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Gumbaynggirr Land Management walk with Mark Flanders

Gumbaynggirr Land Management walk with Mark Flanders

Urunga, 8 April 2015 Bellinger LandCare

Uncle Mark Flanders has been my guest at Naked Lunch for the last two years and is great communicator.

Mark Flanders_walk_Urunga_April2015
Uncle Mark Flanders is passionate about his Gumbaynggirr heritage and taking care of the environment

Marksays that the traditional way of life has gone, and much knowledge has been lost, but they are working, using all available resources to get back as much knowledge as possible. One step forward is better than one step back. In this region, Europeans arrived late in proceedings, but many Gumbaynggirr were already dead from measles and chicken pox that travelled up and down the coast.

They moved about in family groups and didn’t deplete resources. The bush was their calendar. The paperbarks are now flowering; this is when the large mullet enter the estuaries.

“When I go and look at the country I imagine it as it was before Europeans arrived.”

“Become one with the environment, feel the place. You’ll start to look at the landscape in a new way.”

South of Urunga Lagoon, looking north
South of Urunga Lagoon, looking north

Weeds are a huge problem. There would have been shade here, Casuarinas and Pandanus, now weeds like Bitou and Glory Lily flourish. (The Bitou fruit is small and black and mostly seed, and as I learnt today tastes of Vegemite.)

South of Urunga Lagoon
South of Urunga Lagoon, looking south

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