We acknowledge and thank the team at Australian Marine Parks, who supported the project Whale Dreaming in Marine Parks off Southern Australia. This Our Marine Parks Grants project received grant funding from the Australian Government.
The third round of Our Marine Parks Grants is part of the broader $100 million Ocean Leadership Package announced in April 2021. The stories are currently from the South Australian border in the Great Australian Bight and around Sea Country to Wollongong, south of Sydney.
Through a community-led project by the Billiaum Whale Dreaming organisation, we are mapping and sharing Whale Dreaming stories. We wish to raise public awareness of cultural heritage of Whale Dreaming in the Australian Marine Parks off the coast of Southern Australia.
State Marine Parks
Closer to shore, there are also the State Marine Parks, Reserves and Sanctuaries.
Great Southern Reef
Our collective Sea Countries cover the majority of the Great Southern Reef, a majestic seascape and submerged landscape. We encourage you to explore more of the great work being undertaken by the Great Southern Reef team.
On the West of the Great Southern Reef are more Whale Dreaming law keepers, such as at Wayne and Zac Webb, who hold the Wadandi Mammung biddi-wah, Whales’ path Story. You can see a clip with Zac Webb recorded by the Great Southern Reef team about Indigenous Caring for Country on the Australian Whale Peoples page and how “the Country is our boss” and the responsibilities we have looking after our totems.
The stories shared through the project can assist with recognising and understanding our cultural values in the parks. This in turn assists in their protection and conservation, which is a primary objective of Australian Marine Parks: the protection and conservation of biodiversity and other natural, cultural and heritage values of marine parks in the Australian Marine Park Network.
In our traditional way, the protection and conservation of the Whale Dreaming, songlines and cultural values also benefit the other Australian Marine Parks objectives. All native species in the Marine Parks of our Sea Countries arise within our universe and understanding of Creation and so are inseparable from the Whale Dreaming. Protect the Dreaming and songlines and all species of animals and plants are protected.
70% of Australia’s population lives within 50km of the Great Southern Reef.
80% of the population of Australian Sea Lions live in South Australia, most in our respective Sea Countries.
85% of our species in the Great Australian Bight are unique.
Protection through Connection
When we come together, we strengthen the connection of the songlines that are reflected int he whale migrations. We share our stories and recognise our connected heritage with the whales. For many of us, our ancestors share messages that are carried on the wind and by messenger birds. When we stand on our shores there are signs in our plants about our family the whales; signs that usher in reunions, the birth of young and departures.
When the nalla trees blossom, the whales return.
Marbanu Bunna Lawrie, Mirning Senior Elder and Whale Songman.
There are many beautiful stories of how our communities ‘read’ our landscapes and this reflects what is happening with our family, the whales.
Follow the Elders: Traditional way first.
The project has been led from the traditional, following coastal protocols and meeting with those who have the bloodlines for the families born of the Dreamtime whales and authority to speak for the whale stories and connected Sea Country.
The great Whale Songmen have continued in their duties around Australia, supporting First Nations Whale Peoples. These include Mirning Senior Elder Marbanu Bunna Lawrie, Yuin Senior Elder Uncle Max Dulumunmun Harrison (deceased) and Yolngu Senior Elder Johnny Buuramula (deceased). For decades, they have guided Whale Peoples around Australia in teachings, song and dance. Their yarns of connectedness in whale Creation stories with ancient migration routes with songlines was the inspiration for this project.
The Creation stories are gathered from the respective families and are based on the ancient migrations that are known. Some migrations have been disrupted with the whaling since colonisation and the last decades of human interference in the seas, though the whales will also remember their ancestral paths.
Stories of the disruption of people and whales alike have also been shared. Around Southern Australia there are places of sorrow accompanying the whaling stations that are calling out for ceremony to repair and restore the connection and trust of human and whale. This is especially so in places of sorry business where some local people were degraded into working with the whalers and calling in the whales to their death. This hurt and harm is still embodied by the descendants of humans and whales, though there is a slow healing.
After we returned to live at Victor Harbour, the whales came back a few weeks later.
Jeffrey Kropinyeri was told by his mother, Marjorie Tripp. The photograph is of the Tripp Family, Victor Harbour in 1920 (State Library of South Australia, B 48076).
The whales are settling once again in places that they have not rested in for generations. The whales are our family and they return each year to give birth where our ancestors were Created. These are sacred places of protection and healing. The formations left in our submerged landscapes playing their roles; whether by flushing the whales with freshwater springs, replenishing them with limestone minerals or offering safe-haven kelp forest camping grounds for their journey. There is a much that can be shared about the submerged landscapes and seascapes of the Australian Marine Parks.
There is much to learn about formations in the landscape and seascape through the creation narratives of the First Nations Saltwater Peoples. The origins and functions of the land and sea formations are described in our stories. This crucial information assists in understanding why particular areas of the seascape and landscape must be preserved and conserved. Tamara Pomery, on behalf of the Tanganekald, Meintangk and Bunganditj Peoples
Following traditional protocols, we came together in ceremony with song, dance, fire-smoking and celebration. Ceremony keeps our Dreaming alive and wakens it within. This spiritually continues as the sea continues and the whales. It runs through the blood; it runs through the songlines. It goes through the rocks and into the sea. Connection to the sea, whales and songlines. When you sing on the songlines, the mirin, echoes go deeply into the land and into the sea along the songlines. These Dreamtime pathways carry the songs of our ancestors, all the way back to our Creator whales, whether Jeedara, Kondoli, Kanterbul or Guramul. What may not be apparent to the eye, is recognised by our spirit; traveling in our blood, through our veins. It lives in the songlines and, when we come back and do ceremony, it wakens up and continues; keeping the songlines and Dreaming yathro, alive.
