Exploring Boandik Creation stories at Mt Burr Swamp
Environmental education and biodiversity improvements are continuing at Mt Burr Swamp, thanks to the recent support of Responsible Wood – Australia’s largest forest certification scheme.
Responsible Wood oversees sustainable forest management in Australiaand launched its new Small Grants Program last year to support collaborative projects that connect communities to their local certified forests.
The Mt Burr Swamp Restoration Reserve is embedded within a Responsible Wood certified forest and, with annual support also coming from OneFortyOne, we were successful in obtaining funding to continue education and biodiversity improvements over the past eight months. The project was about creating a walking trail linked to Boandik culture, Indigenous use plants, and bushfoods while depicting Creation stories and involving Indigenous and non-Indigenous community.
The project commenced in November 2020 and was recently completed. The aims of the project were to:
Numerous participants attended working bees, a 3 day cultural camp, day excursions, and planting days from November 2020 to June 2021.
The cultural camp, held in late November, saw 90 year 7 students (45 boys and 45 girls) from Tenison Woods College come out of the classroom to set up tents, throw boomerangs, listen to campfire stories, learn basket weaving, paint stepping stones of significant plants and animals, and learn about local biodiversity – with activities led by experts in their fields.
Future camps will further develop displays highlighting the restoration site, First Nations peoples’ values, and significant flora and fauna.
Acknowledgements
The Nature Glenelg Trust (NGT) would like to thank our First Nations people who participated in the project especially the Brookes family for their energy, enthusiasm and ideas around this project, the carvings which tell some important stories and developing the annual camp program; and OneFortyOne (OFO) for support with education centre improvements, the removal of the ex-pine plantation area (earlier in 2020) which we then developed into the walk area for this project, and for the donation of OFO staff time to participate in our winter working bee.
A huge thankyou to:
Tenison Woods College (especially David Mezinec, Chris Lloyd and Nick Patzel) for their education and on-ground support towards this project and for arranging assistance to undertake the planting of the Indigenous use and bushfoods along the walk at short notice.
Our amazing NGT nursery volunteers for your weekly assistance to Ryan to prepare our plants for the planting day.
Responsible Wood for encouraging and accepting the project into their funding program – thank you Megan Graham (Small Grants Coordinator) and Jason Ross (Marketing and Communications).
Nature Glenelg Trust is a mission-driven, not-for-profit organisation that believes in positive action, and working with the community and our partners to achieve real results on the ground. Nature Glenelg Trust works on a wide range of biodiversity related projects in south-eastern Australia to benefit our environment and local communities. To find out more about Nature Glenelg Trust please visit www.natureglenelg.org.au
Covered by Byran Haywood, Senior Ecologist at Nature Glenelg TrustTitle Caption: Bryan with Boandik descendants Sarah Wilson and Matthew Brookes after laying stepping stones painted during the 3 day camp by Year 7 students from Tenison Woods College
Caption: Story telling and campfire show and tell (with tents in the background)
