NOHC was engaged by Transport for NSW, to map the Aboriginal cultural values along the route of the Princes Highway from Nowra to the Victorian border.
Client
Transport NSW
Location
South coast region from Nowra to the Victorian border
Services provided
- Oral histories
Undertaken during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, the methodology had to be modified to reduce the person-to-person interactions. As a consequence, there was a reduced number of workshops with Aboriginal communities and the workshops that were held were also smaller in size. Twenty-one- on-one interviews were also conducted.
Despite the constraints, 749 places of importance to south coast Aboriginal communities were identified and mapped. The project built a basis for future research, heritage interpretation and consultation with the local Aboriginal communities along the highway. It provided a nuanced overview and dataset of Aboriginal values for future road development projects. The key outputs from this project include:
- mapping layers of sites of Aboriginal cultural value (749) places of Aboriginal cultural heritage have been identified)
- a searchable library of 446 documentary sources consulted, which are relevant to the study area for future use by the client
- a list of traditional knowledge holders who contributed information to the project and their contact details
- transcripts from 20 face-to-face oral history interviews and the outcomes of five knowledge holder workshops, which were used to develop the mapping layers and the
- A report documenting the project methodology and outcomes.
The image here includes a section of a drawing of a local ceremony by Tommy Macrae also known as Mickey of Ulladulla. The original is held by the State Library NSW.
