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ReConnect Bathurst:

Dinawan Dyirribang / Uncle Bill Allen

I was probably about seven or eight and I remember listening to my mum talking about Windradyne and Wiradjuri country. She would talk about how far to the east we went and how big it was, but I had no idea but that age.

Jock Alexander, Wahluu 2017, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 50 x 60 cm, Collection Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, purchased 2017. Image courtesy BRAG.

With special thanks to Jock Alexander for his contribution of beautiful river watercolours to illustrate this story.

When I got older, I realised how big Wiradjuri country is. I’ve learned through talking to other elders and people from other towns within Wiradjuri country. I learned a lot about it when I was young. I was the only one that took notice of it. For some reason, I listened to mum.

My dad and I used to do a lot of things together with our culture. We’d do smoking ceremonies for different events.

We were also asked a number of times to smoke people’s houses out because of bad energy or entities that were in the house.

Some of these things are interesting.

Is it a calling to be connected to cultural things?

I think so. I seem to have that push to do certain things around this area in particular.

As a Wiradjuri fella, through my mum’s line and being a descendant coming from Windradyne’s line, it’s like the ancestors pushing me all the time.

There are a lot of things that still have to be done. 

Even when I’m dreaming, I often see things or have ideas come to me.

I suppose with Aboriginal people we naturally feel these things, they naturally happen to us. It seems that some people can handle it and some can’t. It’s one of the reasons that some people turn to drugs.

The ancestors are talking to them all the time and they don’t know how to deal with it. That’s part of the breakdown of our culture and family units. 

In the past, you would learn a lot of this stuff when you’re younger. As you’re growing up, you’re taught how to deal with it. But because we don’t have that structure anymore, the teaching is being lost. 

People aren’t getting that knowledge and teaching of how to deal with these sorts of things.

Back when some of the older Elders were alive, when I was younger, they always said, you know, we’ve been here since time immemorial. 

There was never this ‘20,000’, ‘40,000’ or ‘60,000’ years, it was just time immemorial.

Our stories always talk about how we come from the land, how we were made from the land.

That’s what the Creator did. 

He made us from this land.

We’ve had some slow wins around here.

We’ve got Wahluu up there — the traditional name for Mt Panorama and the dual naming of the Wambuul Macquarie River.

These things have taken a long time.

These things were all fought back in the 1980s when I remember my uncle used to do all this.

So we’re only just carrying on the battles of the old, the battles of the Elders from the past.

A lot of that stuff has just come to fruition now. 

It’s good that we’ve been able to achieve some of the things that the Elders were trying to do back in the day.

They couldn’t do it, because of the restrictions that were put on Aboriginal people.

Even then after the referendum in 1967, when we were counted as Australians, we still didn’t have a big voice in the protection of a lot of places. 

But the laws have changed, so that’s what we use to move forward now.

Jock Alexander, Wahluu 2017, synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 50 x 60 cm, Collection Bathurst Regional Art Gallery, purchased 2017. Image courtesy BRAG.

With special thanks to Jock Alexander for his contribution of beautiful river watercolours to illustrate this story.

I’ve got my own little place I used to go to, just down along the river. Downstream from Eglington there. I’d just drive out there and make a little fire and just sit there. 

I sit right on the river and I listen to the wind blowing through the River Oaks. And I sit still and just listen to the Wind Spirit and the water flowing and the birds. 

It’s become difficult for me to go down to the river because I can’t drive now.

I can’t get out to these places so easily now unless I get somebody to take me up.

Sitting in the quiet by the river is something that helps clear your mind, it helps to clear you.
All you need to do, just to go and sit at one of these particular sites.

You just get away from everything and then just sit and contemplate.

You let things wash away.

Particularly sitting around with a fire. 

It’s soothing and healing.

What we try and teach today is one word - Yindyamarra.

It’s a Wiradjuri word for respect and it has five meanings.

The first part of it is respect —so you’ve always got to show respect to whatever you do.

Then to do slowly — so think about it, take your time and think about what you’re doing. 

Show your manners —be polite.

Show honour. 

And the last part of it is to be gentle

So that’s yindyamurra. 

And it’s not a law, it’s an expectation.

So that’s what you’re taught and it’s an expectation. 

That’s what we’re trying to teach now.

Listen to Uncle Bill Allen talk about Yindyamarra and it’s five meanings:

And I suppose it’s hard living in the type of society we’re living in today.

It’s hard trying to get a lot of our youth to make the time to sit down and learn about what their culture means.

It’s fine to get them to dance and to do acting and all of those things, but they’re not really learning the culture itself.

I am looking forward to going back to the ancestors. I wish I could go now.

When I’m at home, here by myself, sometimes I think “I want to get away from this madhouse and go home”. They are not going to let me go yet because I still have a lot of things to do.

I’m focussed on organising the 2024, 200-year commemoration of the declaration of martial law, as they called it.

This was basically a declaration of war on us from the British. So you had the Wiradjuri Nation taking on the British Empire back then. That’s when there were a lot of massacres that happened.

So that’s the main thing I’ve got to try and do — making sure we do the proper commemoration in 2024.

What would you like to share with the younger people today?

For me, it’s about trying to impart to the kids that they make sure they keep their identity.

It was the one thing that I was told when I was growing up, it was drummed into me.

Never forget where you come from. 

You never forget who you are.

This project is proudly funded through the State Government’s Local Government Social Cohesion Grant Program. ReConnect Bathurst is an And Then project delivered in partnership with Bathurst Regional Art Gallery.

Current: Dinawan Dyirribang / Uncle Bill Allen

Next: Bev Cooney

Uncle Bill Allen

Bev Cooney

Cheryl O’Brien

June Paton

Gus Gorton

Lonnie Edwards

Yvonne Morgan

Enn Muller

Jan Sheppard

Edgar Coello

Aunty Shirley Scott and Aunty Sandra Peckham

Mike Hardie

Frank Smith

Clive Brabham

Eddy Suttor

RECONNECT BATHURST PARTICIPANTS’ INDIVIDUAL STORYBANKS

PROJECT INFORMATION


WHEN

April – November 2022

 

WHERE

Bathurst, NSW

WHY

We believe that stories matter and that stories like those shared here hold power and significance. 

The vision of the project is to use photo-storytelling and cultural preservation practices to develop social and creative connections and experiences with older people from the Bathurst area. This project celebrates the participants' lived experiences while encouraging dialogue around ageing, isolation and ageism. 

Social-arts projects like this are important as they transform public spaces and help to build a sense of community. It’s been wonderful to reimagine Pedrottas Lane in Bathurst and to create an online representation of the physical exhibition with a project made with the community, for the community.

WHO

We were honoured to be invited by Bathurst Regional Art Gallery to create and facilitate ReConnect Bathurst.

16 older people from the Bathurst area. Many of the participants were nominated by local community organisations while others serendipitously came to be a part of the project. We’d like to thank The Bathurst Aboriginal Land Council, The Wiradjuri and Community Aboriginal Elders, The Neighbourhood Center, Bathurst Business Chamber, The Woodies, Bathurst RSL Sub Branch and the Country Women’s Association.

With special thanks to Dinawan Dyirribang (Uncle Bill Allen), Bev Cooney, Cheryl O’Brien, June Paton, Gus Gorton, Lonnie Edwards, Yvonne Morgan, Enn Muller, Frank Smith, Jan Shepard, Edgar Coello, Aunty Shirley Scott, Aunty Sandra Peckham, Mike Hardie, Clive Brabham and Eddy Suttor.

HOW

Our stories are a wonderful connection point. It’s through sharing them with each other that we make space for conversations that can inspire, that can expand our understanding and in some cases, leave us changed.

During this project, we spent time with each person, we talked, reflected on old photographs, made images together and worked through various ways of co-authoring. Socially-engaged practice empowers participants to participate in the creation of their stories, allowing them to represent themselves in the way that they choose.

We often leave a camera with participants and invite them to engage in their own image-making. There’s something raw and revealing about the images made this way, about seeing the world through the participants' eyes.

AND THEN

Through their stories, we see facets of vast lives lived. We witness the snapshots and threads that when woven together create a rich tapestry. Our hope is that as stories wash over us we’re able to make space to contemplate connection and the beauty of community.

This project is proudly funded through the State Government’s Local Government Social Cohesion Grant Program. ReConnect Bathurst is an And Then project delivered in partnership with Bathurst Regional Art Gallery.

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ReConnect Bathurst

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ReConnect Bathurst: Bev Cooney