to dig t hem out of the sand, where it’s weedy. I f
they bite you, they can cause a lot of pain so you have to b e careful and wear shoes.
You can get them easy if you know where th ey are. The y make this little cracking
noise and that tells you the spo t to dig. It ’s worth it be cause they make really go od
bait. We’d mix up dough for blackfish.’
p.28: ‘We didn’t know what it was like to have meat and baked dinner s, as a regu lar
thing, not b ack then. We lived o n fish and seafood. W e’d get rations and I can
remember our going to get them, but they mustn’t have be en very mu ch. It was fish
we lived on. Dad had lobster pots too. And he made the pots himself . I was only
young but I can remember him gett ing this wire from somewhere and making lobster
pots. He’d sell them.’
p.31: ‘We still go out there (to Myola) sometimes to get the oysters.’
36
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
E
Egloff, Brian. ‘“Sea long stretched between”: perspectives of Aboriginal fishing
on the south coast of New South Wales in the light of Mason v Tritton’,
Aboriginal History, vol. 24, 2000, 200–11.
Academic; South coast beaches
p.200: ‘Today, Aboriginal families a re fighting to both regai n and retain their access
to maritime resources. The complexity of regulation governing coastal fishing and the
merging of traditional an d customary rights to fish with commercial pursuits threaten
their livelihood and cultural heritage.’
p.200: In 1992, three archaeologists drafted reports to help in the defen ce of seven
Aboriginal men charged with ‘“shu cking abalone” in the w aters of the south coast of
New South Wales and with possessing an excessive number of abalone contrary to
the Fisheries and Oyster Farms (Ge neral) Regulations 1989 (N.S.W.).’ The defence
consisted of a claim tha t the Aboriginal men ‘exercised a tr aditional an d customary
right to fish.’
p.204: ‘During the 1870 s and 1880s, fishing boats were provided by the government
to Aborigin al families on the sou th coast a nd fishin g seems to have been a
widespread activity.’
p.206: The Brierly family of Moruya began commercial fishing
in the ninetee nth
century. In the 1940s and 1950s the Brierlys caught fish and took it to Sydney to sell.
‘Women worked with the nets and would help “shoot” (laun ch) the boats. The fishing
camp ate whatever fish they ha d at the time and liked them all. Changes
to
technology were few, with nylon nets coming in during the 1950s. The Brierly crew
regularly fished from
Durras to Bermagui, down to th e Victorian border an d
occasionally up to Jervis Bay.’
p.208: ‘The historical p icture that emerges is o ne of British colonists attempting to
push out an d marginalise coastal A boriginal pe ople as the y appropriate Indigenou s
lands. Then, as the new settlers moved inland, Aboriginal pe ople re-established their
hold over the coastal margins that were perceived by the settlers as wastelands.’
p.208: ‘Thro ughout the first half of the twentiet h century, Aboriginal b each fish ing
enterprises contributed significantly to the e conomic position of Aboriginal people.
Fishermen are known to have op erated at L a Perouse, Port Ke mbla, Ulladulla ,
Batemans Bay, Moruya and Bermagui as well as at fishing camps be tween these
major centres.’
p.208: ‘As t he costs a
the last few decades,
for many years – but
were forced out of ope
Aboriginal economies,
ssociated wit h beach or long-shore fishing in creased ove r
particularly licensing, fa mily businesses which had thrive d
which had a lim ited economic and managerial horizon –
ration. Grad ually pursuits which once formed t he basis of
particularly agricultural work, timb ering and fishing, have
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
37
been remo ved without replacement, thus worsening th
Aboriginal communities.’
e financial position o
f
Egloff, Brian in Association with members of the Wreck Bay Community.
Wreck Bay: an Aboriginal fishing community, Aboriginal Studies Press,
Canberra, 1990.
History; South coast beaches and ocean
This book firstly outline s a history of fishing pr actices of men and wo men along t he
south coast in pre-colo nial times, as documented through archaeolo gical eviden ce
and early ethnographic evidence.
p.11: notes the gender differences in fish ing practices where the men exclusively
speared fish and the women use d nets and fishing lines. With regard to men a nd
their spears - ‘Fishing in the bay or in the shallow waters over the reefs was
spectacular. Flexible, h ardwood prongs were set into a M ingo or Gra ss Tree stalk:
tipped with small bone points, it was a very efficient instru ment for reaping the riches
of the sea. Hurled by a spearthrower, its force was increased many times … Women,
carrying net bags, fished with hook and line in the shallows. The line was made of the
inner bark o f certain tre es and the hooks were ground out of the whorl of the turba n
shell.’
The book goes on to describe the arrival of Ab original fishermen, coming south from
La Perouse and north from sout hern ports, from the late nineteenth and early
twentieth century to Wreck Bay. Th ere they de veloped their fishing ind ustry. It is a
male indust ry – and fishing is on ly discusse d in th is context as a male pursuit .
Descriptions of the t ype of fishing, fish caught, shipment, names of
some of th e
fishermen, permits, boats, crews, belief that t hey had exclusive fishin g rights at o ne
time.
The only mention of women in any of these fishing st
ories (predominantly
pp.26–46) i s on pp.46– 7: ‘Fish for home use were cooked when fresh, or filleted ,
smoked and stored in the chimney until needed. Wooden bowls ma
de from loc al
trees were often used when gathering tucker from the bus h’ – etc. on collecting food
plants.
p.49: Women made items from shells.
EP Elkin’s papers (located at the University of Sydney library)
Archival
Reports by M Rea y 1 March 1 922: Reay reports on his obse
rvations and
conversations with Aboriginal people at Walgett, New Sout h Wales – ‘Her mothe r
tells her of the life women led in the old days; of the old women taking the young girls
at puberty to a special camp in the bush; of the young women seeing the goowahs in
the graveya rd, in the branches of a tree; whilst an old wo man corrob orees, of the
ceremony d uring which the young girls formal ly indicated the men wh o were to be
their husbands, and other details of the old life. She also shows her how to cook wild
meat, and t ells her she must cook much of this when she is married, to keep her
children healthy. When the younger children are sleeping, she listen s to her mother
singing the old songs o ver them as lullabies. Her mother teaches her t o save the fat
of the goanna and the wild pig
and use it for curing cuts, bruises and skin
38
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
complaints … She takes her fishing and on her way through the scrub teaches her to
observe tracks and other indications that there are game or wild bees nearby, so that
they can co me and gather the wild honey, or t ell the menfolk where t o hunt. She
teaches her to hunt too, in order that her family need not go without. Thus girls gro w
up in a tradition which is richer.’
Elkin, Box 11 Nambucca Heads
Elkin’s observations at Nambucca Heads (c.1930s): ‘Fish were caught by means of
nets. Nothing like hooks and lines were known to the ‘qubaigquera’, nor did they build
traps as some Queensland tribes d o. The nets used were made from opossum hair,
or more usu ally bark string. These n ets were used by indep endent fishermen or b y
several working togethe r, driving th e fish into a shallow part of the wat er where th ey
could be captured with greater ease. Spearing was anoth er method, the fisherman
standing motionless for long periods in some favourable position. For this purpose a
multi-pronged spear was used.’
English, Anthony. The sea and the rock gives us a feed: mapping and
managing Gumbaingirr wild resource use places, NSW National Parks and
Wildlife Service, Sydney, 2002.
Cultural heritage; North coast beaches, estuaries and rivers
p.1: In the introduction, Anthony English asks ‘Can fishing or collecting plant foods be
considered a “cultural” activity? Is t here a relationship betw een environmental health
and people’s heritage? These ar e important questions and this
research h as
explored them in detail. The fact that they are being asked represents a shift in the
NPWS approach to managing Aboriginal heritage …’
Anthony English’s research with th e Garby Eld ers of Corin di Beach ta ps into
and extends the wealth of research that has been undertaken with the m over nearly
two decades. Although the intervi ewees were almost all men and th ere were n o
fishing stor ies, English makes ma ny significa nt points a bout the lin ks of place ,
culture, well being and cultural cont inuity which relate directly to the importance of
Aboriginal women’s fishing. It also endorses t he necessit y to seek o ut Aborigina l
women and specif ically direct que stions about such thing s as fish ing practices an d
meaning to women, if women’s perspectives are to be included in such cultural
heritage exploration.
With regard to well being it is noted that:
p.3: ‘The existence of “heritage” places representing the practice of wild resource use
can have an important influence o n the well being and identity of individuals and
groups.’
p.4: ‘Heritage values are linked to the concepts of communit y health and well being.
As an example, the capacity to find and ut ilize wild foo ds has bee n described by
informants during this pr oject as being integral t o their sense of identity, morale and
cohesion as family or la rger groups. This might include fishing, hunting, plant food
collecting, camping, wal king along p athways and seemingly innocuous activities like
swimming or sitting rou nd a camp fire. It is t hrough these activitie s that people
express and “activate” their associations with place …’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
39
English, Anthony and Louise Gay. Living land living culture: Aboriginal
heritage and salinity, Department of Environment and Conservation (DEC)
NSW, Sydney, 2005.
Cultural heritage; Inland rivers
This DEC p roject on sa linity and Aboriginal he ritage values utilises a case study of
the central western town of Welling ton on the Macquarie River (the Bell River and
Curra Creek), traditional Country of the Wiradjuri. Women’s stories are told alongside
men’s stories and provide a rich diversity of experience and memory of their rivers.
p.7: Evelyn Powell, a Wiradjuri elder, was born i n 1933 at Brewarrina o n the Barwon
River from where she spent much of her early life
‘tracing a web of watercourses
throughout Central West NSW. With her par
ents she tr avelled between towns,
Aboriginal r eserves and pastoral stations as t hey looked for work or visited family.
Setting up camp next to a creek, cray fishing at billabongs, washing in a river hole or
catching yellow-belly for a meal were everyday experiences … The rivers of Centra l
West NSW are entwined with many of the signif icant stages of Evelyn’s life, both the
hard and good times. As is the case for many (p.8) Aboriginal people in NSW, rivers
are associated with the survival of cultural ident ity in the face of assimilation policie s
of the pre- and post war era. They connect people and country across broad areas.
For Evelyn, the mouth of the Murray [i.e. on the Coorong/Goolwa] is a symbolic place
in this web. From this point she can see all of the rivers of her people merged as one,
and can look back and appreciate the many and varied experiences of her life.’
Reflecting o n Evelyn’s experience of the Coorong, the ch apter goes on to
discuss the holistic approach to environmental management which the authors argue
for. The loss of fish sto ck and dest ruction to th e river syst ems through salinity is a
central theme of the oral interviews.
Ch.3 ‘The Wellington case-study’
The Wiradju ri participant s were balanced between both genders. The a uthor’s note
(p.47) that using the la nd and rivers has been an important part of many Wiradjuri
people’s ex perience an d cultural identity. Hi storical evide nce of wo men’s fishin g
includes:
p.47: 1832–35 journal of the missionary, JCS Handt: 25 August 1835: ‘Two of th e
Aboriginal women had been fishin g today an d returned with a large supply, and
seemed very proud of their success.’
p.49: Violet Carr gives o ne of man y examples of the me mories of abundance in the
rivers and creeks –
specif ically attached to place
s which ar e named and
remembered: ‘We caught yabbies sometimes if we had a bit of rabbit on . We’d go to
Peak Hill by horse and sulky and there’s a place just this side of Peak Hill – they call
it “the ten mile hole” … We’d take a load of crayfish with us, take us no time to get a
couple of buckets full.’
p.50: Joanie Willie’s memories are of her dad – ‘always the hunter’ – and that they
ate plenty of fish and yabbies.
p.51: Evelyn Powell discussing the changes to the river – low levels of water, and her
memories of fishing and abundance: ‘I’d been so used to seeing it full [water level] ,
you know, chockablo ck full … plenty of
fish … The rivers were full of fish,
chockablock full. The tur tles, long-necked and sh ort-necked turtles, we’d cook them
up and eat them … They’re gone – turtles and mussels. And big mussels, the bigger
ones. ’Cause when I was kid, we used to d ive for them. You know t hey lived right
down in the river. We u sed to dive right down in the middle of the riv er to get th e
40
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
great big m ussels … T he rivers ar e terrible n ow. It is nothing like when we used t o
live on the banks of the rivers in Dubbo, the Macquarie. My mother-in-law and myself
would have got fish for breakfast. You’d go down there, f ish with a line, be down
there for about fifteen minutes, up you’d come with a couple of yellow-bellies, cod or
catfish. It was so simple.’
Vivienne Gri ffin relates the type of fish stock an d invasion of European carp
with her dad’s life and death. ‘When Dad was alive we was right. We were pretty selfsufficient … But we lived off the river because you had a vari ety of fish then. We had
the yellow-belly, catfish and cod the n, and they’re big fishe s and would last a lon g
time. But after Dad died it was around about that time that they introduced carp and it
wiped out a lot.’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
41
F
Flick, Isabel and Heather Goodall. Isabel Flick: the many lives of an
extraordinary Aboriginal woman, Allen and Unwin, Crows Nest, 2004.
Autobiography/biography; Inland rivers
There is much in this bo ok that suggests fishing was a central activity in the lives o f
Aboriginal girls and women living near the big inland rivers like the Darling, Barwon,
Macintyre, Gwydir and Namoi.
Isabel Flick was born in 1928 and spent her first ten years with her fa mily in
the Aboriginal Camp at Collaren ebri near t he banks o f the Barwon River. She
remembers:
p.13: ‘I enjoyed wash days at the river. On Mondays was when all the women went to
the river to wash, swim, fish, cook and I guess enjoy their kids. We sometimes went
at sunrise a nd came h ome at sun down. Everyone used t o help ea ch other carry
things like pots and pans, billycans … I remember lots of women and children helping
to carry the wood and water, then make the fires. These tasks all seemed to b e
fun …
The river always seemed to be clear and the beach was really sandy and
clean, you could see the bottom then … [ There was one section where the kids
swam.] This was always a very safe place. You could swim right along some parts of
the bank, or fish, whatever you wanted to do. And the grown-ups never interfered
with the kid’s part of the “swimming pool” as they called it.’
p.14: ‘But on one side of the rocks was what we called the “dipping place”. This place
was not to b e just for anything, it was only for ta king water up home, for our cooking
and drinkin g. You couldn’t do no thing else th ere. We we re not to swim there. In
trouble if we dared … Not even fish there. A bit past there was where we fish – and if
someone was fishing there, then don’t make a noise … [emphasis original]
We were all encouraged to have a go at catching a fish, bait a hoo k with
worms and shrimps. One part of fishing none of us really liked however: if we caught
a fish we ha d to learn h ow to gut and clean it , that was one part we did n’t quite take
to. However to “big-not e” ourselves and cook our cat ch was something else . Th at
was the first time I big-n oted myself. I don’t know if I embarrassed my mum or not,
because I r emember s he kept saying: “All right . Anyone ca n catch a fish. Pull your
dress down. Sit down and eat your fish!”’
When Isabel was ten in 1938, family circumstances meant that she and he r
brother Jo e went to live on Toomelah Mission ne
ar Boggabilla on the
NSW/Queensland border with Granny Jane.
p.32: Isabe l describ es how the white authorit ies often worked to keep their fa ther,
Mick Flick, away from visiting them on the Reserve telling him that ‘… he couldn’t see
us or they’d tell him that we were fishing or something.’
p.33: Despit e it being a hard place to live in so many wa ys ‘… being at Toomela h
was a good learning for us. Joe must’ve learnt a lot about hunting; becau se I learnt a
lot about getting baits for fishing, the best way to put a worm on the hook, what were
42
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
the best ber ries and fru it to eat, wh at was dan gerous. And Granny used to take us
down one side of the river, around the bend, to go fishing. And it
was real fun
times …
The boys were allowed to go hunt ing more ofte n than gir ls were allowed into
the bush, the older people there in that community made the rules … And then, some
of the older women wo uld take us fishing for miles. Sometimes we’d walk all those
miles for nothing – they wouldn’t catch a fish. Of course then it wasn’t a real good trip
back …
People used to fish wit h mainly cord lines and make their own lines
out of
anything – especially the set lines, whatever t hey could find they’d fix up and make
their own h ooks out of wire. They seldom use d nets, but some of the older women
got into the streams and actually caught fish in their dresses. Our Granny did that,
and Old Granny Kate – t hey’d do those kind of things, you know. And we used to go
and get craybobs in buckets and sometime we’d walk miles to get there – that was …
oh, anywhere we went, like, even Toomelah or Colle [Collarenebri] that was a rea l
treat to go o ut for craybobbing. Sometimes we ’d make our own little n ets, and oth er
times just sit there and fish them out one by one with our hands or with cotton lines or
rag-lines or whatever we could find. We’d e nd up having a big meal out of it. We
used to mainly put the m in the ashes and o f course, a lo t of peop le like to just p ut
them in the big billy and boil them up and put plenty of salt on them …’
pp.33–4: A special f ishing yarn: ‘I suppose in our commu nities we always had a
joker, like we always had an org aniser [ and this was Widdy McGrady, old Auntie
Carrie’s son]. And this day, he dre w a fish and cut it out from the thi n, flat tin the y
used to line a fireplace. My old Granny and a co uple of the old women would always
go fishing in this one spot, and they’d have their lines set. So he went and he hooked
it to on e of the old g irl’s lines. Whe n she went down, she started pullin g the line i n
and she’s saying. “Oh look out! I got a big fish!” And eve ryone’s running up an d
saying “Oh, somebody’ s gotta help her!” and she’s pullin’ t his line in a nd the fish is
swaying in the water, but it’s really this tin! W ell! When th ey got it ou t, they didn’ t
know what to do … the y just sat th ere lookin’ at this t in fish! Then someone said: “ I
know who d id this!” So they got really cranky the n. Old Aunt y Carrie was a Christian
and everybody’s sayin “You can’t go and tell her!” But the old girls said, “We’re gonna
tell her all right! It don’t matter how she takes it, we’re still gonna tell her!” And I thin k
the lad was getting a bit uneasy too because the word wa
s getting around! Well
Aunty Carri e went mad and called Widdy home and went really crook on him. And
then after a while, the old girls was saying: “I kn ew the next thing he’d do would be
something silly like this!” And then they all started laughing! So that be came a very
special fish yarn!’
p.99: Isabel’s niece Bar bara Flick r emembered an important older woman in her life:
Sylvia Walf ord, where fishing is
central to her me mories of her grandmother.
‘Nanny. Syl via Walford. My special protector. She would wake me la te at night to
feed the possums Sao biscuits and w ater. She taught me to fish. She too k me to the
circus. She kept my sc hool work. She wrappe d me in a c ocoon and talked to me
about the magic of the river.’
In the later parts of t he book the combination of Heat her’s and Isabel’s
narrative helps explain a n increasing dislocation, particularly of the women, from the
land. At the 1983 Aboriginal blocka de of Mutawintiji Natio nal Park outside Broke n
Hill, Isabel commented on how goo d it was to be camping and learning from the ol d
people. Heather commented:
p.197: ‘… as a bush
meeting it drew on the confide
nce of the far western
communities to hunt and occupy their land, to live on it and from it with an assurance
which had become harder for the Murris from further east [ such as around Colle,
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
43
Toomelah etc.] where p astoral lea ses had locked their gat es so much earlier, an d
where women, in particular, had been separated from real contact with their country
except on the riverbanks close to camps and towns …’
p.198: Isabel was keen to support th e Western Women’s Council which would focu s
just on women. ‘A key g oal was to bring women together outside of towns, to have
their own bush meetings so they could get ba ck in tou ch with country and to get to
know each other outsid e the white town context. As pastoral jobs for
women had
been cut back, many ha d become confined to t he townships and so th eir knowledge
of and confidence in the bush was ebbing away. The pro mises of land rights meant
little for these women if t hey weren’t able to get back to the bush and feel competent
and at home enough to make it their own again.’
Flick, William. A dying race: authentic stories of Aborigines, Beacon Printery,
Ballina, 1935. [Richmond River Historical Society]
Archival; North coast rivers
William Flick was a p ioneer on the Richmond River. This i s a typical example of thi s
genre of writing about a ‘dead’ cultu re. His reminiscence s of Bundjalung people ar e
of the nine teenth cent ury, with no comment ary on the twentieth
century. His
discussions about fishing practice s, like the vast majorit y of the archival sources
reviewed at the RRHS are exclusively about men.
44
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
G
Gerritsen, Rupert. ‘Aboriginal fish hooks in southern Australia: evidence,
arguments and implications’, Australian Archaeology, vol. 52, 2001, pp. 18–28.
Academic
p.24: ‘Both Bowdler (1976) and Walters (1988) have proposed that as line and hoo k
fishing was introduced, or became economically more imp ortant, a shift in gender
hegemony t ook pla ce and men either took
over this p ractice from women, or
appropriated their catch. Observe d gender differences in line fishing between th e
northern Australian distr ibution, where it was mainly a mal e preserve, and coastal
New South Wales, do minated by women, lie at the heart of this argument …
it
appears, although the evidence is not extensive or conclusive, that in Gippsland, as
in New Sout h Wales, women were line fishers … in other parts of Australia wome n
took up fishing following the introduction of European hooks.’
Goodall, Heather. ‘The river runs backwards’ in Tim Bonyhady and Tom
Griffiths (eds), Words for Country: landscape and language in Australia,
University of NSW Press, Sydney, 2002.
Academic, Inland rivers
This is an important article in supporting the a rgument that while there are similar
ways of thinking and coming together between Aboriginal a nd non-Aboriginal peop le
in understa nding and acting about rivers and fishing, there are also dif ferences on
the basis of indigeneity.
Goodall, Heather. ‘Gender, race and rivers: women and water in northwestern
NSW’, University of Technology, Sydney, paper delivered to the Fluid Bonds
symposium, National Institute for the Environment, Australian National
University, 13 October, 2003.
Academic; Inland rivers
This paper emerges out of Heather Goodall’s research si nce the late 1990s with
Aboriginal a nd non-Aboriginal people, and in particular wit h women, o n water use
and their relationship s with rivers in the flood plain countr y of the Da rling River in
north west New South Wales. Her interviews have indicated that women have
different relationships to water and rivers than men, and that between Aboriginal and
non-Aboriginal women there are also many differences ‘shaped by their differing
cultures an d historie s, despite living so close t ogether on the same rivers.’ One of
those differ ences is th e ways older Aborigin al women have maint ained fish ing
practices for many reas ons – as a significant food source, teaching ch ildren, cultural
continuity, time out – whereas white females rarely fish in their adult years.
Much of this paper is no t directly about fishing; however it is all about women
and rivers. It provides an historical context for the different uses and understanding of
the river b etween Ab original and non-Aboriginal populat ions, and in particular
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
45
between women; for an understanding of the re asons for the increasing pollution and
dwindling water supply in the riv
ers; and fo r an under standing of the ongoing
significance of fishing to Aboriginal women’s lives.
p.7: ‘Like harvesting, teaching ch ildren was a traditional activity for Aboriginal
women, particularly for young children. This to o has continued, and can be see n
regularly as women take young children along t he river to fish or just fo r a day out.
Fishing is a n opportunity to teach children abo ut the life of the river, not only abou t
the fish but about the birds, craybobs, mussels, worms and turtles which you might
notice as you sit for hours waiting for a bite. But these are also opportunities to teach
them the st ories of the river, the co mplex web of mythology about cre ation and th e
continued enlivening of the landscape through which the creative ancestors travelled.
In this floo dplain coun try, many o f t he ancestors’ creative struggles carved out
riverbeds, forced deep holes in the river beds and shaped bends and lakes. While
they were travelling or struggling with each other, the ancestors sometimes left their
footprints o r other bo dy i mprints on the ra re rocky o utcrops near rivers a nd
waterholes. And because waterholes were such common sites for massacres and
conflicts bet ween Aborigines and invaders, there are also stories to be passed on
about those early conflicts: where they happened, what started th
em and wh o
survived to tell about them.’
Goodall also points o ut that colonisation, e mployment and then lack of
employment has impacted Aboriginal men and women diff erently, often leaving the
older Aboriginal Grannies the one s who have carried on the teaching of childr en
along the river banks, often as part of fishing practices (as above). Loss of access to
many parts of their
Country, especially sin ce the de cline of pastoralism and
Aboriginal labour since the 1940s, h as meant that the river banks have been one of
the few places remaining where Aboriginal pe ople can freely go. The article also
discusses the impact of pollution on the rivers and fishing practices.
Goodall, Heather. ‘Contesting changes on the Paroo and its sister rivers’ in RT
Kingsford (ed.), A free-flowing river: the ecology of the Paroo River, NSW
National Parks and Wildlife Service, Sydney, 1999, pp.179–200.
Academic; Inland rivers
p.187: ‘Racial segregat ion in town housing meant that Aboriginal people we re
invariably directly dependent on the river for all water needs from drinking to washing
to recreatio n. This wa s at the same time
as non-Aboriginal town speople we re
beginning t o benefit fr om “town” water supply, sewerage and swimming pools.
Riverbanks offered safe ty and respite from the surveillance of town police and were
convenient camping sit es where water carryi ng could b e minimised. Aboriginal
poverty als o enforced greater dependence on the river as a so
urce of foo d,
increasing t he degree t o which pe ople chose to fish for p leasure and as a so lace
from the stresses of township living.’
p.187: ‘Aboriginal fishin g styles foster special observation. Their use of the river
seldom entailed car s or powerboats, so Aborigin al men, women and children ofte n
would walk for long distances and sit for many hours on a
carefully chosen bend,
waiting for a bite and wa tching the river and its life. The run of the river, the freshes,
the fish being caught t hat day, are frequent to pics of conv ersation in most western
Aboriginal h ouseholds t oday, an indication of t heir clo se o bservation of and dee p
concern for the minutiae of the river.’
46
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
p.187: ‘Economic dependence on t he river continues to be very high, and has in fact
increased as employment has declined in western areas.’
p.190: ‘These days, most Europeans fish by boat, with a power
engine, while
Aboriginal people walk t o a fishing spot and sit still under t he shade of the trees fo r
hours, waiting for a bite.’
Goodall, Heather and Cadzow, Allison. Rivers and resilience: Aboriginal people
on Sydney’s Georges River, 1788 to 2008, University of NSW Press, 2010.
Academic; Urban rivers
This book t races the history of Aboriginal peo ple’s atta chment to, and use of th e
Georges River in Sydney’s south in the period since 1788. It doesn’t focus on fishing
particularly, but contains storie s which highlight the role of fishin g for Aborigin al
people livin g near the Georges River across t his whole t ime period, including th e
contemporary period. It discusses the role fishing played in helping Aboriginal people
to survive off Country a nd enter the cash econo my, and pa ys particular attention to
women’s contribution to fishing in this area.
Godwin, Luke and Creamer, Howard. ‘Ethnography and archaeology on the
north coast of New South Wales’, in Queensland Archaeological Research,
vol. 1, 1984, pp.103–16.
Academic/cultural heritage; North coast beaches
This paper argued that contrary to assertions that NSW Aboriginal pe ople had no
ongoing cultural traditio ns, there was much evidence of knowledge
of ‘site s of
significance’ and cultura l continuity am ongst parts of New South Wales. The pape r
concentrates on the area around Yamba on the far north coast. The main consultants
for the project were Al an Laurie from Pippi
Beach Aboriginal Rese rve and hi s
brother’s daughter Patricia Laurie. While there are no gender differentia tions made in
descriptions of food gathering, the paper adds to the overa ll evidence of both men ’s
and wome n’s ongoin g knowledge and de
sire to utilise tradition
al foods for
sustenance through cultural continuity with t heir special places. Of most relevance to
this project were the informants’ inf ormation about ‘good f ood places’ and related
food gathering information to ‘recent camping places.’
p.104: The authors w ere ‘impressed by how much local Aborigine s knew ab out
locally-available “traditional” foods. These can be defined as being those components
of their diet they hunted, fished and collected before the major alteration of diet that
took place through the introduction of tea, sugar and flour after white settlement in
the area. The following is a list of the main f
oods mentioned (there are probab ly
others):
 Aquatic: mullet, bream, flathead, flounder, whiting, jewfish , tailor, swa llow tail,
cobra worms, pipis, oysters, crabs, swans eggs and beach worms (for bait).
 Terrestrial: kangaroos and wallabies, etc.
Good food places refer to the spots from whic h good supplies of fish, yams,
birds eggs etc. can be obtained …’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
47
Goulding, Megan. Ukereback Island Aboriginal Place nomination: a
background report, Goulding Heritage Consulting, prepared for the Northern
Aboriginal Heritage Unit, 2005 [Tweed Heads Historical Society].
Cultural heritage; Far north coast beaches, estuaries and rivers
Ukereback Island, in th e estuarine reaches of the Tweed River, was the home of a
substantial Aboriginal a nd Islander population in the 1920s and into th e 1940s with
only a few r emaining by the 1970 s. The reserve was esta blished by the Aborigines
Protection Board in 1927. With regard to the importance of the fishin
g industry to
Aboriginal communities in the Tweed, a Boar d censu s ta ken in 188 2 recorded a
population of 109 Aboriginal people. At the time commercial fishing was not reporte d
amongst the work that Aboriginal people were getting o n cane, sto ck, dairy an d
banana far ms and in t he timber in dustry. By the early twentieth cent ury fishing is
included in the list of work that Aboriginal ‘people’, presumably men, are gaining.
Grace, Jenny. ‘Murray River woman’, in A. Pring (ed.), Women of the Centre,
Pascoe Publishing, Apollo Bay, 1990.
Biographical; Inland rivers
p.158: Jenn y Grace, wh o grew up o n the Murra y Ri ver, recounts: ‘My f ather was a
fisherman during the o pen season on Murray cod, and t he rest of t he year we’d
spend travelling by boat between Renmark and Wellington trapping water rats for a
living.’
p.160: Jenn y Grace remembers the paddle b oats comin g past, and they would
‘sometimes buy fish from my fathe r. They ’d start tooting when they were way u p
around the bend and we would be starting to clean the fish ready. It
was probably
cod and callop. He used to catch all sorts of fish like callop, bream and catfish.’
Grafton Regional Gallery. The John William Lindt collection, Grafton Regional
Gallery, Grafton, 2004. [viewed Grafton Regional Gallery August 2006]
Photographic; North coast
This book d ocuments the collect ion of John Lin dt portraits of Aboriginal people held
at the Grafton Regional Gallery. Alongside the Thomas Dick photos o f Aboriginal
people from the Port Macquarie re gion, John Lindt’s studio portraits of Aborigina l
people are f amous for evoking some sense of stylised repr esentation o f Aboriginal
life in the late nineteenth century. He photograph ed his Gumbaingirr and Bundjalung
subjects in his studio b etween 1873 and ’74. These photos provide a clear sense o f
the predominant view of Aboriginal men as the fishers, and women as the carers of
children. Th ere are a n umber of photos of men with nets a nd spears, all related to
fishing – bu t no such images or even hints of such relate
d objects a nd activities
appear with any of the photos of the women. Even in th ese staged and frozen
photographs, the men with their fishing equip ment, spears, and dead animals are
portrayed as the active ones and the women are passive.
48
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
H
Harney, WE. ‘Australian Aboriginal cooking methods’, Mankind, vol. 4, no 6,
May 1951.
Anthropology
p.244: ‘Fish, sharks, stingrays, oysters, cockles, toredo worms and such sea foods
are treated in various ways. Crabs and fish are cooked on, or in, the coals. Those
that live on mud are gutted, whilst t hose which live on flesh foods are cooked whole.
The fresh-water cod is gutted through the mouth, the fat be ing put into the air sack,
tied up, and put back again inside. It is then cooked under the ashes.’
p.244: ‘The stingray is first cut open to get at the large creamy liver, an d, if this is
brown looking, the fish is thrown a way. If, how ever, it is a s it should be, the liver is
placed aside and the flesh coo ked over an open fire. When cooked, the flesh is well
shredded a nd washed in fresh wat er which be comes milky coloured f rom the oil in
the fish. Aft er two washings the white cotton-like flesh is made into balls, a ball for
each person present. T he liver is e qually divided and, in the raw stat e, is p laced on
top of each ball of f lesh, handed a round and without any further coo king is eate n.
Some natives prefer to pass a heat ed fire-stick over the live r to warm it up, but in the
past it was eaten raw.’
p.245: ‘Small gummy sharks are also cooked by this method. Shellfish are cooked lip
down on th e coals of t he fire, an d when cooked are soa ked in fre sh water before
eating. Toredo worms are often treated in the same manner.’
Hawkins, Scott. Caught, hook line and sinker: incorporating Aboriginal fishing
rights into the Fisheries Management Act, Aboriginal Justice Advisory Council,
Sydney, 2003.
Policy discussion; Beaches, ocean
This NSW report looks into the fishing pract
ices of pred ominantly coastal area s
where traditional indige nous rights have not be en incorpor ated into NSW fisherie s
legislation, resulting in legal action against Aboriginal people claiming to be carryin g
out traditional practices. It is presumed these cases have be en brought against men,
although this is never stated. While acknowle dging fishin g and colle cting in both
ocean and rivers, the main focus is on coastal a reas where the clash of commercial
fishing, legislation and traditional practices has been most intense. This also includes
exclusion from traditional fishing grounds now in Marine Parks.
A case study of the south coast was undertake n. The report never ref ers t o
either ‘men’ or ‘wome n’ amongst the info rmants and o nly refers either to th e
Aboriginal community or a ‘person’. However du e to the focus on sea fishing and the
south coast, with its lon g history of commercialisation of Ab original fishing since the
late nineteenth century which men undertook, it is assume d that most of the peop le
consulted were referring to the fishing and colle cting practices of men. This can’t b e
confirmed from reading the report a s informants aren’t named. Howeve r the focus on
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
49
the abalone industry, where the collection of mutton fish since the late
nineteenth
century is generally represented as a male activity, would bear this out.
Aboriginal women on th e south coast have bee n and are d eeply involved in
the concern over traditional fishing rights and the impact on their communities (see
Cruse et al. 2005). However, no t withstanding the serious community issue
s
examined in the report regarding the traditional rights of Aboriginal fish ers, the report
is also an example of the perpetua tion of the inclusive use of the wor ds ‘Aborigin al
people’ whe n predominantly they are referrin g to men. This has th e potential to
continue th e invisibility of Aborigin al women in the broad er Indigeno us polit ic a nd
specifically in women’s fishing and collecting practices.
Helling, Richard. Reminiscences of Mr. Oliver Richard Helling: memories of
Riley’s Hill (edited by Louise Daley 1962). [Richmond River Historical Society]
Archival; North coast rivers
Within this r eminiscence of ‘pioneering days’ around the lat e nineteent h century on
the Lower Richmond River (near Broadwater) there are
some quit e sympathetic
accounts of relationships with Aboriginal peo ple. In the one mention of fishing
,
although He lling do esn’t refer spe cifically to anything about women, it is clear he i s
referring to both men and women as fishing in groups.
[c.1896 Lower Richmond River] ‘The Aborigine s, or blacks as they were called
in
those days were very plentiful. Groups of twenty or thirty wa ndered up and down the
river catching fish and getting long white grubs from the logs in the r iver … We had
our own family of blacks, Micky Mooney and his wife Charlotte with their six children.’
Heron, Ronald. Aboriginal perspectives: an ethnohistory of six Aboriginal
communities in the Clarence Valley, Bachelor of Letters in Prehistory thesis,
Australian National University, Canberra, 1991.
Cultural heritage; North coast rivers/beaches
Ron is from Yaegl (Yaygir) and Bundjalung ancestry. His thesis was ‘intended to help
other Aboriginal people who are thinking abo ut writing o n subject s such as b ush
foods, bush medicines, Dreamtime stories of local Aboriginal communities and their
histories’ (p.6). His descriptions of sea and river foods come from ‘Yaygir, Bundjalung
and Gumba yngir’ peoples of the Clarence Valley, northern New South Wales. His
informants were predominantly men.
In Chapter 3 Ron name s all the various types of sea, estuar y and river f oods
collected fro m the sea and estuaries around Yamba, and back up th e Clarence to
freshwater reaches. He refers spe cifically to men’s pract ices of spearing fish a nd
calling in t he dolphins, and then generally
to ‘Aboriginal people’ in describin g
catching the fish in the Angourie fish trap. He says men speared the fish in the ro ck
holes at night, and speared the fish in the fish trap – while ‘people’ could also ca tch
the fish in the traps by hand. He refers to line fishing in the river – but not to who was
doing that.
50
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
Heron, Ronald. My Aboriginal people and our culture: aspects of Aboriginal
cultural heritage of the Lower Clarence Valley, NSW National Parks and Wildlife
Service and Australian Nature Conservation Agency, 1993.
Cultural heritage; North coast rivers
In parts of this report Ron recalls his own childh ood and teenage memories of fishing
between Yamba and so uth of Ango urie. On the whole his t ext indicates a gend ered
divide between the men as the fishers (in particular the ones who spear the fish) and
the women who collect the bush foods such as ya ms and do the cooking. His own
stories about fishing generally revolve around males. At times he refers to Aborigina l
people gen erally; however, he also does make specific ref erence to women fishing
off the bea ch as note d below. He also note s that Christmas time was a time of
unemployment – so fishing was b oth a good time to be out together , but also a n
important food item when unemployed. Unemployment also meant you had the tim e
to fish and socialise.
p.23: In refe rring to the Prehistoric Site, Angourie, Ron says: ‘When we were young ,
whenever we wanted to go out, we weren’t allowed to go out towards Angourie
unless we h ad an older person with us, say an Uncle or Aunt … These were people
who belonged to the area … [They] would ke ep an eye on us and keep us from
getting up t o mischief, but later as I got older, say in my mid teens, we would go
fishing out there.’
p.24: ‘You could get a feed of pippies anywhere along those beaches until th
e
mineral san d miners came in the 70s and d amaged all that. So th at is why no
Aboriginal p eople of to day’s modern times will camp ther e because that was a
traditional camping place … The people usually came back to that place if the mullet
were travelling …’
pp.25–6: Ron describe s Aboriginal people coming to Green Point wh en the mull et
were travelling – and that it was a very good meeting point for people from all across
the region – even as f ar afield as Baryulgil. ‘… it would be nearly l ike the main
Christmas week … th ey’d have p arties of me n out getting kangaroos. You’d have
another party just concentrating on fishing, you’d have a
group of women gettin g
yams etc.’
p.27: ‘When we were very little, the Aboriginal people then used to have their camp
set up where the Story House is [ Yamba Historical Society building]. … This was in
the 1950s … we’d all go (especially in the summertime during the Christmas period),
up to Flat Rock. The women would take sauce pans and frying pans, potatoes an d
onions, probably curry powder. They’d also take flour and cook dry d ampers on t he
pan up there. And while the women were doing this you would see the men on each
side of Flat Rock, on the beaches, catching sea worms and some of the other women
and men would be fishing. In those days there seemed to be fish everywhere. People
would be catching brea m, trevally and whiting.’ They’d cook and eat on Flat Rock –
and this would happen probably twice a week if the weather was good.
Ron said it was mostly ‘us young fellas and young children’ who collected the
pippies – also periwinkles and they’d go sea worming.
p.28: [Re Flat Rocks above] ‘… a t that time of year there wasn’t much employme nt
around. The cane se ason had stopped an d everyone was on unemployme nt
benefits, an d so the people would go up there and spend the day fishing … a da
y
outing I sup pose … they’d use it pr obably every summer. There were no restrictio ns
on public use of this area.’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
51
p.40: Men and boys gathering pip pies: ‘I rem ember, long before the look-out was
built [ at Dirrigan Look-Out], that so me of us yo ung boys used to go t here wormi ng
with Uncle Billo, Uncle Allan, Uncle Jacky and Uncle Raymond (my mother’s brothers
of the Yaygir tribe) and also to get pippies.’
Hinkson, Melinda. Aboriginal Sydney: a guide to important places of the past
and present, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 2001.
Heritage; Sydney coast
p.38: ‘Aboriginal women of the Sydney coastal areas were observed by the British to
have part o f the little finger of their left hand missing. This was remo
ved during
infancy by tying the hair or ligat
ure around the joint t ight enough to stop th e
circulation of blood; subsequently, after a few d ays the tip of the finger would fall off.
British obse rvers did not understa nd why this operation was performed but finally
deduced that the shorter finger aided women’s fishing techniq ues. This ritual practice
was called Malgun.’
52
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
J
Johnson, Dianne. Aunty Joan Cooper through the front door: A Darug and
Gundungurra story, SNAP Printing, Penrith, 2003.
Biographical; Coastal rivers
This story of Joan Coo per’s life is placed in context with
Darug prehistory, family
histories, colonial history and so on. In talkin g about life thr ough the Depression, th e
family moved back to the Aboriginal Reserve of Sackville on the Hawk esbury Rive r
which families had fought to retain in the late 1800s. During the late 1930s when
Joan and her family lived at Sackville where he r father had grown up, she notes th at
much of th eir food wa s procured from the la nd. She do es talk abo ut fish ing a nd
prawning, but it seems that in her family
at least, this was an exclusively ma
le
occupation by this stage.
pp.63–4: ‘When we lived at Sackville we lived al most entirely off the land. We would
eat rabbits, possums, fruit, fish, vegetables, dampers, Johnnie cakes and frie d
scones … Dad used t o fish. He w ould go out in the boat s on the Ha wkesbury and
bring home big fish. He would bone them and prepare them and then Mum used to
fry them in her big black frying pan.
We caught and ate ple nty of prawns when we lived at Sackville. My brotherin-law and my brothers used to go down to the river and do the prawning.’
Joan remembered that her mum would collect medicine plants from the bush
and some little vegetable plants. Later the famil y moved ba ck to Parramatta to be
close to her mother’s relatives. They’d ‘go do wn to the Parramatta Ri ver and have
fish and prawns caugh t fresh from the Ri ver from a fish and chips shop nearby.’
(p.67)
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
53
K
Karskens, Grace. The colony: a history of early Sydney, Allen and Unwin, 2009.
Academic; Sydney region
Karskens writes: ‘this book includes an accoun t of the importance of E ora women’s
fishing and the associat ed skills. It argues that their fishing was contin uous before
and after 1788, and probably up to the 1820s, and that
as the main fishers and
canoeists, they were st rongly associated with t he waters of the harbours, rivers and
coastlines of the Sydney region. Broader implications for gender roles and women’s
self-identification in Eora society and after 1788 are also explored.’
Keats, NC. Wollumbin: the creation and early habitation of the Tweed,
Brunswick and Richmond Rivers of NSW, N Keats, Point Clare NSW, 1990.
Heritage, Northern rivers
p.34: ‘Fish were caught with lines made fro m inner bark fibres of Kurrajong tree and
hooks mad e from shell and/or bo ne. A common metho d of cat ching fish, bot h
estuarine and inland (saltwater and freshwater) was by scoop nets and/or spearing.
These scoo p nets were in the shape of a bow, about 300 cm in length. They were
used in shallow water. Some me mbers of th e fishing party, usually wo men a nd
children, would string out across the wide end of the fishing h ole and then smack the
water with sticks or branches. This created n oise and disturbance a nd by mo ving
gradually towards the shallow end t hey would frighten the f ish towards the men, who
were waiting there with scoop nets or spears. The same method of scoop netting was
used in the estuaries in tidal holes, which occurred when the tides were on the ebb .
Spears were also used on occasions depending on the circumstances.’
p.35: ‘Canoes made fro m sheets of stringy bar k, which we re curved a nd secured at
each end, were also used for fishin g in creeks, rivers and t he estuaries. They were
frail little craft. The hunter could stand up in them and spear fish … The se small craft
were prevalent on the Richmond, Brunswick and Tweed.’
Kneale, Kay E. A Mee Mee’s memories, Regional Printers, Inverell, 1984.
Biographical; Inland rivers
These are stories and resources from Aboriginal Elder ‘Gra nny’ Ivy Gre en about the
Walgett area, written d own by Kay Kneale who was a Wa lgett school teacher at t he
time of collating the book. Mrs Gre en doesn’t relate any stories in the book about
fishing. The recorded stories are around vegetable foods and medicine plants.
54
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
Kneale’s in troductory chapter ‘The Traditional Lifestyle’ fits firmly into old
ethnographic/anthropological stereotypes which suggested that women were the
gatherers o f food, rat her than h unters. Men were the ‘fishermen’. It can b
e
speculated that this anthropological reading of the gender divide in Aboriginal socie ty
highly influenced Kneale’s understa nding of Mrs Green’s st ories rather than allowing
a more open method of listening. Although we have no way of knowing from this text,
on the basis of other e vidence about women’s fi shing practices of those who lived in
the vicinity of the big in land rivers, one can spe culate that Granny Green did indee d
fish but that such activity didn’t fit the story Kneale was expecting to hear.
Kneale’s int roductory chapter example: p.9. ‘Men were
essentially hunters
and fishermen … Women were the main food collectors, providing a large part of the
daily needs, as well a s providing drinking water and firewood …
Although the
contribution of fish an d meat to the diet by the men
was more highly valued
everywhere than the v egetable fo ods collect ed by the women, ve getable foo ds
formed the basis and staples of th e diet, beca use being fixed they were easy to
find … The women also manufactured string bags, mats and fishing and other nets.’
Kohen, James. The Darug and their neighbours: the traditional Aboriginal
owners of the Sydney region, Darug Link in association with Blacktown and
District Historical Society, Blacktown, 1993.
Academic ethnography; Coastal rivers/beaches/oceans
James Kohen, an archaeologist,
has written extensively on the
ethnographic
evidence of Aboriginal people’s fishing practices at the time of colonisation. Th
e
following re ferences re fer to ninet eenth centu ry and earlier Aborigin al women’s
fishing pra ctices in the Sydney re gion. There is evidence of a strong tradition of
coastal Abo riginal women’s fishing practices in pre and early contact times. This is
undermined and shifted in the early colonial period into the twentieth century a
s
Aboriginal men of the coastal p opulations are encouraged by the colo nial authorities
to take up commercial fishing
p.6: Aboriginal people around Sydney used canoes ‘from which the men fished with
multipronged fishing sp ears and th e women fished with hooks and line s, the hooks
being made from turba n shells an d the lines being mad e from the bark of th e
kurrajongs tree … the Sydney women called th eir fishing lines kurrajong. Nets wer e
used for catching lobsters and crabs, and fish traps were sometimes built on exposed
rock platforms.’
p.23: ‘Both men and women fished from canoe s which were simply sh eets of bark
tied at both ends with a stick across the middle to maintain the shape. Although these
canoes see m crude b y modern st andards, they were highly suitable for the st ill
waters of the harbour.’
p.29: ‘A pr egnant woman could not eat sch ooling fish, but could eat rock-co d,
flathead, leatherjacket, but not schnapper [sic], grouper [sic] and bream. If a pregnant
woman brok e these tab oos, the fish would be frightened away. The unborn spirit of
the baby would leave the woman, and frighten the fish. If it was a girl, it would hold a
yam stick and if a boy, a spear.’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
55
Kohen, James. Aborigines in the west: prehistory to present, Western Sydney
Project, Armidale NSW, 1985. (unpaginated)
Academic; Coastal rivers
In this book Kohen discusses the inland people of the western Cumberland Plains.
‘Freshwater fish were available at certain times of year,
and mullet were both
speared by men and netted by the women. Th e remains of fish traps can still be
found in the Nepean River at Castlereagh. In the Autumn months – “they resort at
certain seasons of the year to the lagoons where they subsist on eels which the y
procure by l aying hollow pieces of timber into the water into which the eels creep,
and are easily taken.”’
Kohen, JL and Ronald Lampert. ‘Hunters and fishers in the Sydney region’, in
DJ Mulvaney and J Peter White, Australians to 1788, Fairfax, Syme and Weldon
Associates, Broadway NSW, 1987, pp.343–365.
Academic; Beaches/coastal rivers
p.347: Painting by Lois-Claude Freycinet of a family with the women carrying a coil of
fishing line.
p.351: ‘Bennelong cre mated his wife’s body on a pyre of dry wood,
and a “basket
with the fishing apparatus and other small furniture of the deceased was placed b y
her side.”’
p.352: Discussion of th e different t echniques for fishing b etween men and wome n –
men with spears and women with hook and line.
pp.352–4: References to Go vernor Phillip’s comments on women’s use of turban
shells for hooks. Use of canoes, gathering of shellfish.
p.355: Surgeon GB Wo rgan noted that ‘When t hey have c aught enough [fish] for a
Meal, and f eel hungry, The Men call the Wome n on shore, and haul up Canoes for
them, They then gather up a few d ry Sticks, l ight a Fire un der a shelvi ng Rock, (if
there is one near), or a Wigwam …’
56
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
L
Langford, Ruby. Don’t take your love to town, Penguin Books, Ringwood, 1988.
Autobiography; Inland rivers and north coast rivers
This is Ruby Langford’s first book where the relevant sections are about growing up
around the north coast (born at Box Ridge, Coraki) and living in va rious parts o f
inland New South Wales in her early adulthood. Despite the poverty tha t she ofte n
found herself in, fending for her growing bunch of children as yet another man left her
and ‘disapp eared’, fishing is not as much a
part of her story as for some othe
r
Aboriginal women in rural New Sou th Wales. H owever she does mention fishing in
the following sections:
p.5: [ early school years on the Richmond River near Casino] ‘Uncle Ernie Ord had
made a thre e-pronged spear for catching mullet. “Come on” he said one afternoon.
“I’ll show you how to cat ch fish. See this piece of string?” he reached into his pocket
and laid so me string on the table. He tied a bent pin to it. “Now you try”. Then we
made dough for bait an d went to the fishing ho le. Uncle Ernie threw so me dough on
the water and we could see schools of garfish a nd mullet rising. We came home with
about six mullet, “a goo d feed”, Uncle Ernie said .’ However, rather than being a story
about Ruby’s love of fishing, the narrative had another purpose: ‘A few nights later he
almost use d his three -prong spe ar on our neighbour …’ It tran spired that t he
neighbour and her mother where up to no good.
p.38: The fo llowing story connects to Della Walker’s st ory of her joy ea ch Christmas
holidays when the Casi no mob turned up at Yamba for the holiday period. Still at
Casino in h er school d ays, Ruby describes p acking up f or the trucks and bu ses
which took ‘the whole Aboriginal p opulation of Casino away at Christ mas time to
Yamba.’
pp.38–9: ‘E very morning you could hear a wo man further up the bea ch sing ing in
lingo. [the b oys would get up and go fishing] … Early one morning I was walkin g
along the beach and again I hear d the woman singing, chanting on high notes ,
calling out. It was someone from the Maclean mob at Yamba, they said. In a while I
could see h er, quite an old woman , very black, standing on top of t he cliff … A
fisherman who’d come from the mis sion near o ur camp walked past me and I aske d
him what the woman was doing. He said she was calling t he porpoises in, she d id it
every day d uring the holidays. The porpoises circled the beach all day while t he
people were swimming, and headed out to sea when everyone was gone. He told me
there’d never been a shark attack on that beach.’ [This is interesting as she is said to
be calling in the porpoise to protect the swimmers rather than catch the fish – an d
one could assume in particular the children – but it still pr ovides evid ence of both
women and men calling the porpoise/dolphin in a role that has often been claimed
only for men].
p.95: The middle sect ion of Ruby’s book is about her tough, poor life living in remote
and rural New South Wales with a gr owing bunch of kids and a growing list of fathers
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
57
who left. Life was very hard. Her fe w references to fishing are about sustenance with
no sense of joy of those fishing memories:
Ruby has just relayed how all the kids nearly drowned when the car ploughed
into the river and a group of white people just watched. She tried to explain what had
happened to her partner George
but he was ‘sozzled’ so she got on ‘with the
business of living. I didn’t have an y bait to fish with, so I lifted up some wet logs near
the water a nd found a cricket with wings on it. I stu ck the hook throug h it and ca st
out. Everything was quiet for a while, then I pulled in a cod fish weighing ten pounds
and we fea sted well that night … We pitched our tent near Mac and I went fishing
again, this time with a ground line f or yellowbelly perch.’ – that story relates to how
her son David nearly drowned.
p.96: ‘I felt like I was living tribal but with no tribe around me, no close-knit family. The
food-gathering, the laws and songs were broken up, and my generation at this tim e
wandered around as if we were tribal but in fa ct living worse than the poorest of poor
whites, and in the case of women living hard because it seemed like the men love d
you for a while and then more kids came along a nd the men drank and gambled and
disappeared.’
Langford Ginibi, Ruby. My Bundjalung people, University of Queensland Press,
St Lucia QLD, 1994.
Cultural heritage; Northern rivers
This is the second of Ruby’s books, following o n from Don’t take your love to town,
where she returns to Bo x Ridge/Coraki where she was born and spent her very early
childhood. I was interested to see if there was much mention of fishing (on the
Richmond River or in the swamps). Grace Robert’s book spends quite a bit of time
talking abo ut fish ing a s an ad ult after returning to the a rea where she had be en
stolen. Te in McDonald, who runs a voluntary club for children at Box Ridge, say s
some of the teenage girls still head out fishing for the whole day in small groups as a
way of ‘getting away’. However, in amongst a ll the yarnin g about fa mily, friends,
politics, etc. in people’s houses, there didn’t appear to be any mention in this book of
any bush-related activities including fishing.
La Perouse: the place, the people and the sea: a collection of writing by
members of the Aboriginal community, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra,
1988.
Biographical; Beaches/coastal rivers
The stories in this book are predominantly written by a group of Aboriginal wome n
remembering their childhoods growing up on th e reserve at La Perouse on Botany
Bay. While their storie s are full of living near the beach a nd the sea, their specif ic
stories abo ut fishing a re mostly connected with stories
of men fishing – both
commercially, in particular the beach hauling in dustry, and in leisure time for a da y
out with the family. The women collected sh ells for their art work, and there are a
couple of explicit and more implicit suggestions of women fishing with their children.
pp.23–4: ‘Children playing on the reserve’ by Gloria Ardler.
58
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
p.24: ‘One o f the nicest things was g oing on a ferry ride to K urnell and back or we’d
walk about at Kurnell, then get another ferry back. That would be done when we went
to gather shells or go fishing.’
p.31: ‘Reme mbering old folk’ by Gloria Ardler. Mrs Cunningham made shellwork …
she used to make shell necklaces.
p.37: Great Granny Toliman – ‘Gre at Granny lo ved to go fishing, ta king the children
to the river’ [perhaps referring here to the south coast].
p.39: ‘My g randmother and her family’: ‘… Mum started to do the shellwork. We
travelled with our parents to Kurnell on the ferry and on foot across the sandhills to
Cronulla to gather shells. We’d stay the night and come home the next day. We’d fish
and gather pippies and get mutton fish over there. My dad a nd mum and aunty had a
little business going with their shellwork and b oomerangs. They sold t hem to David
Jones and sent work to Melbourne and even overseas.’
p.61: ‘When we were children’ by Gloria Ardler. ‘We also went to the beach and for
walks over t o Pussycat, over past th e golf links. My father came along t hen also. He
would go fishing and co ok the fish o n the coals. My mother would make a damper to
take and she’d take the billy can for tea and we would take some other children. Ou r
neighbour d id the same. We would go with her on outings to Congie, fishing and
getting mutton fish and pennywinkles. We’d cook them on the rocks and have fun
fishing.’
Men’s fishing stories: ‘Interview with Leslie Davison’
pp.59–60: on fishing which are all men’s fishing. ‘The Sea’ – pp.71–83: These are all
men’s fishing stories, mostly about commercial fishing, mullet hauling, making nets,
using spears, etc. Many of the stories are told by the wo men – but are only about the
men.
p.80: ‘Shellwork’ by Beryl Beller. ‘When we were young our mothers wo uld take us to
the beach t o colle ct sh ells. We wo uld walk alo ng the shor e line after the tide we nt
down to collect she lls that were not broken a nd shell grit . The women would sit
around in a circle and sort the shells into sizes and colours. The different shells they
used were muttonfish, starries, be achies, butt onies, courie, pearl, fan conk, small
cockle and small pippies. They would then cut o ut cardboard shapes like the Sydne y
Harbour Bri dge, hearts and babies shoes. They would glue them into t heir shapes
and cover them with th e shells we collected … The wo men also made brooch es.
They would cut the
muttonfish (abalone) shells into shapes of Australia a nd
boomerangs. These she lls were polished until th ey shone and then a pin was glued
on the back to finish the brooch.’
p.81: ‘Sharing’ by Beryl Beller. ‘I re member when I was small, going down to the
beach and helping my dad and grandfather haul for fish. We would sit on the sandhill,
which was called the lookout, and watch for fish to swim past, then r un down and
push the boat in the water. We would then watch the boat going out with the f ish net
falling off the back to circle the fish, so we could haul the nets in. When the nets were
on the beach we would put the fish into wooden boxes. The men then took them and
they were sold. We too k crabs hom e to be shar ed with the other families. Sharing i s
what I re member most. We all went to collect o ysters together and dig for pippies.
Digging for pippies was great fun. You would wait for the waves to run back into the
sea, then lo ok for air holes in the wet sand. We would dig our heels in where these
holes were until we felt the pippi with our feet. We would then cook them over the hot
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
59
coals or our mums woul d make soup, curry or rissole s. We loved going around the
rocks. My uncle would set lobster t raps, then d ive in the deep water and throw them
up on the r ocks for the women to boil, unt il th ey turned red. We al so watched th e
men get muttonfish off the rocks. They were hard to get off. You have to hav
e
something strong to get under them, to lift t hem off the rocks because th ey stick like
a suction cap. These were cooked in butter or made into rissoles but they were much
better on the barbeque.’
Lee, Emma with John Lennis. Aboriginal people at Homebush Bay: a report on
the flora and fauna, and the activities of men, women and children, Olympic
Co-ordination Authority Ecology Programs Section, Sydney, February 2000.
Academic; Western Sydney rivers
p.14: ‘Women provided the bulk of foods to feed their families. Plant foods, fish an d
shellfish were the staple foods, which women and children would collect when tides
were low, while plant fo ods could b e collected in between tides. The ra nge of plant
foods availa ble meant t hat a die tary variety was always had, no ma tter what the
season.’
p.14: ‘Fishing hooks were made b y women, as were dilly bags … Fish hooks were
made from oyster shell, but the talo ns of hawks and sea ea gles have been recorded
as being used. Bradley recorded th at women made fish ho oks by rubbing it on ro cks
until it was sharp, and t hen using a nother oyster shell t o cut it into a cir cular shape.
Stone fish hook files h ave been found from e xcavated shell middens, which were
used to rub and shape t he inside of the shell. T he fishing lines have been noted as
being made from the bark of tree s, which “after being beaten between two stones for
some time … this they spin and twist into two strands: in fact I never s aw a line wi th
more than t wo”. The ku rrajong tree was a favou rite for maki ng twine an d the seeds
were also eaten.’
p.14: ‘Women fished mainly from canoes. A fir e was lit in the base o f the canoe ,
using a cla y bowl and small eucalypt twigs, which would keep the woman, a
nd
sometimes child, warm. Bradley recorded some of the variety of fish that were caught
by women as being jew fish, snapper, mullet, mackerel, whiting, dory, rock cod and
leather jackets, although sharks and stingrays were always thrown back.’
p.16: ‘It is unfortunate that many of the women’s activities ha
ve not been
documented through the early part of the European occup ation. Many of the men’ s
tasks were, and this may be due to either the women keeping away from the
European occupiers, or that as it w as men who kept journ als of o bservations, they
only detailed men’s activities.’
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Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
M
Mathews, Janet. ‘Lorna Dixson’ in Isobel White et al. (eds) Fighters and
singers: the lives of some Australian Aboriginal women, Allen and Unwin,
Sydney, 1985.
Biographical; Rivers
Lorna Dixson, in the middle of her memories of the horror that she a nd the othe r
Tibooburra people went through during their fir st few mont hs at Brewarrina Missio n
(p.99), says ‘Lots of the Mission people caught fish in the river … ’.
Mathews, Janet. Totem and taboo: Aboriginal life and craft, Collins, Sydney,
1979.
Academic; Coasts
p.46: ‘In a number of coastal tribes the pregnant woman could not eat school fish and
was threatened by a dreadful punishment if she broke this taboo. It was believed tha t
the unborn baby would leave her b ody to fr ighten the fish and chase them all away.
The baby g irl carried a little yamstick and the boy was a rmed with a tiny fishing
spear. Although these escaped babies were invisible, the old men always knew when
they had been in act ion. The behaviour of the fish made it quite clear that the tabo o
had been broken. The babies stood at the entrance to fish traps, inlets and rivers and
turned the fish back towards the open sea. The fish were more afraid of the baby bo y
because they did not like his spear.’
p.46: ‘On the coast, where fish were the chief item of food, the pregnant women were
very limited in their choice. They co uld not eat schnapper [sic], bream or groper an d
could only eat rock-cod, flathead and leather jacket.’
p.46: ‘Scho ol fish must have been considered important because bo ys and girls
could neither catch nor eat them. T heir bones had to be burnt and neve r given to the
dogs. If this was neglected, the crowd of fish swam away forever.’
Mathews, Robert (RH) Ethnological notes on the Aboriginal tribes of New South
Wales and Victoria, FW White General Printer, Sydney, 1905.
Ethnography (historical)
pp.50–1: ‘W hen the natives observe a whale, “murirra”, near the coast , pursued b y
“killers”, ma nanna, one of the old men goes a nd lights fir es at some little distance
apart along the shore , to attract th e attention of the “killer s”. He then walks along
from one fire to another , pretending to be lame and helpless, leaning u pon a stick in
each hand. This is supposed to excite the compassion of the “killer s” and in duce
them to chase the whale towards that part of t he shore in order to give the poor o ld
man some food. He o ccasionally calls out in a loud voice, ga-ai! g
a-ai! ga-ai!
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
61
Dyundya waggarangga yerrimaran hurdyen, meaning “Heigh-ho! That fish upon t he
shore throw ye to me!”’
p.51: ‘If the whale becomes helpless from the a ttack of the “killers” and is washed up
on the shore by the wa ves, some other men, who have been hidden behind scrub o r
rocks, make their appearance and run down and attack the ani
mal with their
weapons. A messenger is also despatched to all their friend s and fellow-tribesmen in
the neighbourhood, inviting them to come and participate in the feast … The natives
cut through the blubber and eat th e animal’s flesh. After the intestine s have bee n
removed, a ny persons suffering fro m rheu matism or similar pains, go and sit withi n
the whale’s body and a noint themselves with t he fat, believing that the y get relief by
doing so.’
p.51: ‘Catch ing pens or fish-traps, ngullaungang, are mad e across na rrow, shallow
inlets on th e sea coast or along t he course of rivers. These are made by tyin g
together bundles of tea-tree, and laying them
close toget her like a wall across a
creek or narrow shallow arm of the sea. These walls or barricades are slightly above
the surface of the water . A gap or gateway is le ft in mid stream so that the fish can
pass through, and when a sufficient number are enclosed, the gateway is blocked up
by other bundles of tea-tree, which have been p repared beforehand for this purpose.
If the poo l is large, one or more smaller portions of it ar e portioned off in a similar
manner, into which the fish are driven by splashing the wat er, and are t hereby more
easily caught by their pursuers.’
p.58: ‘When a woman is enceinte she cannot eat fish which come in “schools”. If she
did so, it wo uld cause them to turn away to an other place. This ban a pplies to little
girls and un initiated boys, and lasts for some weeks after “schools” commence t o
arrive. The bones of fish during this period must not be given to dogs, but must b e
burned, otherwise “sch ools” of fish would go elsewhere. A pregnant woman is
allowed to eat rock-cod, flathead and leatherjacket, but not schnapper [sic], groper or
bream.’
p.58: ‘If a woman who i s enceinte were to eat forbidden fish at such a time, the spirit
of the unborn babe would go out of i ts mother’s body and fri ghten the fish away. If a
male infant, it would have a fishing spear – if a f emale a yamstick – and stand on the
water at the entrance to a fishing pe n, or in front of a net, and turn the fish back. Th e
fish are more afraid of a male infant, on acco unt of its ca rrying a spear, than of a
female. Although these spirit childre n are invisible to human eyes, the ol d men know
they are present by the move ments of the fish, a nd at once suspect som e woman of
having broken the food rules.’
p.143: ‘Gu-ru-ngaty is t he name of an aquatic monster among the Thurrawal and
Gundungurra tribes. He resides in deep waterholes, an
d would drown and eat
strange blacks, but would not harm his own people. He usually climbed a tree nea r
the water, fr om which h e kept a look out. I f he saw a stran ger approaching, he slid
down and dived into the water, without making a splash, or leaving any ripples on the
surface. As soon as the individual began to drink, he was caught by Gurungaty.’
pp.143–4: ‘The Wongaibon natives believe that a spirit or wicked person named
Gurugula hovers about in the clouds and in the air overhe ad. If he smells the fat of
any animal, especially fish, being b urnt in the fire at night, he gets ve ry angry. In
order not to provoke Gurugula, all cooking is done in the day time; and even then the
people are careful not t o let any fat burn during the process … The Thurrawal and
Thoorga people have a similar story.’
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Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
McKenzie, Janet. Fingal tiger: the story of my life, New Creation Publications,
Blackwood, 1992.
Autobiography; North coast rivers/beach/ocean
Janet’s story is told fr om birth and childhoo d to adulth ood. While only in th e
Aboriginal camp near th e beach at Fingal on the far north c oast for a short period as
a baby, she lived aroun d the Twee d Valley thr oughout her child hood and much o f
adult life. On the whole there is a sense that f ishing was such an ordinary event that
it didn’t need a lot of discussion. Unlike the stories of Della Walker and others there is
no mention of fishing once Janet has finished telling her stories of childhood.
p.1. Fingal – ‘a community of happy Aborig inal people who made their living from th e
sea … Everyone helped everyone el se out. Ev en the white f ishermen would make a
haul of sea mullet on th e beach an d fill their b oat, with all the Aborigines helping to
pull in the net. Then they would put the net into the sea again and leave the rest of
the fish; those who had helped could take what they needed. Now it is a great holiday
resort, with brick homes where humpies used to be.’
‘When I was born I was very small . I was told my Dad used to put me in his
big overcoat pocket, with only my little black he ad poking over the top, and go fish ing
along the beautiful beach or river.’
p.23. Ch. 7: The moigoi. ‘The house we lived in was set on a hill with a creek runnin g
all round it, which meant we could go fishing or swimming any time. If we wanted fish
for dinner we would stretch a piece of wire-netting across fr om one ban k to another
with about two inches showing above the water. Then all of us kids would get into the
deep water and fish would try to ge t away b y swimming upstream until they came t o
the wire. Some would try to ju mp over and b e caught; others would try and swi m
through and get caught just the same. The only trouble then was that we would have
to find ou t where they were caught . The easie st way for t his was to take the wh ole
net up onto the bank and pull out the fish.
One very bright moonlight night my brother and I wanted to go fishing fo r eels
or catfish. M other said “ No” … [eve ntually Mother changed her mind] – we could set
our lines. As we got ou r fishing rods and were just on the bank of the hill leading t o
the deep water, we saw something we’d never seen bef ore in our lives. It was all
white, about the size of a sheep, and was on the back of the creek where we wanted
to go. Naturally we stopped and looked, but it didn’t move.
Then Mother and the two men came and Mother said, “Go on. You want to go
fishing but there’s a ‘moigoi’ down there.” “Moigoi” is Aboriginal for “ghost”. Of course
I didn’t want to go bu t Bill said “Com on Al”. That’s old Tommy [our horse].’ The story
goes on that it was their Aunt playi ng a trick with a white sheet – a great story told
over and over in the family – and Janet never saw another ghost. Ja net became a
strong Christian in her adult life, and this story would seem to have been told to shun
the idea of her belief in Aboriginal ghost stories.
Meehan, Betty. Shell bed to shell midden, Australian Institute of Aboriginal
Studies, Canberra, 1982.
Anthropological; Northern Territory beaches
In this book the anthropologist Betty Meehan provides a fascinating study on shellfish
gathering.
p.ix: Betty Meehan begins: ‘Given that there has been so much interest o ver the past
century in p rehistoric midden deposits and th at comparative ethnograp hic parallel s
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
63
have been cited in most cases, it seems strange that the role of shellfish in the diet of
contemporary coastal hunters, or even shell gathering
in any cultural context
whatsoever, has not be en the subject of detailed anthropo logical field investigation.’
Meehan attempted to remedy the situation by carrying out her field work with the
Anbarra pe ople of Arn hem Land. She comme nts on some of the rea sons she se es
as the lack of research on shellfish.
p.7: ‘The ve ry characteristic of shellfish gathering itself may ha ve e xacerbated the
apparent la ck of intere st. For the unmotivate d observer it is an u
nspectacular,
unobtrusive and humdru m activity, which tends to go unnoticed in the wider fabric of
the hunting life. For most anthropologists in the past,
who have been social
anthropologists and male, the collection of molluscs by women would have been an
insignificant event compared with th e exploits of the active male hunter of the sam e
society … And, even i f they wanted to, male anthropologists would have foun d it
difficult to investigate such female occupations. The recent increase in the number of
professional female anthropologists has, not surprisingly coincided with an increa se
in the amount of information now available (though often not yet published) on those
aspects of h unting societies that are managed by women. Shellfish gathering is but
one of these.’
pp.125–9: Men and women and children collected she llfish, but women and girls
collected about 85%. Amongst the women and girls there were some who were much
more serious and much better at collecting t he shellfish. Boys sometimes gathered
but were more likely to head off wi th spears and try and c atch fish an d stingrays at
the waters edge – although not ve ry successfully. Girls, once they married and had
children – a s early as t heir early te ens, were meant to ge t seriou s ab out collectin g
the shellfish – although males weren’t expected to contribute much u ntil they we re
married – perhaps into t heir early 20s. Some girls didn’t wan t to have anything muc h
to do with g athering an d they weren’t forced to but they w ere grumbled and ta lked
about. Some women on ly collected shellfish alone in a small family group while most
went in larg er groups o f women and children, and an occasional male. One of t he
best male hunters was also a n e nergetic co llector of sh ellfish on o ccasion – h e
showed no embarrassment.
p.135: ‘Shell-gathering performan ces of individuals are ordered b
parameters of sex, age, family responsibilities and natural ability.’
y the
major
Mitchell, TL. Journal of an expedition into the interior of tropical Australia, in
search of a route from Sydney to the Gulf of Carpentaria, Longman, Brown,
Green and Longmans, London, 1848.
Anthropological (historical); Inland rivers
p.113: ‘On arriving at t he “Cawan” we saw two natives fishing in a po nd with hoo p
nets, and Yuranigh went to ask the m about the “Culgoa”. He returned accompanied
by a tall athletic man; th e other was this man’s gin, who had been fishing with him.
There he had left her to take care of his nets.’
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Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
Morgan, Monica, Lisa Strelein and Jessica Weir. Indigenous rights to water in
the Murray Darling Basin: in support of the Indigenous final report to the Living
Murray Initiative, Research Discussion Paper No 14, AIATSIS, Canberra, 2004.
Policy discussion; Inland rivers
p.36: ‘The changed water regime of the Murray River system has affected the fishin g
economy, as one Indig enous respondent described, “Fish tr aps are being destroyed
due to constant high levels of water, and [we are] not being able to mai ntain the fish
traps as we used to do.”’
Morris, Barry. Domesticating resistance: the Dhan-Gadi Aborigines and the
Australian State, Berg, Oxford, 1988.
Anthropological; North coast rivers
Chapter 2 discusses t he economic incorporat ion of Dhan -gadi into the European
labour economy around the Maclea y Valley in t he late nineteenth and the twentieth
century to t he late 19 30s. He talks about how the particular type of economic
incorporation of predo minantly Aboriginal me n (pastoral and bush work) into the
capitalist e conomy ‘neither substan tially penetr ated nor de stroyed the patterns o f
sociality of the Dhan-gadi’ (p.50).
pp.50–1. ‘… the local economy relied on th
e Dhan-gadi to provision themselves
independently for a substantial period of the year, especially in the spring/summer
when their labour was not required … The general diet of t he Dhan-gadi througho ut
this period r etained a la rge amount of tradition al foodstuff s.’ [He notes a variety of
‘wild meat’ foods eaten at Bellbrook and Lower Creek reserves.] ‘The other staple
source of protein was from the river: mullet (mani), perch (gubirr) and catfish (wiland)
were regularly eaten along with ee l ( barruwa) and tortoise ( dhawarra). These f ood
items, gain ed by spontaneous a ppropriation from the immediate environment
,
provided the basis of
the Dhan-gadi economy. The relations of ex
change that
predominated within the Dhan-gadi economy were associate d with the p roduction of
use values, and these largely r
emained an unmediated process of dire
ct
appropriation from the environment.’ Although Morris doesn ’t discuss gender roles in
this proce ss, women’s fishing pract ices (along side their oth er food-gath ering roles)
would have made their participatio n central to the subsist ence of these Aborigin al
families.
p.52: ‘The social re lations of dist ribution re mained dominated by kinship a
personalized relationships.’
nd
Chapter 4 discusses the increasing segregation onto the unsupervised reserves such
as Bellbroo k and Lower Creek from the late
1930s and early 1940s where ma ny
customary forms of cultural organisation and behaviour were perpetuated because of
their iso lation. The famil ies st ill had temporary seasonal e mployment and ‘lived o ff
the land’ (p.74).
p.74: ‘The perpetuation of particular cultural f orms by th e Dhan-gadi were partl y
assertions of cultural autonomy and partly acts of resistance to encapsulation within
the dominant culture. I t was on th e reserve that the Dhan-gadi maintained so me
degree of autonomy which was expressed in th e spatial ordering of their social world
and the cultural priorities and expectations of their social interactions.’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
65
Chapter 4 l ooks at the everyday t hrough issu es such as sleeping arrangements,
cooking and eating practices, to see where cultural formations could be maintained in
the face of European demand; whe re ‘dirty black fella food ’ was compared to ‘bush
tucker’, etc.
p.84: ‘As in other area s of mundane culture, t he changes that were wrought took
place as a p rocess of creative bricolage. This was evident in the introd uction of new
cooking implements and materials. For example, mullet, p erch, catfish and eel were
traditionally cooked eith er “in the as hes” or on a baral. The latter consisted of three
forked sticks placed in a triangle around the fire onto which “a lot of little sticks [were]
put in a grill-like fashion across [the top] when the fire was made”. The fish was then
placed on top of this structure and toasted. Changes introduced here were minor and
involved the materials rather than the method. People start ed using what they call
grid iron; wi re which was bent to fo rm a griller to be place d on sticks, and in late r
years it was the shelves of “fridges” [discarded refrigerators]. The involvement of men
in fencing meant that bent wire was commonly availa ble and fashioned into a
griller …’
Morris, Barry. ‘The Gumbaingirr peoples of Corindi Beach; part two:
anthropology study’, enclosed in Dallas, Mary and Morris, Barry,
Archaeological and anthropological study of an option of the Corindi Beach
Sewerage Scheme, report to NSW Public Works Department, Coffs Harbour,
Parts 1 and 2, 1994 [Yarrawarra Aboriginal Corporation library].
Cultural heritage; North coast beaches and rivers
The pollution of Corindi Lake, around which Gu mbaingirr and Yaegl pe ople had lived
since the t urn of the century, escalated in t he 1970s d ue to septic runoff fro m
encroaching white settlement. As a conseque nce the cou ncil forced t he Aboriginal
camps to move away from their precious lake. Pollution killed most of t he previously
thriving marine life which had sustained the Aboriginal po
pulation. Barry Morris’s
anthropological report was one of a number of studies done in the early 1990s on the
need for sewerage works in the area.
Following on from Cane in 1988, Morris carried out interviews with key Elders.
It is interesting to compare stories on who were the expert sea wormers. Despite the
women who caught beach worms, men are often the ones remembered to be the sea
wormers such as the following description from Red Rock by Mrs Wilson of Corindi:
p.15: ‘… We always camped at Red Rock. We always went there to camp each year.
And my grandfather used to go wo rming, catching beach worms on the other side o f
the river, Station Creek … He always went up t here and ca ught sea wo rms and he
used to sell them … o ver the Christmas period.’ [see also Marie Edwards’ and Vi
Wilson’s memories of collecting sea worms along that beach in Yarrawarra Place
Stories below].
Morris provides usefu l contextual information about Corindi and
significance of fishing:
the ongoing
p.17: ‘The relative remoteness, th e long and continuous association with the are a,
appear to be compelling factors in terms of c
ultural conti nuity of the Gu mbaingirr
people of Corindi Beach expressed through the maintenance of subsistence patterns
and stories and events associated with specific palaces and sites in the landscape.’
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Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
p.18: ‘The r emoteness also has meant that f ish and a varie ty of sea fo ods has bee n
the main source of subsistence. The lake was a significant food source for fish,
prawns and crabs and birdlife foun d … in abundance until recently … Even toda y,
fishing remains an important activity for people in the community, but from the beach
and the hea dlands rath er than the lake which is widely reg arded as a ll but barren
through run off pollution.’
p.19: Reference is made to ongoing beliefs about Aboriginal law and as Mrs Wilson
put it, ‘sacr ed places’ in the landscape that you can’t go to. Morris
says: ‘Beliefs
about powerful forces t hat could b e unleashed through the non-observance of such
practices a lso remains as a cultur al imperative, despite t he fact that none of th e
younger men and women appear to have been involved in ceremonial life in the area.
There are a number of examples, from Mrs Edwards … fur ther north, Green Hill and
Mrs Wilson, Jewfish Point, and a lake at Pillar Valley where Bruce and Bing were told
by their father they would get sick if they fished there.’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
67
N,O
Nayutah, Jolanda and Gail Finlay. Minjungbal: the Aborigines and islanders of
the Tweed Valley, North Coast Institute for Aboriginal Community Education,
Lismore, 1988.
General; North coast beaches
p.8: Women ‘knew the t ime of the year by changes in pla nts. For ex ample, when
certain plan ts were in flower, they knew the crabs would be fat or that the mullet
would be running.’
NSW Fisheries. Indigenous fishing strategy and implementation plan, NSW
Fisheries, 2002.
Government policy; Beaches, oceans and rivers
www.fisheries.nsw.gov.au
The NSW Government’s Indigenous fishing strategy acknowledges that: ‘Fishing has
been an integral part of the cultural and economic life of coastal and inland Aboriginal
communities since they have been in this land. Fishing has been an important source
of food, a basis for trade and an important part of cultural and ceremonial life.
Traditionally, Aboriginal fishers ha d responsib ility for providing not j ust for
themselves but for fami ly and community. These cultural expectations continue in
Aboriginal communities today. The strategy seeks to
p rotect and enhance th e
traditional cultural fishin g activities of Aboriginal communities, and ensure Aboriginal
involvement in the stewardship of fisheries resources.
This strategy acknowledges the con cerns and in terests of ot her stakeholders
in the fisheries of NSW, all of whom want to enjoy the resource, benefit f rom it, and
ensure its long term sustainability.’
There is no indication in the strategy document of the
understanding of
‘Aboriginal tradition and culture’ in r espect to th e great diversity of Aboriginal fishin g
practices and meaning, or the different gender roles.
NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS), Aboriginal women’s
heritage: Nambucca, NSW NPWS, Sydney, May 2003.
Oral history; North coast beaches and rivers
Oral testimony by Valerie Smith Cohen (born 1936, Stuart Island):
p.1: ‘In the early days I’d go out fishing with Dad. We had a launch. Dad was catching
mullets in th ose days and I would help him pull in the nets. Rosie and I would sit u p
the top of the Headlands. We’d sig nal like mad when we s aw the fish coming in the
waves. When they got o ur signal, they’d go out in the boat, drop their nets and catch
them.’
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Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
p.3: ‘If you wanted to catch bait properly and if t here was too much of a tide, you had
to wait until the afternoon, there were just certain times when you could catch worms
on South Beach. We could catch about two o r three thou sand worms a day. Mu m
and Dad did all the packing when we had the bait shop her e; they’d sell them by th e
dozen in these little plastic bags.’
p.6: ‘The local Aboriginal people h ere won’t fish on this island (Stuart Island) in th e
night. You wouldn’t catch them over here. Even on the South Beach, from the
Vee
Wall to Scott’s Head. They’re all spooky areas.’
Oral testimony by Ann Flanders-Edwards (born 1945, Bowraville):
p.13: ‘Whe n I was young, we lived along the riverbank. We we
re champion
swimmers. If we saw a turtle we’d just dive in an d get it, if it was lunchtime and if we
were hungry, we’d just cook it up, right there by the river.’
p.14: ‘I can remember going out to Valla a s a kid, we went out there fishin g and
getting oysters and pippies.’
Oral testimony by Amy Marshall Jarrett (born 1943, Bellingen):
p.21: ‘My bi ggest thrill was when I was twelve . I would stay with my Auntie Brya n
here and she’d take me out worming. She taught me how to catch sea worms. I wa s
frightened a t first but w hen I ca ught my first one, it was wow! After I went out
a
couple of times, I cau ght hundred. It was a mazing. We’d go over to McQuire s
Crossing and everywhere. The Goughs owned t he bait shop then. Old Gough would
come and pick her up about four o’clock in the morning to go worming.’
p.21: ‘Uncle Benji was the first Goorie around here to have a fishing licence. Old
Keithie Davis got it for him. We’d go out fishin g with him up the creek. As soon as
we’d catch a feed, he’d make a fire, shove a
stick throug h the mullet’s mouth and
shove it over the coals. He’d just put it on leaves or bark and just skin it.’
Oral testimony by Vilma Whaddy Moylan (born Stuart Island):
p.24: ‘We ate eels and catfish from this river but that was be fore; the river was good
then but no w, today it’s just so sad. I could ne arly cry whe n I think ab out it, it’s n ot
even as full as it used to be. I can re member our Auntie Moo ney would catch catfish
here and take them home to cook them up; they were lovely.’
Oral testimony by Jessie Williams (born 1924, Stuart Island):
p.30: ‘We ate eels and catfish from this river but that was before. The river isn’t good
any more and that’s so sad.’
NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS). Nimula, Tingha, Bullawangen
Aboriginal people and their land, Barbara Le Maistre with contributions from
MR Hardie, NSW NPWS, Sydney, 1996.
Cultural heritage: Inland waterways
This is a re port on the Stony Cree k area/ Nimula, an area which Aboriginal peop le
left in the 1920s when many of them settled in Tingha.
p.5: ‘The Waterways’. ‘Stony Creek domi
nates the st ories of lo cal Aboriginal
people … Stony Creek was on the through route between what is mod ern Bundarra
and Tingha … (p.6). Th e value of t he creeks for Aboriginal food supplie s was known
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
69
to the Kelly and Broun families [owners of stations]. Sto
ny Creek o nce provided
abundant fish for summer food. That importance is re
presented at a site on
Bassendean above the creek which is recor
ded in the NPWS Aboriginal Sites
Register. Axe-grinding grooves and an associated art site were known well into the
twentieth century.’
p.7: ‘Tingha’. ‘A natural pool in the watercourse and the ro cks that form it at T ingha
are known as the Tingha stone woman. The i dentifying story e xplains her physic al
appearance as a headless woman. She lost her head wh en she lent down to dri nk
and it was snapped off by a tortoise.
Terrapins were important local Ab original foo d items. Ga thering their eggs
was women’s work. The Munro fami ly of Keera kept alive a n account o f a woman’s
skill in finding them:
“On anothe r occasion, when on the Namo i River, young Ross Munro
observed a gin walking over a claypan. She stopped suddenly in obvious excitement.
‘Turtle’ she stated. The white man made a close observation of the area. He could
note no tracks, nothing untoward to indicate a break in the level of the ground. The
gin did not t hink; she kn ew. She dug with her stick, unearth ed a freshw ater turtle’s
nest, pla ced those eg gs in her moonga (bag ) and went on to her camp with the
knowledge of a tasty c ourse to relieve the monotony of h er menu.” [ref: Henry G
Lamond, From Tariaro to Ross Roy, 20.2.50 – 20.2.43 [sic]. Privately printed, n.d .,
pp.22–3]’
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Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
P
Parker, K Langloh. The Euahlayi tribe: a study of Aboriginal life in Australia,
Archibald Constable and Co. Ltd, London, 1905.
Observational; Inland rivers
Katie Langloh Parker’s careful description s of the Aboriginal people she grew to
know as an adult on her husband’s station in north west New South Wales at the turn
of the century offer a number of insights into fishing practices around the rivers of the
Darling system. She de scribes the large fishing nets and g roup metho ds of drivin g
the fish in to the nets. She discu sses the Br ewarrina fish traps and methods of
collecting crayfish and mussels by digging them out of their holes in the mud.
p.109: ‘Their mode of catching shrimps was very … primitive. Quite nude, the women
sit down in the water, let the shrimps bite them; as they nip they seize them.’
p.113: ‘Nimmaylee was a wonderf ul little fish erwoman; s he delighted in a fishing
expedition with me. Of f we used t o go with o ur lines, wo rms or frogs for bait, o r
perhaps shrimps or mus sels if we w ere after co d. If we were successful, Nimma ylee
would string the fish on a stick in a most professional manner, and carry them with an
air of pride to the cook. She attributes her fishin g successes to a charm having been
sung over her to that end as a baby.’
p.116: Parker describes how possums, ducks a nd other birds, iguana and fish were
put in little h oles made beside the fire and cove red over with ash. ‘The iguanas an d
fish are taken out [of t he ashes] a ll in one p iece. Each fish carries in its inside a
representation of its Minggah – spirit tree by drying the inside and pressing it you ca n
plainly see the imprint of the tree.
When we go bathing, the blacks t ell me that the holes in the creek (p.117)
filled with gum leaves are codfish n ests. They say, too, that when they beat the riv er
to drive the fish out towards the net waiting for them, that t hey hear th e startled cod
singing out.
Mussels and crayfish
are cooked in the as
hes. The seagulls, w hich
occasionally we used to see inland, are said to have broug ht the first mussels to the
back creeks.’
Perkins, Tony. Past and present public lands uses by Gumbaingirr
knowledgeholders, Corindi Beach, Yarrawarra Aboriginal Corporation, Corindi,
1997.
Cultural heritage; North coast beaches, estuary and rivers
Ch. 2: ‘Seafood and Freshwater Foods’ pp.9– 16. These pages detail the types of
seafood and freshwater foods which were, and still are, gathered around the area o f
Corindi Beach. The Eld ers interviewed were all men, except for Marie Edwards, and
the stories about fishin g were about men. However the
final para graph of the
sections notes:
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
71
p.16: ‘Life to Gu mbaingirr descen dants living at Corindi will always follow Elders
before them. Methods u sed and knowledge of what water f oods to eat and ways of
bait co llection and pla ces to ob tain these foods are very much as pa ssed on by
mothers an d fathers of those interviewed. The spirit of living this lifest yle is strong
and shows how important public land and wa terway use is to th e su rvival of this
traditional lifestyle being followed in the Corindi area.’
p.41: ‘Messages of dan ger, death or visitors ca n be brought by Warlee, a death bir d,
or swans, cattle, children crying … when fishing or when trees fall.’
Pettit, Lucy. ‘Growing with our sister Kath/Oodgeroo’, Australian Literary
Studies, vol. 16, issue 4, 1994.
Biographical; Beaches/ocean
Kath Walker, Oodgeroo grew up o n Stradbroke Island, so uthern Queensland, an d
according to her sister’s tales in this article was an adventurous, mischievous person
often getting herself and her sisters into trouble.
‘All of us three sisters were fond of fishing and Dad decided he would fix up
three leaky dinghies an d we could have one e ach as we had our own fishing spots,
but we had to take care of the boats, mend and paint them. Mine was white with blue
inside. Vivian's was white with red. Dad made o ars for us to row our bo ats when he
said, “Kath, what colour are you g oing to paint your boat? ”. She sat thinking for a
while then said, “Have you got an old paint tin?”. Dad said, “ There is plenty of paint”,
and she said, “I'm going to see Uncle Fred”, so off she trots and comes back with a
tin full of tar. “I'm not go ing to paint all of mine. I'll paint the bottom and Uncle Fred
said, the tar will last a long time”. So Kath had a black boat that did last a long time .
Kath said, “I am going back to se e Uncle Fred, he is throwing some nets away which
we could wind around some rope and we can drag it up on the beach and cat ch
some whiting and mullet.” So all three of us went to see Uncle Fred – we soon had all
the children wanting to help. We shared all we caught.
Whenever we wanted to fish in th e blue hole we used to collect o ctopus to
use for bait. Especially when the parrot fish were biting. We used to get up at dawn
and go looking for mud crabs when the tide was right. When we returned home it was
my place to work the e ngine; Kath' s job was t o jump aboard the ding hy which was
anchored in the channel. Dad said, “Now face the way we are going a nd when yo ur
sister slows the motor near the dinghy – ju mp!” Kath did t hat but being left-handed
she would turn around and always miss the dinghy and h ave to swi m. She cou ld
swim like a fish.’
Phillip, Arthur (Captain). The voyage of Governor Phillip to Botany Bay,
London, 1789.
Observational; Sydney area
pp.79–80: ‘It was now first observed by the Governor that the women in general had
lost two joints from th e little finge r of the left hand. As t hese appea red to be all
married women, he at first conje ctured this p rivation to be part of t he marriag e
ceremony; but going afterwards into a hut where were seve ral women and children,
he saw a girl of five or six years of age whose left hand was thus mutilated; and at
the same time an old woman, and another who appeared to have had children, o n
both of wh om all the fingers we re perfect. Several instances were afterwards
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Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
observed of women with child, and of others that were e vidently wives, who had not
lost the two joints, and of children f rom who m t hey had be en cut. Whatever be the
occasion of this mutilat ion, it is pe rformed on females only; and co nsidering th e
imperfection of their instruments, must be a very painful operation. Nothing has been
seen in the possession of these people that is at all calculated for performing such an
amputation, except a sh ell fixed to a short stick, and used generally for pointing their
spears, or for separating the oysters from the rocks. More f ingers than one are never
cut; and in every instance it is the same finger that has suffered.’
p.82: ‘One of their modes of fish ing was now observed: their hooks are made of the
inside of a shell resembling mother of pearl. Wh en a fish wh ich has ta ken the bait is
supposed to be too strong to be landed with the line, the canoe is paddled to shore,
and while one man gen tly draws th e fish along, another stands prepared to strike it
with a spear: in this attempt they seldom fail.’
Pierce, Russell. ‘The evidence of J Ainsworth on the diet and economy of the
Ballina horde’ in Isabel McBryde (ed.) Records of times past: ethnohistorical
essays on the culture and ecology of the New England tribes, Australian
Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra, 1978.
Academic; North coast rivers and beaches
pp.116–17: description by John Ainsworth (recounting his o bservations of Aboriginal
people in t he Ballina area in mid-late ninete enth centur y, written in 1922) – ‘ In
catching fish they used what they called a “to w-row” – th at is a finely meshed n et
attached to a stick of bamboo bent in the shape of a bo w about eig ht feet across
between the two ends. This gave a bag effect to the net an d with a tow -row in each
hand the blacks could surround the fish schoo ls in narrow and shallow waters and
catch them by the hundreds.’
p.117: Ainsworth – ‘the blacks i n the month of September each year flocked to th e
beaches for salmon fish ing … They came in hu ge shoals in side the surf, where the
blacks could spear them in any number; then they would disappear from the coast as
suddenly as they came.’
p.120: ‘Fro m about April to as
late as Sep tember, the sea mullet migrates in
enormous shoals northward along the beaches. It would have been easily obtained in
great quantities by both netting and spearing.’
Poiner, Gretchen and Lesley Maynard. The Aborigines of New South Wales:
coastal people, NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service, Sydney, n.d.
p.2: ‘… wo men might gather shellf ish from estuaries whilst men spear ed fish in t he
river or sea.’
Povah, Frank. You kids count your shadows: hairymen and other Aboriginal
folklore in New South Wales, F Povah, Wollah NSW, 1990.
p.18: ‘The Bunyip has many names. It occurs all over the continent in river bends and
deep waterholes. Many stories about Bunyip a re sacred and therefore secret, and
many people do not like to be pressed on the subject.’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
73
p.18: ‘Aboriginal people believe very strongly in the bunyip. Down the Murray Ri ver
they won’t go swimmin g just on su ndown. There’s one swimming plac e over there
they call the Bunyip hole.’
pp.18–19: ‘My husband was talking to one of his cousins at Swan Hill and he told him
the story about the waawii. Said he was fishin and the line kept going upstream,
against the current. He reckoned th at was the bunyip tellin him to kno ck off fishin in
that hole and go home. Reckoned it was waawii talkin to him.’
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Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
R
Read, Peter. Belonging: Australians, place and Aboriginal ownership,
Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 2000.
Academic: Inland rivers
Ch.7: Peter Read interviews historian Heather Goodall about the
relationsh ip
between ‘herself, her own country and the Abo riginal lands of the far n orth coast of
NSW’. She has worked with Eualayi and Barkindji people for nearly thirty years.
p.174: ‘Lan d becomes actor. In the 1980s her Eualayi friend Noelene Walford die d
suddenly and unexpectedly. The f uneral was moving and terrible. Afterwards th e
mourners went down to the Darling River to fish : a wa y of c oping, Heather explains,
with the tragic and pain ful event. The enormou s dusty banks sweepin g down to the
low water level, the exp osed roots of the big river gums, t he barbecue, the taste of
proper river fish, the quiet sunlit afternoon, subdued talking, silence.’ p.175: ‘“It was
quite a complicated event, but it wa s about g etting something, it was a bout drawing
something from the land, from the pl aces which people knew, it was a way of relating
to each other which used the land in a really p roductive way to soften the blow a nd
allow them to relate to each other and restore a sense of ca lmness. There’s a sense
of the land being an active participant in what you’re doing.”’
Reed, AW. An illustrated encyclopaedia of Aboriginal life, AH and AW Reed,
Sydney, 1969.
General; Rivers and beaches
This is a ver y typical example of earlier texts w hich stereotyped and generalised t he
gender roles of Aboriginal people. Of all the 27 colour
images only one shows
women. One of the women is cooking fish. All t he other images show Aboriginal men
hunting, spearing fish, dancing, fighting, and painting.
pp.66–7. It was noted that: ‘From an early age girls as well as boys who lived near
lakes, rivers or the seashore were e ncouraged to recognise the different varieties o f
fish and to study their habits to prepare the m for later life when th ey would be
required to feed themselves and their families.’ However des pite this mention of girls,
the majority of the ensuing discu ssion over the two pages on ‘fish ing’ focused on
men’s techniques includ ing spearing, male grou ps driving fish into shor e and men’ s
use of dolphins to drive the fish into their nets near the shore. Reading this one would
think that women had no part in any of these activities and merely cooked the fish for
their men at the end of the day.
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
75
Rose, Debra Bird et al. Country of the heart: an Indigenous Australian
homeland, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 2002.
Anthropological/ethnography; Northern Territory rivers
This is a book of ima ges and stories from t he Mak Mak people, predominantly
women, of f loodplains country near Daly Ri ver NT. While this is a lon g way awa y
from New South Wales, I thought I’d see whet her they gave any hints to the different
meanings that Aboriginal people, in particular women, give/gave to fishing. According
to Rose’s account, the differences lie in the connection to their Country, although she
says that d oesn’t mean that non- Aboriginal people can’t learn con nection and
respect.
p.70: ‘The food that pe ople get wh en they go hunting is consumed, and the remains
are handled with respect. When Na ncy goes fishing, she co oks the fish on the coals,
and then sh e burns the bones. The reasons? … Nancy: “Because it come from tha t
country, so we leave ’im there, burn ’im up.”’
p.71: ‘Action and connection are two sides of the same
coin. People remain in
connection with country by being t here, and are there responsibly when they are
engaged actively with country.’
p.83: ‘The joy in huntin g is set within the nexus of the cou ntry and care. People are
brought into being by c ountry, and thus are born into relationships of mutuality. As
April explained: ‘… you don’t look a fter count ry, country won’t look aft er you.’ Care
and Country are mutual.
Debra, however, thinks that the connection to Country isn’t something that
non-Aboriginal people cannot shar e in. At the recent Landscapes of
Exile: Once
perilous no w safe con ference (July 2006 Byron Bay), Debra sugge
sted that w e
should shift our language away from ‘place’ t o ‘country’ because it is so much more
encompassing and holistic (pers. comm. 28/7/06).
Roughley, TC. Fish and fisheries of Australia, Angus and Robertson, Sydney,
1951.
Academic
p.318: ‘A common and effective method also practised in the north of Australia is that
of poisoning the water by means of the stems, roots, leaves or berries of certain
plants, of which Roth records tw enty-two species. The method mo st frequently
employed is to disintegrate the plant by pounding it and to place it in the water, where
the pounding is cont inued, or to fill small nets with the ground material and stir the m
in the water of small la goons. The poison becomes active on absorption by the fish
through the gills. The fish sicken more or less rapidly when they rise to the surface i n
a stupefied state or dying condition and are easily taken by hand or spear.’
p.318: ‘The effectiveness of these p oisons is du e to the active principle s associated
with ether-soluble resin s, as in Derris and Tephrosia; sap otoxin, as in Careya and
Cupania; al kaloids, a s i n Barringtonia speciosa and Stephania hernandiae-folia; or
tannic acid, as in various acacias and eucalypts … The wholesomeness of the fish as
food appears to be unaffected by these poisons.’
p.322: ‘Various methods of damming rivers to trap fish were in vogue in various parts
of Australia. They are frequently used at the present time in the north. A splendid
example of such a fish trap was for a long time to be see n at Brewarrina, on t he
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Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
Darling River. This trap was of c
onsiderable antiquity a nd very ela borately an d
cunningly constructed. It was so contrived that the fish were caught as the flood
waters rece ded … Several tribes h ad the right of fishing in this dam, though each
tribe was strictly forbidden to take fish from any portion not allotted to it. The principal
fish caught were Murray cod, callo p, silver per ch and freshwater catfish. They were
recovered from the traps either by hand, net or spear, and during times of flood they
were dived for.’
p.326: ‘In New South Wales the women did most of the fishing with hook and line
seated usually in a canoe, in which also was a small fire kindled on sand, stone or
seaweed; on this fire the fish were cooked when hunger prompted.’
Ryan, JS. The land of Ulitarra: early records of the Aborigines of the mid-north
coast of New South Wales, University of New England, Grafton, 1964.
Academic; North coast rivers and beaches
p.139: ‘McDougall repor ted in 1901 ( Science of Man, for April 22, p. 46) on the
methods of fresh-water fishing as f ollows: “Fishing: The p ractice of catching f ish in
fresh water by poisoning it, is met with among the Coombangree tribe. A weed called
Bumbil Bumbil is co llected and tied into small bundles. Wit h a small bunch in each
hand they dived under water and rubbed them together. T his was quickly repeate d.
The poison from the weed so affected the fish by making their eyes smart so much
that they co uld hardly see, and the y would shortly after flo at to the top of the wate r,
where the aborigines would spear and catch them.”’
p.139: ‘There is also a lather produced from a t ree called “Cutiga” used for stupifying
fish. The le aves of this tree are gathered and beaten tog ether with a stick u ntil a
lather something like that made from soap has been formed; this is used in the water
very much in the same way as the Bumbil Bumbil weed, and has a somewhat similar
effect on the fish.’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
77
S
Sams, DEJ. Reconstruction of the Indigenous culture of the Tumut Valley: an
assessment of ethnographic and material evidence, NSW Department of
Education, Wagga Wagga, 1988.
Academic; Inland rivers
p.19: ‘Fish and fishing of water re sources in general was an import ant aspect of
Aboriginal economy on t he coast and on inland river systems … the Tu mut river was
rich in reso urces and favourite camp sites were at times located near good fishin g
areas.’
Scott, William. The Port Stephen’s blacks: recollections of William Scott
(prepared by Gordon Bennett), Chronicle, Dungog NSW, 1929 [available online
at http://nla.gov.au/nla.aus-f1693].
Observational; Lower north coast beaches and rivers
pp.7–8: ‘An aboriginal woman, Fa nny, who wa s a servan t of our fa mily for ma ny
years, was in her girlho od days dedicated to t he art of fishing. When quite young, a
ligature was tied about the first joint of her little finger very tightly, and being left there
for a considerable time, the top
portion mortified and, in time, fell
off. This w as
carefully secured, taken out into the bay, and, w ith great solemnity, committed to th e
deep. The b elief was that the fish would eat t his part of the girl’s fing er, and wou ld
ever, therea fter, be attracted to the rest of the hand from which it had come. Thus
Fanny would always have success at fishing
because o f the pecu liar lure in h er
fingers. She was indeed a wonderfully lucky fisher.’
p.8: ‘One woman of ea ch small tribe was usually dedicated this way, a nd to her was
entrusted the task of fashioning the f ishing lines, the virtues accruing from her innate
powers over fish being of course communicated to the lines she made.’
p.18: ‘The business of fishing was perhaps the most important of all to the natives. In
the pisca torial art they were highly proficient, using both lines and spears. Fish ing
lines were cleverly made from the inner bark of young kurrajong trees, the finished
article being of extraordi nary strength and capable of landing the heaviest of edible
fish. I verily believe that they would have held a shark.’
p.18: ‘it was the function of select ed women specially dedicated to the fishing, to
prepare the lines. The bark would b e stripped carefully from the tree and soaked in
water until the outer portions could be readily scraped off with a shell. This left a
white, flax-like fibre, ve ry tough and strong. T he women twisted this fibre to th e
required thickness and length by rolling it on the front part of the thigh with the hands.
Where the line was rolle d the skin of the operat ive was hardened by the application
of hot ashe s, and in time became callou sed, smooth, and as hard a s dried leather.
These fibre strings wer e also used to make dilly-bags in which picca ninnies wer e
carried as well as articles of food and puppies.’
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Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
p.18: ‘The fishing line was called “yirra-warn” and the hook “pirrewuy”.’
p.18: ‘The other method of securing fish was by spearing them. While the women
used the lin es, the men mostly fished with the spear, and they were e xtraordinarily
skilful.’ Scott describes the process of making a spear in detail.
pp.18–19: ‘I t was intere sting to watch the on slaught on th e sea mulle t when they
came into the harbour. By some u nerring instinct the bla cks knew to within a da y
when the first of the great shoals would appear through the heads. The women would
be on the look out for the shining, shimmering mass of fish to come round some
wooded headland, and when their shrill outcri es told of the approach of the finny
prey, the men would rush to the shore … The fish always travelled from west to east,
and close inshore, on the northern side of the harbour, usually making their
appearance off Carrington about the time of
“wokercoopa”, or high-water. At th e
given signal the men would dash into the wat er until up to their midd les and stand
motionless, spear poise d on woo merah, ready to launch the fatal dart. The leader,
scanning the water with eager eyes, would watch until the shoal came within strikin g
distance. “Muh!” (Now!) he would cry. Hissing into the water would hurtle the heavy
spears, and next instant excited natives would be tossin g great, gleaming fish to the
beach.’
p.19: ‘They were not over-particular about the thoroughness with which the delicacy
was cooked. So long as it was well warmed in the fire they would eat it with avidity.’
p.19: ‘They had a cleve r and simpl e method of cleaning any fish they caught, and
one that I have not seen practiced elsewhere. They would take a fish, thrust a finger
through the soft flesh just beneath a side fin, and through t hat small orifice withdra w
all the entrails. The fish after being cleaned appeared as though it had just come out
of the water. That this method was a good one I can bear strong testimony, for th e
natural juice s were preserved within the fish, and the flesh tasted better than when
treated any other way. Remo ving the scale s w as, of course, never thought of. The
fire got rid of those.’
p.19: ‘Oysters were to be had for the gatherin
g, and the blacks ap preciated the
succulent shell-fish mig htily. But ve ry se ldom d id they eat them raw. They would
knock them off the rocks, or carry the rocks away, and roast the oysters over a fire.’
p.19: ‘The tribe did not by any means confine their fishing to the vicinity of Carrington,
the whole waters of the harbor being their grounds. At fixed seasons t hey would set
off to the h eads to cat ch lobster s, and this in deed was a mighty task, when it is
considered that they had no equipment for the sport. The lobsters were caught by the
gins who, o n the sea fr ont, dived down among the rocks f or them. Their men folk
played a somewhat i mportant, if commenda bly cautious, part in the business
by
throwing stones into the water as the gins dived, the purpose being to scare away the
sharks. It was a risky game for the women, but I never heard of one being tackled by
the ravenous monsters which were certainly plentiful on that part of the coast.’
pp.19–20: ‘The canoe was an essential part of the f ishing operation s, and these
crude but effective craft were greatly in evidence … the cra zy vessels enabled many
a meal to be obtained by the fisherwomen whe n the great schools of f ish were not in
evidence.’
p.20: ‘It was no uncommon sight to see a dozen or so out on the waters of the bay, a
little fire, built on a heap of clay, glowing and smoking, and sable fisher s plying their
calling for sheer necessity’s sake.’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
79
p.20: ‘There was a marvellous variety of fish i n the harbour in those days, and it
might be interesting to record the native names of the different species. Fish, as a
general term, was “muckeroo.” Then came th e individual sorts as follows: Porpoise,
cooprar; sh ark, toorarcle; turtle, coorahcumarn; snapper, kurrangcu
m; jew-fish ,
turrahwurrah; mullet, peewah; bream, coop ere; stingray, billorn;
torpedo-fish,
kirrepoontoo; eel, toonang; flathead, tarrahwarng; oysters, nonnung; cray-fish, wirrah;
crab, beerah; shrimp, punnoong.’
Sinclair, Paul. The Murray: a river and its people, Melbourne University Press,
Carlton, 2001.
Academic: Inland rivers
Sinclair focuses on th e relationsh ip settler Australians h ave had wit h the Murray
River. Furth ermore, he focuses predominately on the experience of male fishermen
because ‘th e culture of fishing was popularly presented as a male
occupation ’,
although he acknowledges that women also fished and swam in the river (p.24).
Sinclair documents me mory and a ttachment to the River Murra y, which he
says are as much a pa rt of the Murray as fish, irrigation and flood [back cover].
Overall the author relates stories a bout non-Aboriginal male fishermen, more th an
women’s attachment to the Murray through fishing.
p.18: The biological diversity of the Murray River ‘is thought to have supported one of
Australia’s largest Aboriginal populations … The river sustained fish, yabbies,
mussels and waterfowl, with a margin of river red gum and black box trees that was
habitat for goannas, possums and other small mammals. Ve getable food would have
included n ardoo, grass seed and small tuber s … The pr oliferation o f cemeteries,
artefacts, middens and scar trees is a continuing reminder of the river’s fundamental
importance to generations of Aboriginal people.’
p.142: ‘Early in the twentieth century, Aboriginal fishing camps consisting of a gunyah
of boughs, or a tent and lean-to, were a common sight between Tocumwal and
Echuca.’
‘Aboriginal f amilies cont inued to catch fish for their own use and for sale to
professional fishermen’ (pp.142–3).
Instead of the lone white fisher men who were documented as living along the
Murray in their poor hut s, Aboriginal women and families l ived along the river in their
camps in the 1940s and ’50s. In the sentences following the above qu ote he relates
this story of mission life:
p.143: ‘At the Cumeroog unga mission near the Barmah lakes during the late 1920s,
Doug Nicholls, who wa s to be come a pastor and governor of Sout h Australia,
remembered walking shoeless with his mother on cold mornings throug h frost-brittle
grass. He remembered stepping in his mother’s footprints where she had broken the
ice ahead of him; she drew a fishing line after her and the fish she caught gave them
money necessary to add a few small amenities to their home.’
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Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
Smith, Keith. King Bungaree: a Sydney Aborigine meets the great South Pacific
explorers, 1790–1830, Kangaroo Press, Kenthurst NSW, 1992.
Heritage
p.16: ‘Women sat in canoes, fish ing by hand with lines m ade of twin e from twiste d
strands of bark to which they att ached shiny crescent-shaped lures ground from
shell. A small stone a cted as a sinker. The net carrying bags slu ng over the ir
shoulders were wove n from the same bark twine. Often, two or
three ch ildren
crowded into the canoe with their mother, who held the you ngest securely in her la p
between her knees and crossed ankles. The
women talked, sang and laughed
together as they fished, chewing mussels and cockles which they spat into the wate r
as a burley to attract fish.’
Sokoloff, BA. The Worimi: hunter-gatherers at Port Stephens: an ethnohistory,
Honours Thesis, University of New England, 1973.
Ethnological; Lower north coast rivers and beaches
p.125: ‘There was a preference for the marine resources of food by t hose hordes
who had th e best acce ss to these, especially the Maiangal, the Ga mipingal and the
Grewerigal. These hord es derived more from t he fishing a nd gatherin g of shell-f ish
than the hunting of terrestrial animals or the gathering of vegetable foods.’
pp.126–7: Sokoloff suggests that Aboriginal peo ple in the Port Stephens area fishe d
more in su mmer than i n winter, an d that their diet was influenced by t he seasonal
availability of different foods.
Somerville, Margaret and Tony Perkins. ‘(Re)membering in the contact zone:
telling, and listening to, a massacre story’, Altitude, vol. 6, 2005.
Academic; Coastal rivers/beaches
This article is jointly authored by University o f New Engl and academic, Margaret
Somerville, and Garb y Elder at Ya rrawarra, T ony Perkins speaking about the Re d
Rock/ Corindi Lake of t he mid-north coast of New South Wales. As part of a lo ng
collaboration between UNE historians and archaeologist s and Yarrawarra Aboriginal
Corporation many interviews were u ndertaken with Northern Gumbaingirr and Yaegl
Elders of th e Corindi ar ea. In this e xcerpt Auntie Marie Edwards is ret elling a fishing
story to Margaret Somerville.
Margaret’s text: ‘In stories of catching fish, Granny becomes one with the river
and the story invites the listener int o the same intimate rel ationship with the place.
Marie describes the precise locat ional detail of the place where the weed grows in
the river past Jew Point where they used to catch lots of crabs:
“Old Granny, Armi, all day she’d sit down at the creek, Red Rock River. She’d
go down there, she’d sit and she’d be pulling in the big bream, fish all round her. Just
down the front. Then t hey’d go to Jew Point to fish u p t here all day , they used to
catch big jewies up there, or anywhere up that river, or they might go get some crabs.
So after you go past Je w Point you see all that weed, you see all the crabs landing
where you can see ‘em, spear ‘em, bloody big crabs, used to be beautiful.”’ [also see
this quote in Yarrawarra Place Sto ries: Red Rock camping and exch ange, 2000,
p.19.]
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
81
Steele, JG. Aboriginal pathways in southeast Queensland and the Richmond
River, Queensland University Press, St Lucia QLD, 1983.
Academic; Far north coast rivers, beaches
Steele’s book remains the most comprehensive academic text on the far north coast
Aboriginal groups ran ging from southern Queensland ( Beaudesert, Gold Coast)
through the Tweed and the Richmond Valley – across th
e reaches o f Bundjalun g
territory in northern New South Wales. Althou gh he doesn’t offer ne w insights into
Aboriginal women’s fishing pract ices, it is an important text in providing an
anthropological context to the economic, cultural and spiritua l practices of this region
in the pre and early colonial period.
Stewart, David (ed.). Burnum Burnum’s Aboriginal Australia, Angus and
Robertson, North Ryde, 1988.
General: Rivers and beaches
There are very few i mages of women an ywhere in this book – almost all the
photographs, paintings and sketches are of men.
p.31. ‘Lifeways’. [a Thomas Dick photo amongst the mangroves of a man spearing
fish from a canoe with a seated woman]. ‘Women do most of the collecting and
carrying … They collect shellfish, fr uit and berries, fish [u sually with a hook and line ]
and dig roots during the day …’
‘The men hunt and fish, and have to move fast and far …’
‘Men and women somet imes work together, and perhaps in fairly big g roups,
for example when catch ing fish with nets, or arr anging hunting drives of perhaps a
big ceremony.’
Sullivan, Sharon. ‘Aboriginal diet and food gathering methods in the Richmond
and Tweed River valleys, as seen in early settler records’, in Isabel McBryde
(ed.), Records of times past: ethnohistorical essays on the culture and ecology
of the New England tribes, Australian Institute of Aboriginal Studies, Canberra,
1978.
Academic; Northern rivers and beaches
p.107: Early settler accounts sugg est that ‘the coastal Aborigines moved inland in
winter, living on rain-forest product s, and returned to the coast in the spring, when
fish in shoals became plentiful.’
p.107: ‘Fish were caught in scoop nets in narrow or shallow waters on the coast and
lower rivers. Further up, when the water was low, fixed nets could be used and th e
fish driven into them fro m deep waterholes. They were speared in shallow water, in
large numb ers with an unbarbed, hardwood spear. No barbed, pronged, or bone or
shell tipped spears were used for fishing in this area though they were quite common
elsewhere on the east coast. Nor is there a ny mention of fish poisoning, or
of
Aborigines f ishing from canoes. I n t he upper re aches of th e Richmond, fish were
caught on lines in summer.’
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Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
T
Taylor, Penny (ed.). After 200 years: photographic essays of Aboriginal and
Islander Australia today, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1988.
Photographic; Australian rivers and beaches
This collection of photo graphs contains several images of women fishing. Indeed, all
the images of fishing depict women, with the exception of one image of men catching
lobster and shark at Mapoon.
Tench, Watkin. Sydney’s first four years: being a reprint of ‘A narrative of the
expedition to Botany Bay’ and ‘A complete account of the settlement at Port
Jackson’, Library of Australian History in association with the Royal Australian
Historical Society, Sydney, 1979.
Archival; Sydney area
p.48: ‘Fishing, indeed, seems to engross nearly the whole of their time, probably from
its forming the chief part of a subsistence.’
pp.285–6: Tench observed that women generally used canoe s ‘to fish wit h hook and
line, this being the provi nce of the women.’ In the canoe ‘the mother ten ds her child;
keeps up her fire, which is laid on a small patch of earth; paddles her boat; broils fish;
and provide s in part the subsisten ce for the d ay. Their fa vourite bait for fish is a
cockle.’
p.287: ‘The women so metimes use the gig, and always carry one in ea ch canoe, to
strike larg e fish which may be hooked, and
thereby facilitate the capture. Bu t
generally speaking, this instrument is appr opriate to the men, who are never seen
fishing with the line, and would indeed con sider it a degradation of their pr eeminence.’
p.288: ‘They begin by th rowing the fish, exactly in the state in which it came fro m the
water, on th e fire. When it has become a little warmed the y take it off, rub away the
scales, and then peel off with their teeth the surface, which they find do ne, and eat.
Now and not before, the y gut it; but if the f ish be a mullet, or any other which has a
fatty substa nce about t he intestine s, they care fully guard that part, an d esteem it a
delicacy. The cooking is now completed, by the remaining part being laid on the fire
until it be sufficiently done.’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
83
Tucker, Margaret. If everyone cared, Grosvenor, London, 1977.
Biographical; Inland rivers
Margaret grew up in the Murray River region, at Moonahculla Reserve on the Edward
River near Deniliquin before she was taken aw ay to Cootamundra. Sh e refers to t he
river as ‘the old river’ (p .11); ‘the beloved Murra y River’ (p.16). She re members with
joy some swimming stories as a child, but say s that in dro ught times were very h ard
as the river dried up and there were no fish. T hey spent time at Cume roogunga near
Moira Lakes, an overflo w from the Murray River (p.25) ‘I can reme mber being poled
by them [au nty and uncle] in a cano e … Our pe ople often camped round the Moira
Lakes as th ere was a plentiful supply of fish in the seaso n, and swa n and duc k
eggs … As far as I can remember, the women could hunt game as well as the men.’
p.26: It was a better life at Cumeroogunga. Margaret’s moth er worked as a domestic
at a farm when her husband was away shearing. ‘My mother always had a following
of young friends of her own age. On this day, t hey all gave a hand with the cleanin g
and the washing, so we finished early and oh joy! We took h ome-made crayfish nets
and little pie ces of meat saved for the occasion and all of us, Mother, Aunt, two or
three eighteen year old girls, and we children, climbed through fences round the dam
that supplied drinking water for the stock. It was in the Mission paddock, about a mile
away from t he Cumeroogunga Mission … The cr ays (we called them crawfish) were
plentiful in that dam. We had learn ed to catch them the right way, and it was grea t
fun.’ This story was told because it’s about a snake bite which her youn ger sister got
on their way home from the dam, but it also shows that such expeditions were
communal, and possib ly a special event that was hard to organise b ecause of the
domestic chores that her mother had to complete first.
p.28: Marga ret laments the changes to their wa y of life. ‘Su ch a lot has happened
since th ose childhood days. Since my mother’ s childhood days. The traditions and
customs have gone since our great tribes
were brought to live together and
eventually marry. Even our beloved ri
ver the Murray, the Edwards, the
Murrumbidgee, their waters flow on, never to return.’
pp.34–5: A story about fishing in the hard drought times when the season was closed
to fishing provides a de mand for traditional fishing rights in an era wh en this would
have been scoffed at. The crux of the story is that one day Margaret’ s mother took
the children to the river to fish, and they didn’t n otice two po licemen approach them
until too late. The children hurriedly pulled in their lines – but not Margaret’s mother.
The senior officer gave a little cough, but Mum kept her eyes on her line.
… ‘Do you know you can be fined heavily for fishing? It is closed season.
Without looking at the p oliceman she replied: ‘Yes, I know, but fish ha s been
my people’s food all through the ages, and it is my food too, and I am hungry.’
The officers scratched their heads, looked at each other, and walked on.
The next story is about an old man bringing in a large goa nna, in this t ime of
hunger, and cooking it. Many of the parents we re disgusted – dirty food – and the
kids hadn’t eaten it and had to be coaxed to ea t it. Her mot her said it was very goo d
food and her people were ‘forgetting all these good foods’ (p.36).
p.41: Marg aret reme mbers her aunt and uncle making a
canoe on one of their
walkabouts, then describing the cla y which was placed in the bottom o ver which you
could boil the billy and cook the fish.
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Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
Turbet, Peter. The Aborigines of the Sydney district before 1788, Kangaroo
Press, East Roseville NSW, 2001.
Historical; Sydney area
pp.11–12: ‘The women of the area were missing most of the little fin ger of the left
hand. Infant girls had a ligature tied around the proximal joint of the finger and, aft er
several days, the deadened part b eyond it dropped off. The operation was known as
mal-gun at Port Jackson and the few women who had not undergone the amputation
were looked upon contemptuously. Various
reasons for
mal-gun have bee n
suggested but it seems likely that it was connected with women’s fishing activities.’
pp.13–15: ‘On the coast, the main occupation w as fishing. Women spent many hours
sitting in canoes with h ook and line , whereas men speared fish from the shore, from
canoes, or as they waded through the shallows.’
p.42: ‘Fishin g spears, also with sha fts made fr om grasstree spike s, w ere about 3
metres long. The shaft was punctured with many s
mall holes – a characteristic
probably co nnected wit h the spear ’s frequent immersion. Four hardwood prongs,
about 60 ce ntimetres long, were inserted into t he end and secured with bark and
resin … Th e ends of t he prongs were hardened in the f ire and coat ed with molten
resin and a small bone point was attached to each … At
Port Jackso n the fishin g
spear was known as mooting.’
p.48: ‘Married women had to carr y a lot of e quipment with them as they move d
around the country. Articles such a s kangaroo-bone chisels, shells used to sharpen
spears, balls of red ochre and white clay, lumps of grasstree resin and fishing tackle
were kept in a net bag, or juguma, which was slung around a woman’s neck or hea d
so that it hung down her back.’
p.49: ‘Fish hooks were crescent-shaped pieces of shell, not barbed, but with a notch
at one end to assist in tying on the line. To make a hook, a disc was cut from a large
turban shell (Turbo torquata) and a hole was made in its centre by abrasion. The ring
so formed was then filed away on one side to give the hook its cre scent shape …
Women were very skilful at this task and it was finished quickly.’
p.49: ‘The fibrous bark of the kurrajong, native guava ( Eupomatia laurina), cabbage–
tree palm (Livistona australis), and certain wattles, are all reported to have been used
as raw materials in the manufacture of fish ing lines. The ba rk was strip ped vertically
from the trunk and strengthened by saturating it in a solution obtained by soaking the
bark of the golden gee bung ( Persoonia laurina) in water. It was pounded between
rocks, and two strands of fibre were rolled tightly together
along the insides of the
thighs. The line was t hen soaked in the sap of the red bloodwood ( Corymbia
gummifera) to prevent fraying. The finished pro duct was a bout as f ine as raw silk.
Unworked stones tied to the line served as sinkers.’
p.49: ‘The Jervis Bay Aborigines bu ilt lobster traps with the vines of white supplejack
(Ripogonum album). Hoop nets used to catch lobsters
were also observed near
Sydney.’
p.54: ‘… th e coastal Aborigines w ere a fish ing people wit h men and women havi ng
their own distinct fishing methods.’
pp.54–5: ‘During the day, unless a strong wind was blowing, wome
n would be i n
canoes fishing with hook and line. If a woman was breast feeding, the child would be
with her in t he canoe. The fire, burning in the mi ddle of the canoe, was used to heat
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
85
the catch. Parts of the catch, along with mussels and cockles, were chewed and s pat
into the water to attract more fish.’
p.55: ‘During their hours on the water, women were often heard singing.’
p.55: ‘Both Threlkeld an d Collins believed that the mal-gun operation on women was
done to avoid the entanglement of the fishing line with the little finger as it was wound
around the hand. Threlkeld says that the Awab agals performed the a mputation on
the little fing er of the rig ht hand rath er than the left and o ne right-hande d operation
was observed at Port Jackson. Among the Gaddhang people of Port St ephens, once
the part of t he finger beyond the lig ature had fa llen off, it was thrown into the water.
Reportedly, the Gaddhang believed that after fish had eate n the finger they would
always be attracted to the hand from which it came.’
p.55: Information on me n’s spear fishing techn iques from la nd, in the shallows, an d
from canoes.
p.56: Night fishing – ‘One night fro m the deck of the Endeavour, Joseph Banks
noticed many moving lights in differ ent parts of Botany Ba y and he co ncluded that
the Aborigines were fish ing. The act ivity lasted until the ear ly hours of t he morning.
On the New South Wales coast , strips of bar k from stringybark trees were used as
torches for night fishing.’
pp.56–7: ‘Analysis of fish bones from several di fferent coastal middens has indicated
some of the species ea ten. In middens at Currarong, Durras North and Wattamolla –
all sites adjacent to the ocean – bones of snapper and bream were the most common
finds. Groper and wrasse were also well represented.’
p.57: ‘To prepare the catch for eating, the fish were thrown onto the fire until warm
and the scales were rubbed off. The skin was h eld between the teeth, p eeled away
and eaten. After being gutted, the fish was put back on the fire for final heating.’
pp.60–1: ‘On the south coast, when people saw a school of killer whales attackin
g
another whale, one of the old men started
several fires along the shore and,
pretending to be crippled, hobbled among the m using wal king sticks. The ruse was
intended to arouse the compassion of the killer s so that th ey would drive the whales
towards the beach. Sometimes the old man would shout out, “Throw that fish on the
shore”. If th e whale became stranded some of the men rushed out to kill i t with th eir
spears and a messenger was dispatched to inform the nei ghbouring groups of the
forthcoming feast.’
p.61: ‘The p eople of we stern Sydney had access to a variety of aquatic foodstuffs.
Buruberongal women caught large mullet in the Hawkesbury Ri ver, and waterholes –
such as Baker’s and Pitt Town Lagoons near Windsor – provided them with eels an d
freshwater molluscs.’
pp.61–2: ‘In autumn, the Aborigine s camped n ear the lago ons and tra pped the ee ls
by placing hollow branches in the water. The eels sought sh elter in the branches and
were easily captured. Barrallier re ports that very large eels were ca ught in pon ds
near the Na ttai River, a nd also mentions that t he Aborigin es collected molluscs in
lagoons near Menangle.’
p.62: ‘The leaves of a number of lo cal wattle species (for example, Acacia implexa
and A. longifolia) were used by the Aborigines as fish poisons when they fished in
billabongs.’
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Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
Turnbull, John. A voyage round the world in the years 1800, 1801, 1802 and
1804: in which the author visited the principal islands in the Pacific Ocean, and
the English settlements of Port Jackson and Norfolk Island, printed for Richard
Phillips by T. Gillet, London, 1805.
Observational; Sydney area
p.65: ‘Their principal subsistence is drawn from the sea and rivers … Their substitute
of bread is a species of root,
something resembling the fern, it is roasted and
pounded between two stones, and being thus mi xed with fish, and constitutes the
chief part of their food … They have oysters of an extraord inary size, three of the m
being sufficient for any ordinary man.’
p.66: ‘There are some of the natives, indeed, who have reaped some benefit from
our settlement amongst them, havi ng been in duced by the manifest superiority of
these European article s, to adopt our fishin g hooks, a nd other ta ckle for th is
purpose.’
p.66: ‘There are some rare instances of the ir settling to a ny of our employment.
Indeed, now and then, when the humour takes t hem, they will occa sionally assist i n
hauling the fishing seine or pulling the boats up and down the harbour.’
pp.84–5: ‘Whilst the female child is in its infancy , they deprive it of the two first joint s
of the little f inger of the right hand; the operation being eff ected by ob structing the
circulation by means of a tight ligatu re; the dismembered pa rt is thrown into the sea,
that the child may be hereafter fortunate in fishing.’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
87
W
Walker, Della and Tina Coutts. Me and you: the life story of Della Walker as told
to Tina Coutts, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra, 1989.
Autobiography; Beaches/north coast rivers
Della, a Ya egl Elder, grew up firstly on the Clarence River at
Ulgundahi Island
(Maclean) and then at t he coast at Yamba, NSW north coa st. She then went to live
inland at T abulam in her early married life. I n later life she returne d to live at
Maclean.
p.21: [Living at Yamba] ‘When I went to school we used to buy a loaf o f bread in the
afternoon and go down to the rocks and have a feed of oysters with the dry bread,
just the oysters from the rocks. We didn’t go without a feed.’
p.22: [Describing how the Casino Aboriginal people came down each Christmas, and
she’d long to see her ‘mate’ Pat] ‘We’d go to the beach gathering pippies and
oysters. We thought tha t it was lovely … I alwa ys think of t he times we used to go
playing and hunting. They were good times, us girls had fun.’
p.47: [ John Laurie describing things they did when Della lived at Tabulam] ‘T hey
were good old days when we used to work on dairy farms. We’d go f ishing or go out
bush walkin g, out to pick lemons and things like that. Tucker was cheap in those
days.’
p.48: [Della describing adult life in Tabulam with young kids – often on the Mission at
Turtle Point] ‘There were times when we just mixed together … Us mothers would be
neck-a-neck with our c hildren playing. I had s ome lovel y friends, my mates up in
Tabulam. We’d walk for miles and miles to go fishing,
or picking wild fruit – the
lemons and oranges an d peaches. We’d sit down on the side of the river bank an d
have a feed of the wild fruits while we fished. Dear, we e njoyed ourselves. Might
catch about two or thre e catfish. T hen we’d come home, clean them up and coo k
them for the kiddie s’ tea. The men, when they went huntin g, used to shoot enoug h
kangaroo to go around every home in the mission. We would share with one another
the food that was caught in the bush.’
Wells, Kathryn (ed.). Crossing the strait: Tasmania to the south coast,
Continental Shift Association, Braddon ACT, 2003.
Photographs; Coastal
This is the catalogue of an exhibition of the sa me name h eld at the W ollongong City
Gallery in 1 999. The art works included installations, craft s such as weaving an d
basketry, using materials from the sea such as kelp and shells, and photographs.
The intent o f the exhibit ion and catalogue was to demonst rate the on going cu ltural
connections across the strait between Tasma nia and the Victorian and southern
NSW coastlines through to La Perouse. The works were predominantly by women.
88
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
The photographs/descriptions of most relevance to this project are:
pp.19–21:
‘A billy and buckets to collect shells’ La Perouse
‘A bull kelp carrier glows a translucent red’ Wreck Bay
‘Wading in water’ – string necklaces/ traditional shell work
Modern art weaving – open mesh fish trap 1997.
White, J Peter and James O’Connell. A prehistory of Australia, New Guinea and
Sahul, Academic Press, Sydney, 1982.
Archaeological: South coast beaches and ocean
This material relates to the archaeological evidence on the south coast of wome n’s
fishing practices, especially relating to shell fish hooks. In this section of their book on
Australia, the authors emphasize how specific groups’ subsistence patterns and food
sources were to the immediate reg ion – so that groups living only a fe w kilometres
inland from a coastal group may have very different season al patterns sourcing quite
different foods.
p.133: ‘Another aspect of resource variability is the rapidity with which local situations
may chang e. Such fact ors as storms, estuary silt ing, rock platform erosion, rainf all
variation and pond dryi ng all affect plants and animals. For example, it is known that
the quantity of many species of shellfish on a coast can vary enormously from year to
year and Meehan [for the NT] has shown that this can resu lt in an almost complete
change in t he range of shellfish ga thered by one group of people from one year to
the next.’
p.147: ‘Bowdler [for t he NSW sout h coast] ar gues that t he changes in fish and
shellfish types can be primarily accounted for in terms of t echnological changes. She
relates the changes in fish types to the use of fish-hooks, and artefacts dated by her
to within the last millenn ium. Following observations made b y the first w hite settlers,
she suggests that women were the sole user s of fish-ho oks, and th at once the y
started fishing this decreased their potential to gather the most economical shellfish
(in terms of meat-to-shell ratio). The shellfish, which were more common in the Lower
Midden [Bass Point], live lower in the littoral zone and the time available for their
collection is much more restricted by tidal movements than is the case with mussels.
This ingenious proposition is clearly testable in several ways. For example, in
similar open, sea-shore sites similar changes should be observed whe n fish-hooks
are found. It should also be demon strable that, in terms of food return per hour of
labour, fish were more economical to gather than shellfish, otherwise, why was th e
change made? One of Sydney’s First Fleeters, L ieutenant Collins, said that part of all
of women’s catches was given to the men,
which raise s the whole question, not
pursued by Bowdler, of possible changes in male-female relationships.’
There is clear evidence that women had been fishers in the ocean and off the
rocks and beaches. It also suggests that some change in gender roles was perhaps
apparent at the time of first European settlement.
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
89
Wilkinson, John. NSW fishing industry: changes and challenges in the twentyfirst century, NSW Parliamentary Library Briefing Paper No 11/04, September
2004.
Government policy; Beaches and oceans
p.47: ‘Indig enous inha bitants of Australia have, for g
enerations, assumed an
uninhibited right “to gather” fish. NSW Fisheries, in a draft Indigenous fisheries
strategy, has acknowledged that “Fishing has been an integral part of the cultural and
economic life of coa stal and inla nd Aboriginal communities since th ey have been in
this land.”’
p.47: ‘“Whe n the Commonwealth took over administratio n of Jervis Bay, in 1922,
there were 25 Aboriginal people li ving in a fishing villag e at Wreck Bay … [T he
community conducted] net fishing from small boats for m ullet, blackf ish, jewfish ,
kingfish, whiting and bream. 200 to 300 cases of fish could be caught at a single shot
[of the net] … Fish were carted to the railway
at Bombade rry for trans port to the
markets … In the 1940 s and 1950 s there were seven to eight crews of Aborigin al
fishermen operating at Wreck Bay.” Between the 1960s a nd the 199 0s, however,
many Indigenous fishin g people consider t hat t hey have been pressur ed to vacat e
areas of fishing that they have previously viewed as their own.’
p.50: ‘In 20 04, the “thr ust of NSW Fisherie s” own input, into the Indigenous fishing
strategy, is to argue that Indigenous fishing p eople ought to be encouraged from
coastal fish ing into aq uaculture … While NS W Fisherie s appears to intend th at
Indigenous fishers sho uld move into aquaculture, Aboriginal people
themselves
perceive this as taking them further away from their own culture.’
Wilkinson’s report (2004) should b e read in conjunction with the NSW Fisheries
Indigenous Fishing Stra tegy (2002) and Hawkins (2003). T ogether they provide th e
central published reporting on NSW Indigenous fishing issues in relation to traditional
fishing right s, government policy and policing. Wilkinson and the oth er reports into
government legislat ion, utilise the i nclusive ter minology of ‘Aboriginal communities’
and ‘Aboriginal fishers’. However, they are referring almost exclusively to Aboriginal
men. The reports raise issues affecting coastal Aboriginal communities (especially on
the NSW south coast), and restrictions on men’s fishing practices.
Winterbotham, LP. ‘The Gaiarbau story: some native customs and beliefs of
the Jinibara tribe as well as those of some of their neighbours in south-east
Queensland,’ 1959, in Queensland Ethnohistory Transcripts, vol. 1, no 1, date
unknown, Langevad G. (ed.) [Tweed Heads Historical Society].
Ethnographic; Southern Queensland inland rivers
The context for Winterbotham’s ethnographic in formation is not known. On pp.50–2
he provides detailed information ab out river an d estuarine fishing pract ices. He only
refers to me n in practice s that wome n were certainly involve d in in other areas and
hence can be presumed to have b een active in here (line fishing, poisoning, net
fishing, turtle fishing).
90
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
Wreck Bay Community and Renwick, Cath. Geebungs and snake whistles:
Koori people and plants of Wreck Bay, Aboriginal Studies Press, Canberra,
2000.
Cultural heritage: South coast beaches
The stories are predominantly of Aboriginal men fishing, especially with regard to
commercial fishing (see pp.6–11). They include stories of th e types of fi sh and when
they ran, making nets, crewing, early age that the men s tarted fishin g with their
fathers, stories of a hard living. Some stories of women’s collecting are also included.
p.13. Elaine Sturgeon: ‘There used to be pippis on the bea ch. We’d cook them up,
roast them on the fire a nd share them with the elderly people. We only ever took the
big ones – oysters and conch – for everyone to share.’
Vida Brown: ‘People we re wary, though, of eating too much of a good thing. Baby
conchs make you have bad dreams.’
Elaine: ‘“Pennywinkles” are good for your system. They would flush you out.’
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
91
Y
Yarrawarra Place Stories, Red Rock: camping and exchange, Book four,
University of New England printery, Armidale, 2000.
Cultural heritage: North coast beaches, estuaries and rivers
This book is one in a series developed in p artnership b etween the Gumbaingirr
(Garby) Eld ers asso ciated with th e Yarrawarra Aboriginal Corporation at Corind i
Beach, NSW north coast, and academics from the Uni versity of New England. The
stories refer to the coastal community of Corindi Beach where people h ave utilized
the beach, coastal la ke and creeks as a key p art of their subsiste nce and ongoing
cultural attachment to the land.
Below I have noted all t he sections in the book which refer either to women
telling fishing stories or to women fishing. Each story has come from oral interviewing
rather than being storie s written by the women themselves, and therefore each story
has been edited and selected by someone else. While Marie Edwards talks about her
Granny being an avid fisher and her own memories of worming, like other texts about
coastal pla ces it is a dult men rather than adult wome
n who are more ofte
n
remembered as the fishers.
In a 1997 interview, Marie Edwards and Vi Wilson remember learning t
o
worm with their father and grandfather at Red Rock with the influx of non-Aboriginal
visitors over summer who were ke en to fish. This is possibly around t he 1930s and
the interview is recorded on 1/9/97.
p.25: ‘Marie : We went down to Red Rock for holidays at Christmas time when the
people came. Like, my father’d say we’ll go down cos we’ll make a bit o f money with
the worms. We used to walk right u p to Station Creek! Big bloody tins like that, an d
the milk tin we used to only get a shilling off , that was a lot of money i n them days
though. Well they used to always come up th e camp and say “ha ve you got an y
worms Clarrie?” or “anybody got any worms?” and so on.
Vi: We used to follow grandfather when he used to go wormin’. The fa mily learnt t o
catch worms.
Marie: But we used to stick bur leigh down. See, you’ave a whole fish or any fish
’eads an’ that. Then you just go like that and they’d all come up, and then we used to
stick it down then and you used to just go round getting em. Something with a bit of a
smell on it, you’d swish it around like that.
Vi. The jewfish gut was the best. The oil out of the jewfish gut use to sort of go on top
of the sand, used to bring them up.
Marie: No, you get a bit of pipi. Pipi’s the best. They sort of stick t heir head out, an d
spit water first, back you go with th e pipi and then you got ta put your hand down
there and when you feel him come up, you just pull ’im out quick, otherwise it’s be if
you ain’t ge tting ’im fir st, you won’t get ’im out, no way. Five o’clo ck in the morning
we’d be up the beach. All the people that would come down camping soon as they
seen you come off the beach, they’d race over there waitin’ for you. They used to
have fresh worms all the time.’
92
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
As noted in the reference to Scott Cane’s 1988 interviews (above)
with Marie an d
someone called ‘Val’, in being reint erviewed in 1997 there is much more emphasis
on their own stories o f worming. But consisten t with their earlier stories, and oth er
stories, it is the men folk who are most often referred to as having taken the children
with them on their fishing trips.
p.26: Doreen Richards remembers 16/12/97: ‘I can remember going fishing with Dad
and Clarrie [Skinner] when I was lit tle, I suppose four or five and when we rowed the
boat down t o the mouth we come across that gluggy sand, Clarrie would put me on
his back because I was too small to go through that “quicksand”. I woul d be going to
sleep up the beach and I know Cl arrie and Dad’d be worming and I’d be asleep on
Clarrie’s back, I’d be clutching. I loved Clarrie.’
…………………………………………………………..
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
93
Index
A
abalone
23–5, 33–5, 36, 37, 50, 59
Aborigines Protection Board
15, 48
Angledool 28
Angourie
18, 50–1
Arrawarra headland
18
Awabakal 86
B
Bagundi 1
bait
13, 16, 28, 31, 32, 33, 36,
42, 57, 69, 71, 72, 73
bait, selling
19, 31, 35, 66, 69, 92
Ballina 1,
73
Barkindji 75
Barwon River
26–7, 40, 42
Batemans Bay
7, 37
Bega 8
Bellingen 59
Bermagui 37
Biripi 15–17
boats see fishing equipment
Bourke 30–1
Brewarrina
1, 18, 26–7, 28, 30–1
40, 51, 61, 71, 76
Broughton Island
18
Brungle 35-6
Brunswick River
54
Bundjalung
6, 9-10, 20, 44, 48
50, 73, 82
bunyip 35,
73–4
C
Camden Park
camping
27
1, 19, 21, 23, 24, 27
31, 39, 43, 46, 51
57, 66, 78, 81, 92
canoes see fishing equipment
Casino
5, 57, 88
Clarence River
88
Clarence Valley
50, 51
cobra worms see worms
cockles
13, 49, 59, 81, 83, 86
Collarenebri 28–9,
42–3
commercial fishing 8, 10, 15–16, 20
21, 23, 24, 34, 36, 37
48, 49, 55, 58–9, 80, 91
communal fishing
1, 2, 4, 12, 24–5
33, 63, 82
cooking methods
1, 12, 19, 29, 31
32, 33, 35, 43, 49, 51, 56
59–60, 66, 69, 71, 83, 86
94
Cooks River
3
Coolangatta Estate
7–8
Coraki
5–6, 57, 58
Corindi
19, 39, 66–7, 71–2, 81, 92
Cox’s River
2
crabs
10, 19, 20, 26, 32, 33, 47
49, 55, 59, 67, 68, 72, 80, 81
crayfish
8, 13, 19, 22, 29, 32
40, 71, 84
Creation stories see Dreaming
cultural beliefs
6, 38, 46, 55, 61
63, 67, 72, 78, 90
Cumberland Plains
56
Cumeroogunga 80,
84
D
Darling River
1, 2, 14, 18, 26, 28
30, 32, 42, 45, 46, 65, 71, 75, 77
Deniliquin 84
Dharawal 62
Dharug 53,
55
Dhungutti 65
dolphin see porpoise
Dreaming 5,
27
drying fish
24, 33
E
eating fish
Eden 7–8
Eora 54
Euahlayi 75
35, 49, 66, 86, 91
F
Fingal Head
10, 20, 63
finger tip removal see Malgun
fish, Aboriginal names for
20, 22, 32, 34, 35, 65, 80, 84
fish, species of
Australian salmon
18, 73
blackfish 27,
90
bream
3, 6, 14, 17, 18, 30
32, 47, 48, 51, 55
61, 62, 80, 81, 86, 90
callop
48, 77
carp
14, 28, 30, 41
catfish
1, 27, 28, 30, 41, 48
63, 65–6, 69, 77, 88
cod
1, 27, 30, 41, 48, 49, 55
58, 60, 61, 62, 71, 77
dory
60
eels
2, 13–14, 22, 36, 56
63, 65–6, 69, 80, 86
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
flathead
14, 17, 31–2, 47
55, 61, 62, 80
flounder
14, 47
groper
34, 35, 55, 61, 62, 86
jewfish 19, 47, 60, 67, 87, 90, 92
kingfish
90
leatherjacket
32, 35, 55, 60
61, 62
mackerel
60
mullet 3, 10, 11, 13–14, 17, 18
24, 27, 31, 33, 35, 47
51, 56, 57, 59, 60, 63
65, 66, 68, 69, 72, 73
79, 80, 83, 85, 86, 90
Murray cod
1, 27, 48, 77
parrot fish
72
perch
1, 14, 22, 27, 65, 66
rock-cod
55, 60, 61, 62
snapper
14, 32, 55
60, 61, 62, 80, 86
shark
25, 49, 57, 60
78, 79–80, 83
silver perch
77
stingray
49, 60, 64, 80
swallow tail
47
tailor
12, 33, 47
torpedo fish
80
trout 22
whiting
14, 32–3, 47
51, 60, 72, 90
yellow-belly
28, 29
30, 40, 41, 58
fish traps see fishing methods
fishing, access to
3, 23, 27, 29, 32
33, 37, 40–1, 46, 65
66–7, 69, 81, 86
fishing equipment
boats 3, 7, 8, 15, 21, 25, 34, 37
38, 46, 47, 48, 53, 59
63, 68, 72, 83, 87, 90, 93
canoes
1, 2–3, 4, 7, 9, 12–13
54, 55, 56, 79, 81, 83–4, 85–6
dilly bags
12, 26-7, 38, 60
hooks
1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 8, 11, 12
13, 23, 28, 29, 30, 32, 38
39, 42, 43, 45, 49, 54, 55
56, 58, 60, 73, 77, 79, 82
83, 85, 89
lines
2–3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12
13, 16, 22, 23, 24, 28, 29
30, 32, 36, 38, 39, 41, 43
45, 49, 50, 54, 55, 56, 59
60, 63, 71, 73, 74, 77, 78
79, 80, 81, 82, 83, 84, 85
86,
90
nets
1, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11
12, 13, 15–17, 19, 22, 24
26, 28, 32, 33, 37, 38, 39
43, 48, 54, 55, 56, 59, 62
63, 64, 68, 71, 72, 73, 75
76, 77, 81, 82, 84, 85, 90–1
sinkers
28, 29, 30, 49, 81, 85
spears 1, 2, 3–4, 5, 7–8, 9, 10
11, 12, 13, 18, 23, 26, 28
38, 39, 48, 50, 51, 54, 55
56, 57, 59, 61, 62, 64, 72
73, 75, 76, 77, 78, 79, 81
82, 83, 85, 86
fishing, love of
16, 57
fishing knowledge
6, 8, 16, 22, 34
44, 47, 70, 72
fishing methods
calling porpoises to herd fish
5, 12, 14, 17, 50
driving fish 12, 13, 26, 54, 63, 71
fish traps
1, 2, 3, 4, 7, 10
11–12, 18, 26, 31
32, 33, 34, 39, 50, 55
56, 60, 61, 62, 65, 71
76, 77, 85, 86, 89
poisons 4, 11, 19, 33, 76, 77, 86
using hands/feet 1, 22, 28, 32
34, 43, 50, 59
Forster 15–17
G
Georges River
47
Greenwell Point
8
Gumbaingirr
39, 48, 50, 56, 66–7
68–9, 71–2, 81, 92
Gundagai 35
Gundungurra 62
Gwydir River
42
H
harvesting / collecting
1, 2–3, 4
10–11, 13, 16, 18, 20, 21, 23
24, 32, 34, 35, 36, 38, 46
Hastings River
9
Hawkesbury River
2, 53, 80
Hill 60
34–5
hooks see fishing equipment
Hunter Region
4, 12–13
I
Illawarra 33–5
Ingelba 21–2
interstate
Arnhem Land (NT)
Daly River (NT)
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
11, 64
11, 76
95
Cape York (Qld)
Tasmania
Darwin (NT)
Moreton Bay (Qld)
Dunk Island (Qld)
Coorong (SA)
south-east Queensland
J
Jamberoo 8
Jerrinja 20
Jervis Bay
11
11
11
11, 72
12
40
90
20, 85, 90
L
La Perouse
8, 10–11, 37
38, 58–60, 88–9
Lake Illawarra
7
Lightning Ridge
29
lobster 16, 19, 34-5, 36, 55, 60, 79, 85
lookouts
34, 59, 68
M
MacDonald River
21–2
Macintyre River
42
Macquarie River
40–1
Macleay River
9, 18–19, 65
Malgun
52, 72–3, 78, 85, 86, 87
Manning River
16
memories of water places 10, 17, 21
22, 30, 40, 43, 50, 51
54, 58, 61, 66, 92
Menindee 14,
32
middens
13, 35, 63–4, 80, 86, 89
Middle Harbour
3
Minjangbal 68
Moruya 24,
37
Murray cod see fish
Murray River14, 40, 48, 65, 74, 80, 84
Murrumbidgee 32,
84
mutton fish see abalone
N
Nambucca
18, 39, 68–9
Namoi River
42, 70
Nepean River
27, 56
nets see fishing equipment
Nimula 69–70
nippers 36
north coast of NSW 1, 4, 5, 8, 9–10
12–13, 15, 18, 19, 20, 27, 31
39, 44, 47, 48, 50, 51, 57, 63
65, 66, 68, 71, 73, 75, 77, 78
81, 82, 88, 92
north-western NSW
45, 71
Nowra 8,
36
96
NSW Fisheries
7, 49, 68, 90
O
octopus 72
oysters
10, 13, 19, 20, 24, 31, 33
34–5, 36, 37, 47, 49, 59, 60
69, 73, 79, 80, 87, 88, 91
P
Paroo River
46
Parramatta River
53
periwinkles 33–5,
51
pipis
10, 13, 20, 22, 31–2, 33–5
36, 47, 51–2, 59, 69, 88, 91, 92
Point Plomer
18, 19
policy, government 21, 49, 65, 68, 90
pollution
19, 23, 27, 46, 66, 67
porpoise
5, 12, 14, 17, 57, 80
Port Jackson
3–4, 83, 85–6, 87
Port Kembla
34, 37
Port Stephens
12–13, 18, 31
78, 81, 86
prawns
8, 17, 19, 32–3, 36
53, 67, 71
Purfleet 15–16,
27
R
Red Rock
Richmond River
Roseby Park
19, 66, 81, 92
1, 5–6, 15, 44, 50
54, 57, 58, 82
21, 36
S
Sackville 53
Saltwater 15–16,
27
seasonal availability of food
8, 89
seasonal markers
6, 68
seasonal work
10, 24, 36, 65
sharing, food
23, 29, 31–3, 34–5
59, 72, 88, 91
shellfish
1, 2–3, 4, 7, 10, 11–12
13, 16, 19, 23–4, 33–5, 49
56, 59, 60, 63–4, 73, 81, 82, 89
shell fish hooks
2, 4, 8, 11, 12, 23
60, 85, 89
shellwork
11, 38, 59, 73
shrimp see prawns
smoking fish
31, 33, 79
social activity
7, 51, 65
social aspect of fishing
7, 51
south coast of NSW
2, 7–8, 10, 11
15, 20–1, 23–4, 36
37, 38, 49–50, 59
86, 88–9, 90, 91
spears see fishing equipment
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
spirits, talking to
6, 11
Stuart Island
68, 69
subsistence
83, 87, 89, 92
Stony Creek
69–70
supplement income/rations
10, 16
19, 20, 24, 33, 36, 46, 65
Sydney region
2–3, 7-8, 10, 11, 12
24, 27, 33–4, 37, 47, 52
54, 55, 56, 58–60, 61, 64
72, 81, 83, 85–6, 87, 89
T
taboos see cultural beliefs
Tabulam 88
Taree 15
teaching children 16, 23, 30, 32, 34
36, 38, 39, 45–6, 57, 72, 75
Tingha 70
Toomelah 42–4
tortoise 65,
70
tours, fishing
16
trade
2, 3, 8, 24, 68
Tumblegum 10
Tumut 35–6
Tumut River
35, 78
Tuross River
24
turtles
6, 40, 46, 69, 70, 80, 90
turtle eggs
22, 70
Tweed
9–10, 20, 48, 54, 63, 68, 82
Twofold Bay
24
U
Ukerebagh Island
20, 48
Ulladulla 8,
Ulgundahi Island
37
5, 88
W
Wagga Wagga
28, 78
Walcha 22
Walgett
27, 28–9, 38, 54
walkun see abalone
Wallaga Lake
24, 36
Wallis Lake
16
Warrego River
31
water dog
29
bunyip 35–6,
73–4
gu-ru-ngaty 62
mondagatta 30
well being
39
Wellington
15, 40, 48
whales
14, 61–2, 86
Wilcannia 14,
32
Wiradjuri 1,
40
Wollongong 33,
88
Wongaibon
62
Worimi
15–17, 31–3, 78, 81
worms 16, 32, 47, 49, 52, 66, 69, 92
Wreck Bay
7, 11, 15,
21, 38, 89, 90, 91
Y
yabbies
1, 28, 29, 31, 40, 80
Yaegl
50, 51–2, 66, 68
Yamba 5, 17, 18, 47, 50, 51, 57, 58
Yantabulla 20
Yuin
23–5, 37, 38
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing in NSW: Annotated Bibliography
97
Aboriginal Women’s Fishing
in New South Wales
An Annotated Bibliography of Documentary Sources
www.environment.nsw.gov.au