Guided by the Seasons

For Aboriginal people, movement across Country was guided by the seasons and how these changes influenced food resources.

“Mullet hopping would take place during certain times in the year. A torch was used. We’d paddle close up to the reeds and shine our torch into the reeds. The mullet would get a fright and hop into the boat. That’s why it’s called hopping for mullet – they’d just hop into your boat.” Aunty Bertha Kapeen 2007

“The hunting ground of the Ballina tribes extended north to Broken Head and back from the beaches to the Big Scrub. The seasons were known to them by foliage and flowers, and the great book of nature undoubtedly revealed to them many of its secrets. They could tell by natural signs of flowers and fruits when the salmon and the mullet were due on the beaches and in the rivers, and also when certain game was bound to be in evidence in particular localities. The tribe usually camped in divisions at different places excepting during the oyster season, when they assembled unitedly at Chickiba, on North Creek, where the large oyster banks on the foreshores to this day mark the old feeding grounds.” Reminiscences from Ballina as told by early European settler, Jas Ainsworth in 1922

“These places remain very important to us and we still visit to obtain traditional foods such as Jalum (fish), Numgham (mangrove worms), Mungul (oysters) and Yugirre (pipies).” Uncle Lewis Cook 2015

Artwork top: The artist Leanne Anderson describes this artwork as depicting “Seashells / pipis – our ancestors used to search for our traditional food.”

Artwork centre: Extract of artwork by Silas Telford describing “My expression of my connection to land and sea. The pattern represents the everlasting spirit that is here in this country and sea.”

Artwork lower: Artwork of goannas, turtle and boomerang by Brian Ferguson.