On connection to the land

To Aboriginal people, the land – we’re connected to the land because it’s part of who our mothers’ and fathers’ country are, it’s connected to the bloodlines, where our parents come from, originated from. So before we’re even born, we already have a place in our tribe, in our clan groups, so the land just means so much and when it was taken away or, you know, boundaries were put on it, it was just devastation for us. It was really a time of great trauma for our ancestors.

We’re still feeling the effects of it today, through the generational trauma that happened so many years ago. We don’t own land now, according to the British laws or Australian laws now, that people buy land, they can just own it, but to us, we still feel connected to that piece of land that our grandparents were born in and that our family came from. Even though we might not own it on paper, we’re still connected to it, it’s a spiritual thing.