Places of significance

Many areas of NSW have cultural significance to Aboriginal people. They reflect the ways in which Aboriginal people view their cultural heritage. These places carry a relationship between one person and another, and between people and their environment.

Aboriginal places can include:

• ceremonial areas
• cemeteries
• story sites, such as North Brother Mountain in Dooragan National Park
• massacre sites (part of the invasion of Australia)
• missions.

When Aboriginal places are protected, there are benefits for both the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal communities. A good example is Mt Drysdale near Cobar. An Aboriginal place declaration recognises that places are (or were) of special significance to Aboriginal culture. It gives the land a higher level of protection, to safeguard its significance to Aboriginal people.

The next time you drive into the NSW countryside, think about how the landscape may reveal a very different story to Aboriginal people who understand the land. They may see such things as:

• important food and medicinal plant species
• territories, important sites, or good camping areas, reflected in landscape changes such as soil colour or plant species, rivers or mountains.
• cultural aspects of prominent natural features, formed long ago by one of the creation ancestors.

More information