Our Director, Sandra, and I had an incredible experience last week on Gunditjmara Country, part of our cultural immersion training with Shane Charles ahead of our upcoming STEM camp and sessions with the Koorie Academy of Excellence, Department of Education & Training, Indigicate and Banyule Nillumbik Tech School.
We attended a cultural tour of the Budj Bim Cultural Landscape near Portland on the west coast of Victoria. Located on the traditional lands of the Gunditjmara people, Budj Bim Cultural Landscape was granted UNESCO world heritage listing in 2019. The site includes one of the world’s oldest and largest aquaculture networks; comprised of a vast system of channels, weirs and dams used to trap and store kooyang eel for at least six millennia. Evidence of the extensive and advanced economic and social systems supported by eel aquaculture can be seen in remnants of stone huts throughout the site. As part of the tour, we also tasted bush foods and even sampled some smoked eel back at the information centre.
A special thanks to Colleen and Leigh from Budj Bim Tours, Traditional Owners of Gunditjmara Country, for sharing their time and knowledge with us. It was a truly unforgettable, incredibly rich and immensely informative experience!