Acknowledging Country as an Ongoing Process

I recognise the ongoing soverignity of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples throughout the lands and waters known as Australia. I pay respect to past, present, and emerging Elders and honour their connections to land, sea, and community. I extend that respect to all First Nations peoples, and recognise their leadership in cultivating knowledge and practices for caring for Country and collectively building better futures.

I was born on Birrbay (Birpai) Country and currently live in Naarm on the unceded lands of the Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung peoples of the Kulin Nation. I have called these lands home since 2008, and often visit and travel through the nearby lands of the Dja Dja Warrung, Boon Wurrung, Gunaikurnai, Taungurung and Wadawurrung peoples.

I acknowledge that I am a beneficiary of the invasion and occupation of these lands by my ancestors and other settlers. I also recognise that I continue to contribute to the damage caused to these lands and peoples by the ongoing settler-colonial occupation.

Before moving to Naarm, I also lived for varying lengths of time on the unceeded lands of the people from the Awabakal, the Dharug, the Bundjalung, and the Yaggera language groups respectively. I am still learning about my ancestory (see below) but, as I do, I am learning more about the people on whose lands I and my ancestors have lived. As I learn, I am repeatedly humbled by the historical and ongoing resistance to colonial attempts to disrupt and obscure Indigenous knowledge systems, technologies, and relational and cultural practices.

As a token this acknowledgement that I live on unceeded Aboriginal lands, I commit a minimum of 1% of my income to restoration funds. More generally, I pledge to act in solidarity with First Nations peoples and support their leadership of better-future projects (by contributing to collective actions, participating in coalitions, acting in solidarity, offering financial support, contributing to land-back efforts, and/or getting out of the way; whichever I understand to be the most appropriate action for the situation).

E. T. Smith
This statement is a living document. While initially written to accompany a specific publication, in early August 2020, multiple versions emerged as I've learned more about the historical and ongoing practices of land custodianship. This process is ongoing, and, with each updated version of this statement, I aim to intentionally re-commit to my pledge of following the lead of First Nations peoples in my efforts to contribute to better futures. Latest revisions: July 2024.

Learning about the lands occupied by my ancestors:

While I don't yet have much details on either side of my family tree, I'm told there was a lot of movement so I expect I've ancestors that contributed to the systemic displacement and disenfranchisement of Aboriginal peoples in a wide range of regions. In trying to summarise what I do know, I am focusing on on learning about the peoples on whose lands my ancestors have lived (starting with those who immigrated here, and tracing from there).

My care-taker parent (1950 - ) was born on lands of the Southern Yamatji people and, after travelling abroad, moved to the lands of the Birpai to raise us kids. Since we kids left home, he has been largely transient, living on a sailboat and with the multiple people he has provided end-of-life care for. My ancestory through this side of my family is fragmented and I'm yet to pull it together.

My birth parent, M.B (1954-2011) was born in St Marys, on lands of the Dharug (Darug) people of the Eora Nation, where I sometimes visited. The lands of the Dharug peoples were some of the first occupied by the initial invading. This invasion began with the January 1788 appropriation of Warrane ('Sydney Cove') and surrounding Gadigal lands for a convicts’ colony. By November 1788 the invasion had already extended to lands of inland Dharug peoples (including the Wallumedegal), with the invaders building a military post in what was to become known as Parrammata. This invasion was facilitated in 1789 by the introduction of smallpox decimating the Dharug population; those who managed to survive learnt to kept their distance from the growing colony and were steadily displaced by settlers. While intial reactions to this invasion varied, hostilities emerged when the British enforced exclusive occupation of land and repeatedly destroyed food and water resources. This prompted resistance and reprasails, leading to the drawn out series of conflicts now known as the Frontier Wars. By the 1890s an explict policy of assimilation was introduced, establishing the practice of removing Indigenous children from their families which continues today.

My ancestors had moved on to lands stolen from the Dharug peoples by the 1890s, following decades spent on nearby lands stolen from the Gadigal people. For instance, so far I know an 'Elizabeth' arrived in 1828 as a convict, and one of her children (Ellen Cadman, 1845-1894) was recorded as being born somewhere in 'Sydney'. Ellen later married John Hill (1807-1870) who was born in England yet died at 'Potts Point' (Derawun). One of Ellen and John's children, Fanney Hill (1860-1935), married Octavias Bryant (1841-1929) who had arrived from England in 1858 on the Hearld of the Morning, along with other 'government assisted immigrents'. They settled together in Ryde on land stolen from the Wallumedegal/Wallumattagal people (who are belived to have spoken a dialect of the Darug/Dharug language). The loss of knowledge and language since this time is unforgivable, and we are fortunate that descendants of the Dharug peoples are reviving Dharug as a spoken language. These efforts are part of a broader movement of political and social activity and empowerment in the long struggle for recognition and self-determination.

Additional branches off the 'Bryant' family tree I've yet to learn about include the 'Briggs' line via a grandmother (1934 - 2013), the 'Gorden' line via a great-grandmother (nd-1990), and the Barass line via a great-great grandmother (1866-1946).

Sources and Resources

Learning our histories

• The Koori History Website
• Frontier War Stories Podcast
• The Australian Wars Documentary
• Barani - a website that provides histories of people, places and events in the local areas associated with the histories of Sydney’s Aboriginal communities; a map of places that have been recorded as having specific historical associations for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people in Sydney.
• A collection of Eora Stories by the State Library of NSW
• A collection of Birpai Yarns presented as a joint storytelling project between schools and community, which shares the history of our Elders whilst practicing a variety of literacy skills (first published 2011).

Participating in our present

• IndogenousX
• First Nations Resources on the Commons Social Change Library
• Change the Record - Resources
• Take it Blak Podcast
• The Black Block Podcast
• That's Money' by Briggs on the Always Was EP.
• Land Back
• Storylines

Indigenous-led movements and restoriation funds for systemic change (including landback processes)

• Pay the Rent, a campaign to encourage ongoing commitments to financially support local community-controlled Aboriginal organisations (approximately half distributed within in Victoria, with the other half distributed to other states).
• Seedmob, a youth led climate network building a movement of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander young people fighting for climate justice.
• First Nations Futures, a First Nations-led funding platform that calls in the responsibility of all people living in Australia to redistribute wealth to support and resource First Nations community-driven initiatives creating intergenerational change.
• Black Peoples Union - a union fighting for Sovereign Indigenous rights to Lands and Waters and full self-determination over the political, social and economic affairs through which to forge better futures (led by Indigenous people in Australia, with participation and solidarity support options for allies from non-Indigenous backgrounds).
• Aboriginal cultural heritage land management agreements - a process for developing a framework for protecting and managing Aboriginal cultural heritage during ongoing, routine land management activities by individuals and orginsations who own land within the colonial system.
• Indigenous Knowledge Systems Lab, in particular, their work in 'Re-imagining Landlessness' - "Ambitious, long-term project to design and prototype future villages responsive to itinerant populations and climate change, re-embedding humans in their custodial niche for biodiversity sinks linked by trade and embassy for collective governance and resilient supply chains. Reimagining built environments, offsets, unhoused/refugees, real estate, natural disasters."

Land, Language, and Culture Corperations and Cooperatives

• Birpai Land Council
• Wurundjeri Woi Wurrung Cultural Heritage Aboriginal Corporation
• Darug Custodian Aboriginal Cooperation
• Coranderrk Wandoon Estate Aboriginal Corporation
• The Muurrbay Aboriginal Language and Culture Co-operative

Additional resources for investigating whose lands I've lived on

• AIATSIS Map of Indigenous Australia and Country finder resources
• Melbourne's birth destroyed Bunurong and Wurundjeri boundaries. 185 years on, they've been redrawn ABC article by Joseph Dunstan, 26 Jun 2021
• A map of the land included in the Wurundjeri Tribe Land and Compensation Cultural Heritage Council, which is one of the Registered Aboriginal Parties (RAPs) determined by the Victorian Aboriginal Heritage Council.
• Media report of research into the Aboriginal Names for land currently referred to by Melbourne Suburb names - my understanding is that these are being reviewed by Elders in the relevant communities and that permission to use these place names needs to be sought on a case-by-case basis (and I have not received permission for this case).
• Naming ~Merri-bek
• Southan Yamatji / City of Geraldton Reconciliation Action Plan for October 2017 - October 2020
• Bunjalong language
• Awabakal language

Images

• Location of Biripai Country (image souce: Birpai Yarns, 2011)
• Map by Aboriginal Cultural Heritage Register and Information System (ACHRIS), Aboriginal Victoria
• Do you know what Aboriginal land you are on today? 2017 NITV,SBS.
• A map generated by Decolonial Atlas:

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