Library Guides: Indigenous Food: Aquaculture

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Indigenous food | Aquaculture: Articles

Budj Bim Cultural Landscape fire reveals new sections of ancient aquatic system (ABC, 2020, January 19)
"Extra sections of an ancient aquaculture system built by Indigenous people in south-west Victoria thousands of years ago have been discovered after a fire swept through the area" (ABC, 2020, January 19)
The detective work behind the Budj Bim eel traps World Heritage bid (McNiven, 2017)
"On July 9 1841, to the north of Gunditjmara country at a swamp near Mt William, Robinson reported: an immense piece of ground trenched and banked, resembling the work of civilized man but which on inspection I found to be the work of the Aboriginal natives, purposefully constructed for catching eels... His findings were not what early settlers of the colony wanted to hear. Colonial settlement was about removing nomadic savages, not tillers of the land. The evidence was either ignored as an inconvenient truth or dismissed as evidence of “irrigation” by a superior race of cultivators living in Australia prior to the coming of the Aborigines." (McNiven, 2017)
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Reference / citation:
Reference list / Blbliography: McNiven, I., (2017). The detective work behind the Budj Bim eel traps World Heritage bid. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/the-detective-work-behind-the-budj-bim-eel-traps-world-heritage-bid-71800

"Mt Eccles lava flow and the Gunditjmara connection: a landform for all seasons" (Builth, 2004)
"An archaeological investigation of the Tyrendarra Flow of Mt Eccles in temperate Southwest Victoria has demonstrated that the Indigenous occupants, the Gunditjmara, developed a socio-economic system based on the environmental characteristics of the lava flow. Basalt stones, the reliable rainfall, the shortfin eel (Anguilla australis) and the Eucalyptus viminalis woodland all contributed to the development of an aquaculture system covering 100 sq km. Manipulation of the landscape resulted in large-scale management of the wetland resources by the time of British colonisation. Resource specialisation including processing formed the basis of sedentary settlement." (Builth, 2004)
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Reference / citation: Builth (2004) or (Builth, 2004)
Reference list / Bibliography: Builth, H. (2004). Mt Eccles lava flow and the Gunditjmara connection: a landform for all seasons. Proceedings of the Royal society of Victoria, 116(1), 163-182. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/281444699
Phased Redevelopment of an Ancient Gunditjmara Fish Trap Over the Past 800 Years: Muldoons Trap Complex, Lake Condah, Southwestern Victoria. (Mcniven, Ian & Crouch, Joe & Richards, Thomas & Sniderman, Kale & Dolby, Nic & Corporation, Gunditj, 2015)
"Critics point out that a weakness of Lourandos' 'intensification' paradigm for southwestern Victoria is a lack of dates for iconic fish traps of the Lake Condah region. McNiven et al. (2012) detailed excavations at Muldoons Trap Complex at Lake Condah in Gunditjmara Country, where charcoal recovered from channel infill sediments indicated initial construction at least 6600 cal. BP, making the site one of the world's oldest known fish traps. Channel excavations also revealed the addition of basalt block walls dating to ca 600-800 cal. BP. Subsequent excavations at a second location at Muldoons demonstrate that a barrier/dam feature associated with artificial ponding of flood waters and containment of eels was added to the site complex ca 300-500 cal. BP and possibly elaborated in the nineteenth century. These results show that Muldoons Trap Complex underwent phased redevelopment and major elaboration over the past 800 years. This redevelopment followed little or no activity during the preceding 4000 years, which we argue reflected drier climatic conditions and the inability of flood waters to reach the site. Use of the site complex 5400-6600 and <800 years ago took advantage of regional increases in effective precipitation and lake water levels. Redevelopment of Muldoons Trap Complex within the past 800 years coincided with increased use of occupation sites across the broader region. Importantly, our research presents a methodological way forward to document the history of construction and use of stone-walled fish traps in the Lake Condah region." (McNiven, Ian & Crouch, Joe & Richards, Thomas & Sniderman, Kale & Dolby, Nic & Corporation, Gunditj, 2015)
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Reference / citation: McNiven, Ian & Crouch, Joe & Richards, Thomas & Sniderman, Kale & Dolby, Nic & Corporation, Gunditj, 2015) or (McNiven, Ian & Crouch, Joe & Richards, Thomas & Sniderman, Kale & Dolby, Nic & Corporation, Gunditj, 2015)
Reference list / Bibliography: McNiven, Ian & Crouch, Joe & Richards, Thomas & Sniderman, Kale & Dolby, Nic & Corporation, Gunditj. (2015). Phased Redevelopment of an Ancient Gunditjmara Fish Trap Over the Past 800 Years: Muldoons Trap Complex, Lake Condah, Southwestern Victoria.. Australian Archaeology. 81. 44-58. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/289530347

Indigenous food | Aquaculture: eBooks

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Dark Emu: Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture [eBook] by Pascoe, Bruce
ISBN: 9781921248016
Publication Date: 2018
‘Dark Emu injects a profound authenticity into the conversation about how we Australians understand our continent... [It is] essential reading for anyone who wants to understand what Australia once was, or what it might yet be if we heed the lessons of long and sophisticated human occupation.'Judges for 2016 NSW Premier's Literary Awards Dark Emu puts forward an argument for a reconsideration of the hunter-gatherer tag for pre-colonial Aboriginal Australians. The evidence insists that Aboriginal people right across the continent were using domesticated plants, sowing, harvesting, irrigating, and storing — behaviours inconsistent with the hunter-gatherer tag. Gerritsen and Gammage in their latest books support this premise but Pascoe takes this further and challenges the hunter-gatherer tag as a convenient lie. Almost all the evidence in Dark Emu comes from the records and diaries of the Australian explorers, impeccable sources.

In particular see the following chapter:

Chapter 2 Aquaculture (Pascoe, 2018, pp. 68-98)
"Aquaculture was well established in Australia long before the first colonists arrived, and the examples in this chapter demonstrate and expand on the nature of Aboriginal intervention in food production across the country. James Kirby, for example, saw the automatic fishing machine near Swan Hill; Colac’s first European settler, Hugh Murray, was delighted by the flavour of the whitebait in Colijan nets he stole at Lake Colac; and missionary Joseph Orton witnessed the Colac people fishing for whitebait, noting how they scorned the beads and mirrors left to replace fish taken from the nets by settlers. The Lake Condah aquaculture complex was obvious to all who saw it, and Thomas Mitchell witnessed the massive fish traps on the Darling River at Brewarrina, which some claim are the oldest human-made structures on earth." (Pascoe, 2018, pp. 68-98)
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Reference / citation: Pascoe (2018, pp. 68-98) or (Pascoe, 2018, pp. 68-98)
Reference list / Bibliography: Pascoe, B. (2018). Chapter 2 Aquaculture. In Dark Emu: Aboriginal Australia and the Birth of Agriculture (pp. 161-176). https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=2043192&site=ehost-live&scope=site&authtype=ip,sso&custid=mggsvic&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_68

Engineering works of the Gunditjmara at Lake Condah (Tae Rak) and Tyrendarr (Engineering Heritage Australia, 2011)
Nomination under Heritage Recognition Program of Engineering Heritage Australia.

Reference / citation: Engineering Heritage Australia (2011) or (Engineering Heritage Australia, 2011)
Reference list / Bibliography: Engineering Heritage Australia (2011). Engineering works of the Gunditjmara at Lake Condah (Tae Rak) and Tyrendarra: Nomination under Heritage Recognition Program of Engineering Heritage Australia. https://www.engineersaustralia.org.au/Communities-And-Groups/Special-Interest-Groups/Engineering-Heritage-Australia

Indigenous food | Aquaculture: Online resources

Budj Bim Cultural Landscape | Gunditjmara Country
"The Budj Bim Cultural Landscape is located within Gunditjmara Country in south-eastern Australia, and comprises of three components; Budj Bim - Northern Component, Kurtonitj - Central Component and Tyrendarra Southern Component. Each component contains extensive evidence of the Gunditjmara’s aquaculture system. The Gunditjmara have customary rights and obligations to their traditional Country and a continuing and evolving relationship with the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape."
Gunditjmara people build Budj Bim eel trap system (Deadly Story, n.d.)
"Budj Bim means High Head in the language of Gunditjmara people and is home to one of oldest aquaculture systems in the world. Budj Bim is said to have erupted over 30,000 years ago and the lava flow that resulted created a system of channels that Gunditjmara people developed into weirs, dams and traps for fish and eels." (Deadly Story, n.d.)
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Reference / citation: Deadly Story, (n.d.) or (Deadly Story, n.d.)
Reference list / Bibliography: Deadly Story, (n.d.) Gunditjmara people build Budj Bim eel trap system. https://www.deadlystory.com/page/culture/history/Gunditjmara_people_build_sophisticated_Budj_Bim_eel_trap_system

National Heritage Places - Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape (National Heritage Places, 2004)
"Sacred to the Gunditjmara people, the Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape provides evidence of a system of channels and weirs constructed from the abundant local volcanic rock to manage water flows from nearby Lake Condah to exploit eels as a food source... Historical and archaeological evidence demonstrates that a large, settled Aboriginal community farmed and smoked eels for food and trade at what is considered to be one of Australia’s earliest and largest aquaculture systems." ([Australian Government: National Heritage Places, 2004)
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Reference / citation: [Australian Government: National] National Heritage Places (2004) or ([Australian Government: National Heritage Places, 2004)
Reference list / Bibliography: [Australian Government: National Heritage Places (2004) Budj Bim National Heritage Landscape. https://www.environment.gov.au/heritage/places/national/budj-bim
Brewarrina Aboriginal Fish Traps / Baiame's Ngunnhu (NSW Office of Heritage and Environment, n.d.)
"The traditional Aboriginal fish traps at Brewarrina, also known as Baiame's Ngunnhu [pronounced By-ah-mee's noon-oo], comprises a nearly half-kilometre long complex of dry-stone walls and holding ponds within the Barwon River in north west NSW. The fish traps are the largest group recorded in Australia and are arranged in an unusual and innovative way that allowed fish to be herded and caught during both high and low river flows. According to Aboriginal tradition, the ancestral creation being, Baiame, generated the design by throwing his net over the river and, with his two sons Booma-ooma-nowi and Ghinda-inda-mui, building the fish traps to this design." (NSW Office of Heritage and Environment, n.d.)
A brief history of Indigenous fishing (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, n.d.)
"For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, fishing is as natural and as necessary as breathing. It forms part of the deep cultural and spiritual connection many communities have with their waters and marine resources, whether saltwater or freshwater. Fishing is a matter of cultural practice, and is informed by traditional knowledge. Today, these long-held traditions have become increasingly challenged. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities have been marginalised from both commercial and non-commercial fisheries, and are often denied access to their traditional waters. But across Australia, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander fishers are taking steps to ensure their voices – and values – are heard in fisheries management planning, negotiating catch allowances and controlled access to their waters and marine resources."
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Reference / citation: Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (n.d.) or (Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies, n.d.)
Reference list / Bibliography: Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies (n.d.) . A brief history of Indigenous fishing. https://aiatsis.gov.au/exhibitions/brief-history-indigenous-fishing
Southern shortfin eel, Anguilla australis (Fishes of Australia, 2018)
"The southern shortfin eel was the basis of an ancient freshwater fishery in the Lake Condah region of south-west Victoria, dating back almost 7000 years. Indigenous Australians, the Gunditjmara people, engineered the landscape to create a very sophisticated aquaculture industry with diversion channels, weirs and stone eel traps. Large Aboriginal communities lived year-round in this ancient volcanic landscape, where they farmed, smoked and traded eels. " (Fishes of Australia, n.d.)

Class: ACTINOPTERYGII, ray-finned fishes
Order: ANGUILLIFORMES, eels
Family: ANGUILLIDAE, freshwater eels
Genus: Anguilla
Species: australis
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Reference / citation: Gomon & Bray (2018) or (Gomon & Bray, 2018)
Reference list / Bibliography: Gomon, M.F. & Bray, D.J. 2018, Anguilla australis in Fishes of Australia, accessed, http://136.154.202.208/home/species/1423
Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation
Through Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation (GMTOAC), Gunditjmara people ensure that our cultural obligations and responsibilities which arise from Gunditjmara country and under Gunditjmara law, custom and beliefs are upheld and recognised for the protection and benefit of our traditional lands and waters and for our respect to our Gunditjmara ancestors and for our Elders.
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The Gunditjmara Traditional Owners Community established the Gunditj Mirring Traditional Owners Aboriginal Corporation RNTBC (GMTOAC) in 2005 to continue our connection to Gunditjmara country and to progress our rights and interests in our cultural identity, social justice, native title, cultural heritage and land justice for our Gunditjmara country.

Indigenous food | Aquaculture: Videos

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The management of the Budj Bim landscape in southwest Victoria people by its traditional owners, the Gunditjmara people, in collaboration with the Victorian Government and other parties, demonstrates several features of modern protection systems of landscapes, environments and cultural heritage. (The University of Melbourne, 2019)

Source

When using this video don't forget to cite and reference your sources. For more information and help see the Kerferd Library referencing guide and / or CiteMaker.
In text reference / citation: The University of Melbourne (2019) or (The University of Melbourne, 2019)
Bibliography / Reference list: The University of Melbourne (2019). Indigenous engineering and technology at Budj Bim, [eVideo]. https://youtu.be/QOkCCNNCt1M

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"A project helping traditional owners and water managers learn about and manage the waterways of the World Heritage-listed Budj Bim landscape is having multiple benefits for the traditional , environment, owners and waterway managers. The Budj Bim Connections Flagship Project is funded by the the Victorian Government's $222 million investment in Water for Victoria." (Glenelg Hopkins CMA, 2019)

When using this video don't forget to cite and reference your sources. For more information and help see the Kerferd Library referencing guide and / or CiteMaker.
In text reference / citation: Glenelg Hopkins CMA (2019) or (Glenelg Hopkins CMA, 2019)
Bibliography / Reference list: Glenelg Hopkins CMA (2019). Budj Bim Connections Flagship Project, [eVideo]. https://youtu.be/PMtCFWzLn0Y

Originally produced in 2005, this video was made to commemorate the National Heritage Listing (NHL) of the Brewarrina Fish Traps (Baiames Ngunnhu) in Brewarrina, NSW. It was the second Indigenous site added to the list. The story is told by Aunty June Barker: a significant local elder. (Department of Agriculture Water and the Environment, 2019)

Source

When using this video don't forget to cite and reference your sources. For more information and help see the Kerferd Library referencing guide and / or CiteMaker.
In text reference / citation: Department of Agriculture Water and the Environment (2019) or (Department of Agriculture Water and the Environment, 2019)
Bibliography / Reference list: Department of Agriculture Water and the Environment (2019). Baiames Ngunnhu - the story of Brewarrina Fish Traps, [eVideo]. https://youtu.be/7uYKg1M6PRk

Indigenous Food: Aquaculture

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