Oscar Colbung Totem Planting vii
Oscar Colbung Totem Planting vi
Oscar Colbung Totem Planting iii
Oscar Colbung Totem Planting iv
Oscar Colbung Totem Planting
Oscar Colbung Totem Planting v
Oscar Colbung Totem Planting i
The sun shone on Walitj Mia Mia property in Redmond as an exciting new totem planting took flight. Walitj is the Noongar word for wedgetail eagle, and the planting is in the shape of a Walitj with blooming colours to match the majestic browns and rust orange of an eagle’s feathers.
The Southern Aboriginal Corporation Ranger team led the planting crew, supported by staff from South Coast NRM, Gondwana Link, Oyster Harbour Catchment Group, and Bush Heritage Australia. North Albany Senior High School students from Clontarf North Albany Academy and Deadly Sista Girlz made brilliant ground support crew, as part of the Noongar Kaartdijin school program, and were eager to get their hands dirty as plants made their way into muddy ground. In just over an hours work they planted 520 rushes, a brilliant team effort!
South Coast NRM have been working with Oscar Colbung on a riparian revegetation and fencing project on the Walitj Aboriginal Corporation property with the Walitj being the family totem.
“This has been an excellent collaborative project with environmental outcomes for water that flows to the Hay River and contributing to a local Noongar project,” said Graham Foster, South Coast NRM’s Interim CEO.
“We are continuing to do what we have always been doing and looking after the land,” Oscar Colbung from Walitj Aboriginal Corporation and Southern Aboriginal Corporation explained.
“To add to our revegetation project, we felt it was significant and Culturally appropriate to represent our family totem with the Walitj planting, which we share with Aboriginal community members that come to the farm,” added Mr Colbung who was recently appointed as an inaugural director of Wagyl Kaip Aboriginal Corporation.
The project has been supported by South Coast NRM, Southern Aboriginal Corporation, Greening Australia, Gondwana Link through funding from South Coast NRM and the Australian Government’s National Landcare Program.
The South Coast NRM Noongar Kaartdijin program is supported by funding from the State Natural Resource Management Program WA and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia.