People of this place

Angela Martin (Museum Educator), Colin Gale (Darug Elder), Glenda Chalker (Tharawal Elder), Rosalie Graham (Dharawal Elder), Bill Hardie (Gundungurra Elder - not pictured)

Gnahn Chiara, Gnahn? – What is your name? Warre-me-warre? – Where have you been?

- David Collins 1796

Recently, four Aboriginal Elders walked over the foundations of first Government House and entered the Museum of Sydney – a unique and historic gathering of Darug, Dharawal/Tharawal and Gundugurra peoples.

Descended from the original Aboriginal peoples of the Sydney region, these elders carry their culture with dignity and grace, voicing a powerful passion for their history, continuity and place in modern Sydney. They were at the Museum of Sydney on the site of first Government House as part of a new Sydney Elders Advisory Body providing support, protocol and cultural advice for Aboriginal programmes at the museum, including the development of the new Cadigal Place gallery. This gallery commemorates the Cadigal people, the clan on whose land the Museum now stands, and is the first museum space dedicated exclusively to the quiet voices of Sydney’s ‘forgotten’ people. 1

'I feel such a sense of pride to be representing our people. How fantastic to see our culture being brought alive again, in our own space Cadigal Place, by asking permission of the people who belong to this land.' Rosalie Graham, Dharawal Elder 1999

At the time of European settlement, Aboriginal people had been living in the Sydney region for at least 40,000 years. They had achieved a sophisticated level of cultural diversity, and the bountiful sea and woodland resources of the region – from coastal Sydney to the Blue Mountains – supported a dense population.

'The natives are far more numerous than they were supposed to be.' Arthur Phillip 1788

Gordon Syron, Invasion 1 - an Aboriginal perspective, 1999, oil on canvas, Boomali Aboriginal Artsists Cooperative. Museum of Sydney

They spoke distinct languages. The Darug language group stretches as far west as the Blue Mountains, while rock engravings on the north shoreline of Sydney Harbour are evidence of the cultural practices of the Kuringgai peoples. Other language groups include Dharawal/Tharawal (south – coastal and inland) and Gundundurra (southwest). Considerable academic debate surrounds the language group of the people living from Port Jackson to Botany Bay and inland to Parramatta. At colonisation, this group inadvertently became known as the Eora, for when asked where they came from, they replied ‘Eora’, meaning ‘here’, or ‘people of this place’. Studies of the historical records have variously indicated that this group consisted of a separate language, or was a dialect of the Darug language group.

'The creation of the Cadigal Place at the Museum of Sydney allows me to introduce information…and try to dispel the idea that there was a separate language group called the Eora (the Saltwater clans of the Darug).' Colin Gale, Darug Elder 1999

Beginning c.20,000 years ago, rising sea levels gradually flooded the Sydney Harbour and Broken Bay river valleys creating a rich marine environment full of fish and shellfish such as oysters, mussel and cockles, to support a very dense population. The vegetation along the coast included a proliferation of wild flowers including Grevillia, Hakeas eriostemon and the Xanthorrhoea (Grass Tree) whose stem was used for making spear shafts. The coastal vegetation was low and stunted, dominated by Eucalyptus with a diverse shrub understorey while in inland areas there were taller trees such as the Sydney gum, Eucalyptus haemastoma, and bloodwood, E. gummifera. Fire was used to regenerate many important plant species, flush out game and make movement through the dense bush easier. Animal resources, including bandicoot, wombat, possum and kangaroo were also important to the Sydney peoples.

The arrival of the First Fleet and establishment of a British colonial settlement in Sydney Cove destroyed a way of life that had endured and flourished for thousands of years, cultures of sophisticated technologies, complex organisations and rich spiritual practices and beliefs.

‘Warra, warra, warra’ words which, by the gestures that accompanied them, could not be interpreted into invitations to land, or expressions of welcome.' David Collins 1788

The arrival of the Europeans would prove disastrous for the Aboriginal peoples of Sydney. The journals of the First Fleet officers, particularly Governor Arthur Phillip, Watkin Tench, William Bradley, David Collins and John Hunter, offer only fleeting glimpses of what life must have been like for the Aboriginal peoples of Sydney. It was to be a brief glimpse indeed, as a smallpox epidemic swept through the Aboriginal peoples of the Sydney region in 1789. The devastation was astronomical: the Cadigal clan on whose land the British settlement was established were left with only three people by 1791. The loss of an estimated 50 to 90 per cent of the population of the Sydney region caused massive social disruption, grief and bewilderment.

'He lifted up his hands and eyes in silent agony for some time at length exclaiming ‘All dead! All dead!’ David Collins

The remnant members of decimated clans combined into new groups, given new names by the settlers such as the ‘Kissing Point Tribe’.

Despite the disruption, devastation and decimation visited upon the Aboriginal peoples of Sydney by European settlement, massacre and disease, the cultures and peoples have survived. The Museum of Sydney is built on the site of first Government House, the seat of power for the alien nation that brought such sorrow to the people of this country, which in turn was built on Cadigal land. It is fitting therefore to bring into this layered history the voices of the surviving Darug, Darawal/Tharawal and Gundungurra peoples.

'The creation of the Cadigal Place means that the traditional peoples of Sydney are being recognised…Their involvement is important because it gives the traditional owners the chance of involvement in matters that concern the ancestors who lived on this land at the time of European invasion.' Glenda Chalker, Tharawal Elder 1999

1. Until recently, the descendants of Sydney’s language groups were not recognised as the rightful custodians of this land and felt they had become a ‘forgotten’ people.
Beth Hise, Curator, Historic Houses Trust and Angela Martin, Museum Educator, Aboriginal Art, Art Gallery of NSW and Darug representative.

Beth Hise
HHT Curator

and 

Angela Martin
Museum Educator, Aboriginal Art, Art Gallery of NSW and Darug representative

Cadigal Place will be opened at a special Sydney descendants preview and then launched as part of BAMARADBANGA – to make open a special programme of exhibitions and events in celebration of Aboriginal Culture at the Museum of Sydney, 18 September – 5 December 1999. This will include Unhinged: the Yuendumu Doors an exhibition of 12 doors from the Yuendumu School in Central Australia painted by Warlpiri artists; Bolwara – to open the eyes an exhibition of contemporary Sydney urban Aboriginal arts from the Boomalli Aboriginal Artists Cooperative; Burraburragal – People of the Harbour a collaborative mural with the Eora Centre for Aboriginal Studies, as well as an exciting programme of public events and education programmes.

First published in Insites, Spring 1999