State of New South Wales | yorta-yorta-nac

Putting Southern Rural New South Wales people, country and matters of importance on the map. Cross-Border Joint Management of Barmah-Millewa National Parks by Yorta Yorta peoples and public slowly becoming reality.

The Yorta Yorta people have lived in harmony with the river red gum forest environment for thousands of years, using natural resources such as the plants and animals for food, medicines, shelter, weapons and tools, without over-exploiting those resources.
The whole environment including the land, rivers and forests are part of the Yorta Yorta people’s custodial and cultural beliefs, and they therefore have an obligation to 'look after Country'.

STATE OF NEW SOUTH WALES

Visitors will see evidence of Aboriginal occupation scattered throughout the forests in the form of burials, oven (cooking) mounds, middens, scarred trees, (from which the bark was removed for making canoes, coolamons, shields etc) and the many plants, such as cumbungi, nardoo, old man weed, and spike reed (to name a few), that were used for food, medicines, utensils and tool making.

Since Europeans arrived in Australia, the traditional daily lifestyle of Aboriginal people has had to adapt and change. In many cases, the use and creation of new occupational and activity sites no longer takes place. Therefore the existing sites are a non-renewable resource for the traditional users and an educational tool for the wider community.

These sites, heritage places and objects provide evidence of thousands of years of occupation of the forests by Yorta Yorta people, and the continued existence of these sites, places and objects gives us a link to their past history, traditions and values.
Aboriginal sites, heritage places and objects may be valuable in understanding such things as:
- environmental changes over periods of time
- extinct native fauna and flora
- climatic changes
- history of exploitation of native fauna and flora
- changes in the natural resources, such as water flows and availability, which may also suggest changes in native grasses and other flora.

This information, assessed through archaeological/scientific studies and traditional ecological knowledge, can be important on a local, regional, national and global level to help understand past changes and potential future changes in our environment.