As I research, I look for evidence of customs and traditions that have been lost due to the displacement of my ancestors and replaced by the traditions of the white colonisers. Very little evidence remains of how First Nations people practised religion, what they believed about God, what traditions they had observed regarding their spirituality and how they formed their spiritual beliefs.
One of the rare glimpses I’ve managed to find is a small number of pieces that were published at a time when there were still enough Dja Dja Wurrung People (Djaara) alive on Country to continue traditions in the early 1800s. The records I’ve found depict various ways we buried and observed the passing of our elders, family and ancestors. Some background information to these pieces needs to be given, and will hopefully allow us to examine, in full, how plausible and trustworthy these accounts and their authors were. But each piece adds to our understanding of who we are today, against a backdrop of what we once were, and should still have access to today.
