Awakening the spirit of the land

In September we hosted an Indigenous celebration event telling the cultural story of the Lake Wellington area and showcasing recent conservation work.

The celebration brought guests together to see the conservation work we’ve carried out with the local community in recent years.

It’s now two and a half years since over 15 new cultural sites were identified, allowing the cultural story of the region to be further developed.

The celebration began with a smoke ceremony and storytelling at Clydebank, cultural dancing at the Heart Reserve and a bush tucker lunch at the Lake Wellington Yacht Club.

The photo below shows a cultural land map, a story showing the key locations of cultural significance that we found  around the wetlands of Lake Wellington. Including a now registered corroboree ground, the painting also depicts the pathways between the sites, shows the swans breeding grounds and our project manager Martin’s footprints walking the land back to health.

Over 65% of the wetlands between the Avon and Latrobe Rivers that are on private land are now being managed for conservation.

Working at a landscape-scale has given us many benefits such as observing migratory bird paths, looking at the connectivity of the wetlands and pathways that frogs and plants disperse through the system.

One of the real highlights has been working with the local Indigenous community to begin to understand the landscape through a cultural lens.

The celebration was a great opportunity to see the many ways we have looked to local Indigenous culture to assist in undertaking natural resource management.

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