During an afternoon spent yarning at the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape, Aunty Eileen Albert and Jock Gilbert explored the ways that Gunditjmara culture is successfully underpinning the development of sustainable enterprise in a landscape that acknowledges and draws on the past, the present and the future. This article takes the form of that yarn – a circular conversation grounded in place but traversing topics and time in a sometimes non-linear narrative structure.
A long time ago, the Ancestral Creator revealed himself with the eruption of Budj Bim. Budj Bim was one of Bunjil’s sons and created the thriving, richly resource-filled country we now call the landscape of Budj Bim. This landscape included waterways and creeks, wetlands, sinkholes and lakes, in which a bountiful range of plants and animals, including kooyang1 thrived. The Rainbow Serpent rose from the mouth of Budj Bim and laid eggs. These eggs solidified after she left them in the landscape and she vowed to return to collect them when Budj Bim returns to the world. This is Gunditjmara Country. We are many people – my people are Gilgar Gunditj, people of the river. We are Gunditj Mirring, people of Country and we want to conserve
