The scroll through section below presents the information contained in the signs on site at the gathering place.
As well as allowing you to explore this material again, it means that non-English speaking visitors and others not easily able to read the signs can connect with this content via their mobile devices. Adjust your internet browser settings to activate translation and/or text-to-speech options.
The local keepers of knowledge, the Aboriginal Elders, would like to share some of their stories and memories with everyone who comes to East Ballina.
The videos on this page convey some of the things they would wish to say to you if they had the chance to be present with you during your visit.
Their messages link in closely with the content of the interpretive signs in place at various locations along the East Ballina Aboriginal Place section of the Coastal Recreational Path.
Like most of the video content here on these webpages, Uncle Lewis Cook's welcome was recorded in a special interview he gave to Marcus Ferguson, whose voice can also be heard on the recording.
As part of this series of recordings, Marcus also asked Adie Davies (Combo) about whether he was happy that the stories of East Ballina were being told here along the pathway.
With the subject of the East Ballina massacre being introduced on the interpretive panels, Adie Davies was able to provide some background insights to help us begin to understand the circumstances surrounding the tragedy.
Accounts of the massacres of Aboriginal people around the time of European settlement in the 1850s, became part of the stories that generations of Aboriginal people have grown up with since that time.
In an interview from 1983, Uncle Douglas 'Duck' Cook decribes his understanding of these events.
To help understand the detail of what happened at East Ballina, Lois Cook also recounted the story of the event as informed by her research into the details of an eye witness account.