Aboriginal ecotourism and archaeology in coastal NSW, Australia: Yarrawarra Place Stories Project

Abstract

Gumbaingirr Aboriginal people at Corindi Beach, a small town in coastal northern New South Wales (NSW), have lived a self-sufficient lifestyle for over a hundred years, outside the systems of government reserves and missions which existed elsewhere in Australia in the twentieth century. Adapting to a land tenure which included formal 'permissive occupancy leases' in the early twentieth century, the Corindi Beach living places are now on Aboriginal land, having been granted legally under a successful land claim in 1985 (Murphy et al. 2000). The Corindi Beach people have therefore resisted domination from white control, and kept traditional history, culture and language alive, alongside new ways of living. Tony Perkins (a Garby Elder) says 'A long time ago we'd keep it all in out heads and we'd pass on something that way ... Now we [are] better off researching everything, recording everything, getting it all down' (Beck et al. 2002:40). This chapter documents how the Corindi Beach people have continued in their efforts to resist domination, and Tony explains how in 1987 the Yarrawarra Aboriginal Corporation was set up to carry out this work, and how it became a partner in the Yarrawarra Place Stories Project.