Elder urges young people to learn fishing tradition

Fish traps have been found throughout various parts of Australia, dating back more than 40,000 - making them some of the oldest man-made structures on the planet.

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At the picturesque wilderness that runs alongside the Woronora river, south of Sydney, a special restoration plan is taking place.

Elder Max Dulumunmun-Harrison is aiming to encourage young people to learn the practice of constructing fish traps.

"You know I want to get about 10 young Yuin people to be able to come help reconstruct those traps," he said.

"They’ve got to sit for a few days to watch the tide. They’ve got to watch the tide from the nor-east and south and to understand, right, how are we going to build that?"

Max believes the significance of the Mystery Bay sea traps is going unnoticed. 

"It's like when people walk into the Sahara Desert and they dig a bit of sand back and they find a stone, then they dig down and they get on top of a pyramid, that makes news you know."

As a Walbunja man, Max's country includes the Woronora river region and the Mystery Bay area.

He believes passing on traditional knowledge of the construction and maintenance of river and seaside fish traps is essential to maintaining cultural ties to country.

"These people that are going to help me," he said.

"They are going to be saying, 'we can take our kids there, and our grandkids, and show them that we got involved in the restoration of these fish traps on the ocean'."


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2 min read

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Source: NITV News


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