Warwick Thornton's 'We Don't Need a Map' is a documentary that covers the cultural history and significance of the Southern Cross and features in the NITV documentary series 'You are Here.'
“For me, the symbol – the idea of the Southern Cross was slightly turning into that sort of 'us against them,'" director and narrator Thornton explains in the documentary.
"The first time I saw a Southern Cross tattoo, it was quirky and beautiful, and then suddenly it was it began raising its head in right-wing ways and in a way that started to worry me,” he says.
The creation story of the Wathaurung/Wadawurrung Nation was the first story of the Southern Cross before the Eureka flag
Leading up to and during the 1850s era known as the Eureka stockade, thousands of Kulin people's lives were taken by British settlers and through the very government policies that led to the establishment of the Federation of the Commonwealth of Australia.
Before that, the Wathaurung/Wadawurrung people had their own story of the Southern Cross, their creation story.
"Bunjil didn't want to stay on earth so he took the form of an eagle," Wathaurung/Wadawurrung Elder Marlene Gilson explains to NITV Radio.
Aunty Gilson tells the cultural story of the Southern Cross on the lands where the Eureka Flag was claimed. In Kulin culture, Bunjil is one of two major creation deities, which usually takes the form of a wedge-tailed eagle.
"He gathered his family together and told Ballan Ballan - the Musk Crow or Currawong, the keeper of the whirlwinds, to open one of his bags and let out a blast [of] wind."
Listen to Marlene Gilson's full interview with NITV Radio in the player above to hear her tell the full story.
"The way I look [at] it, the gold diggers didn't know," Aunty Gilson says. "We look up in the sky and use the stars as a guide: they've looked up into the sky and the middle star is Bunjil and they didn't know that.
"That's amazing," she says.
"We look up in the sky and use the stars as a guide: they've looked up into the sky and the middle star is Bunjil and they didn't know that."
The Eureka Stockade and the Wathaurung/Wadawurrung people of the Kulin Nation
Looking back at the history of miner's rights and resistance on the lands of the Wathaurung/Wadawurrung people, the Eureka flag was claimed as a sign of democracy when miners where forced to pay for a license for mining and work for little or no pay.
John Wilson, Inspector of Works for the Police Department was sympathetic to the miners, and claimed the Southern Cross as a flag of resistance and democracy for miners rights as workers.
BALLARAT, Vic - The Southern Cross flag adapted by rebellious gold miners at Ballarat in 1854. Source: (AAP Image/Ballarat Tourism)
Democracy or disrespect to the first peoples?
Aunty Marlene Gilson says her people looked after some of the women and children when the battle of the Eureka Rebellion broke out in 1854.
"It wasn't the miners that were bad to us - it was the settlers."
The Wathaurung/Wadawurrung people had a camp on the outskirts of the mining town and tried to peacefully live their life within the limits of persecution from European settlers who had stolen their land and moved people onto missions.
"The miners were ok to our people," she says.
"It wasn't the miners that were bad to us, it was the settlers - the ones that settled on the land and stole the land.
"The ones that got rid of the people with poisoned flour and poisoned water."
Racism towards the Chinese gold diggers
"The Chinese were a big part of the Ballarat gold fields as well," says Aunty Marlene.
"The gold miners would throw rocks at them, and they treated them really bad, they became outcasts as well."
Eventually though, "They became ok to the Chinese," says Aunty Marlene. "Because the Chinese were clever and grew their own vegetables," says Aunty Marlene.
We Don't Need A Map screened as part of the #YouAreHere documentary series on SBS and NITV and is available to stream now at SBS On Demand and below.
Watch the rest of the compelling four part series on Sunday Nights at 8.30pm on SBS and NITV.
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