Nina Roberts, La Trobe University

Djaara women conduct first women’s cultural burn on their Country since colonisation (Credit: Catalina Labra-Odde. Depicted in photo – Daikota Nelson)

Dja Dja Wurrung Country in central Victoria is highly impacted by colonisation. Djaara women have not been able to practice caring for Country collectively for many generations. A Djaara Women’s Knowledge Group has been formed and they have been collaborating with an ecology post-grad student (Nina Roberts) for over 2 years, exploring pathways for unfolding of knowledge about what is needed to return traditional food plants to Country. 

The community of Djaara women involved are from diverse experience and knowledge backgrounds and from different generations. Some live on Dja Dja Wurrung Country and some live elsewhere across Victoria and beyond. They all have Dja Dja Wurrung ancestral lines that connect them with this Country. The formation of the women’s knowledge group has brought them together to collectively explore Healing Country through reconnection with women’s cultural practices, knowledge and tools. 

The practices explored by the women’s knowledge group have included cultural fire and using digging sticks to weed and prepare soil for planting yams and native grasses. These have been powerful experiences for the women involved, facilitating connection, healing, and cultural pride. The dialogue between the involved women has also generated clarity around women’s cultural protocols and confidence in asserting women’s collective decision making for caring for women’s places. Sharing about women’s digging stick and fire use with the broader community has also begun, as shown in the second photo, which was taken at a community cultural education event hosted by non-indigenous private land-owners.

Djaara women using traditional digging sticks (Gani) to plant native grasses at a community sharing day on private property (Credit: Nina Roberts, La Trobe University. Depicted in photo – Rebecca Phillips and Timani Nicholls-Moore)

Dja Dja Wurrung Country in central Victoria is highly impacted by colonisation. Djaara women have not been able to practice caring for Country collectively for many generations. A Djaara Women’s Knowledge Group has been formed and they have been collaborating with an ecology post-grad student (Nina Roberts) for over 2 years, exploring pathways for unfolding of knowledge about what is needed to return traditional food plants to Country. 

The community of Djaara women involved are from diverse experience and knowledge backgrounds and from different generations. Some live on Dja Dja Wurrung Country and some live elsewhere across Victoria and beyond. They all have Dja Dja Wurrung ancestral lines that connect them with this Country. The formation of the women’s knowledge group has brought them together to collectively explore Healing Country through reconnection with women’s cultural practices, knowledge and tools. 

The practices explored by the women’s knowledge group have included cultural fire and using digging sticks to weed and prepare soil for planting yams and native grasses. These have been powerful experiences for the women involved, facilitating connection, healing, and cultural pride. The dialogue between the involved women has also generated clarity around women’s cultural protocols and confidence in asserting women’s collective decision making for caring for women’s places. Sharing about women’s digging stick and fire use with the broader community has also begun, as shown in the second photo, which was taken at a community cultural education event hosted by non-indigenous private land-owners.

This piece has been extracted from an online gallery of images from Indigenous ecological practitioners around Australia. Images in this collection tell the stories of programs continuing, reviving and protecting the ecological practices and knowledge held by First Nations people for millennia – consult the full gallery here.