RECORDING TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE O r ... - Wheatbelt NRM

BACKGROUND
A
literature review was conducted as a requirement of the ‘Recording Traditional
Knowledge for Natural Resource Management in the Avon River Basin’ project,
and this informed the research process. The findings from this literature review
are discussed below.
To conduct the search, a review of existing available literature was carried out using the
electronic database and web pages of the Department of Indigenous Affairs, Department of
Environment and Heritage, Avon Catchment Council as well as Google Scholar. To narrow
the literature search, the following search criteria were applied: [Noongar]; [recording of
traditional storytelling]; [Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander or Indigenous]; [Natural
resource management, stories and practices]. Transcripts of existing oral recordings taken
from Noongar elders over the past 20 years were also sourced, along with the existing
collection of resources in the local Kulbardi Aboriginal Studies Unit at Murdoch University.
The primary aim of the researchers was to focus on literature pertaining to Noongar cultural
sites of significance in relation to Natural Diversity (Ecoscapes, Healthy Ecosystem), Fire,
Land Management (Salinity) and Water themes (Avon River Pools & Rivers and Wetlands).
A heritage site is any place of importance and significance to Aboriginal people, such as a
place where Aboriginal people have left any object; or a sacred, ritual or ceremonial site.
(State of Western Australia, 1972).
“Sacred sites are places that bear the marks of the creative
ancestral spirits, which continue to have a presence in land
formations. These ancestral spirits followed pathways and sites,
and form a connection for people from various and diverse
language groups into a wider community of Aboriginal people
with the land. They are geographical features which mark
episodes in the stories of the ancestral spirits’ journeys
throughout Australia. Sacred sites are the settings of their
custodians’ most important knowledge and activities. They are
fundamental to the sense of self.” (CALM, 2002).
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