 Tomorrow, the 26th of January marks the date of two vastly differing realities. For many people it reflects the moment a British flag was raised at Port Jackson, whilst for us as Aboriginal people it reflects the onset of a cataclysmic event of ongoing destruction. But we are not here tonight to reflect upon the marking of tomorrow. But we reflect upon and celebrate this country's greatest cultural treasure, Aboriginal culture and history. Today Western sciences recognise that Aboriginal people have been a part of this continent for upwards of 65,000 years. We are the people that recognise as carrying the oldest living memory, named to humankind. I am in my 68th year and looking back to the 1950s, science at that time had us as being here for 10,000 years, then it was 20,000 years, then it was 30,000 years, then it was 40,000 years, then it was 50,000 years and on to today as 65,000 years of a named presence on this continent. But we as Aboriginal people know we have always been here. I love a quote from an Aboriginal elder from the Red Centre, interviewed over 30 years ago just after scientists had revealed an Aboriginal place on the continent at 50,000 years. The reporter asked the old man, what do you think about science recognising an Aboriginal presence for 50,000 years? The old man looked quizzically at the reporter and said it is much longer. We were here in the time before time began. We have come directly out of the dream time of the creative ancestors and we have lived and kept the earth as it was on the very first day. What a statement. We have lived and kept the earth as it was on the very first day. Land was not bought and sold as a commodity to be plundered. It was treasured and revered. How important is this today in times of climate change, global warming, rising sea levels and catastrophic storms and crazy weather patterns? There is a special need and care for country. This is a message that wider society needs to listen to in this troubled 21st century. The earth is crying out a warning in despair. It is so critically important to realise that we are all floating on this one small speck in a vast universe and unless we protect and treasure it, we have no future. The time is now to act and protect Mother Earth so that you can be handed to each following generation to love and respect. It is something that our culture nurtured and entrusted to each following generation. People do not realise they don't have to go to Arnhem Land, the red centre or the Kimberley to be in the vicinity of Aboriginal sites of great cultural and spiritual significance. At the bottom end of Honeysuckle at Wickham or Derigaba flower on the sand there was a very significant Aboriginal ceremonial and carobery site. Another site at Gurukha, the entrance to Glenrock Lagoon on the Bluff on the southern side was a magnificent Bora Reef site. At Belmont Lagoon, the site of the story when the moon cried and formed the lagoon, was another major carobery site. At Genengra, Nordsworth, again a significant carobery and ceremonial site for all the local Aboriginal groups. At Walls End in what is now Nelson Street in the main shopping area was another major carobery site and just west of Walls End at Black Hill we have a major initiation and marriage site at Dockle, the place of truth. Unquestionably in this region we hold the greatest Aboriginal cultural knowledge collection retained in South Eastern Australia and we are indebted to the Aboriginal leaders of over 200 years ago who saw the importance of recording aspects of their culture, history and language. People like Biribang, Bowinba and Burrigan to name just a few. We are also thankful for people like the missionary, Ellie Threlkild, British Marine officers like Coke and Wallace, Australian Agricultural Company director Robert Dawson, convict artist Joseph Lysett and many others that followed like William Scott, Enright and Elkin who recorded important insights of Aboriginal culture in this region. Now what was life like for Aboriginal people before the British arrival? Let me just say that this place was a virtual paradise of plenty. There is so much evidence left in the archival record, of early settlers testifying to the rich Aboriginal lifestyle and the abundant supply of food resources within the local area. The health and imposing physical attributes of the local Aboriginal groups have browned through written records. According to one English observer in 1827, the natives of Coal River, Newcastle, were in general taller than the Europeans. You seldom see a black under five feet eight or nine inches. I have seen them about six feet four in height. It was little wonder that the local Aboriginal groups were in such noted physical condition. The surrounding area was abundant with a rich and varied supply of foods. William Scott, whose father was secretary of the AA company at Port Stevens, reminisced the waters of the bay teamed with fish of every description, easily taken at all times. The rocks were covered with oysters which formed a stable part of the Aboriginal diet. The bush abounded with game in the form of kangaroos, wallabies, possums, emus, flying foxes, wild ducks, swans, parrots. There were edible roots in the gullies, wild fruits in the bushes. It was really a land of plenty. Local Aboriginal people periodically fired the vegetation to secure food and to maintain favourable conditions for the growth of certain plants it had been to, and it has been termed fire stick farming. The Aboriginal use of fire is thus seen as the exercise of control over our environment for the promotion of food supplies. This burning off also prevented the sudden outbreak of catastrophic and uncontrollable fires. The results of fire stick farming are evidence in the records, and I quote, we descended into a small valley in the foothills where there was a large flock of kangaroos feeding upon the young and tender grass which had sprung up after the fires of the natives. The land and the magnitude of the game overwhelmed many, and I quote again. The banks on both sides for a quarter of a mile consisted of some of the richest alluvial soil I ever saw. It was overgrown in some places three feet high. We had now kangaroos on all sides of us. I have never seen such numerous flocks before. Aboriginal people were proficient marine farmers, and shellfish was a significant part of our diet because of its abundance. An observer in 1801 noted Aboriginal people taking great quantities of fish, particularly mullet which were large and well-favoured. Scott revealed that Aboriginal women were heavily involved in the process of marine harvesting. The lobsters were caught by the women who in the seafront dived down among the rocks for them. Scott gave a rich description in the art of fishing. Women use lines. The men mostly fished with the spear. They were extraordinarily skillful. It was interesting to watch the onslaught in the sea when the mullet came into the harbour. By some unearing instinct, the blacks knew to within a day when the first great shells would appear through the headland. Lieutenant Koch of the British Marines was vivid in his descriptions. We catch here eight or nine large fish called snapper in an hour, numbers of salmon, mullet, and we are obliged to kill four or five sharks. There are so many here. He also reported that the blacks swam to the seabed, returning with lobsters four times the size of anything we've ever seen in England. It has also been noted that Newcastle beaches frequently witnessed beached whales. This was looked upon as a great treat for the local people and messages traveled for miles inviting far off tribes and plans to come and enjoy the monstrous feast. The serenity, beauty, and abundance of natural foods available to the local Aboriginal population is illustrated when Reverend Middleton was accompanied by over 100 Aboriginal people to the shores of Lake Macquarie in 1821. And I quote, the whole surrounding country and lake were serene and spilt. Saltitude rained, no tree disturbed, and no trace of white man civilization. But all in its natural state, we enjoyed all the wild sports of Australian bush life. Shooting, fishing, kangarooing, and hunting, they supplied us with the finest mud oysters for which the waters of the lake are noted. These we scalloped on our bushfires and we spent five or six days of as much enjoyment as I ever had in any part of the world. The canoes used for fishing at a small hay-heart of clay for fire used to cook the fish as it was caught. It was a pleasing sight on a calm summer's evening to see a number of the native canoes on the glass-like surface of the lake, sending up their straight columns of smoke from the centres of the barks, showing an appearance of a fleet of small steamers at anchor. Now, it is also critically important in this place Newcastle in more contemporary times to note that before the establishment of heavy industry in Newcastle, mountainous shelled middens extended along the Hunter River from Port Waratah to Sandgate. In the 1970s, archaeologist Len Dyle expressed that the sheer size of these middens in the Newcastle area suggested a native population of some thousands. The people had the added rich resource of the swamp and wetland within their territory. Their already rich diet of the marine marsupial variety was supplemented with mud crabs, wild duck, waterfowl, and an endless variety of bird life. The area today known as Newcastle was an industrial, mining and trading centre long before white intrusion. The high proliferation of axe-grinding grooves within the Newcastle and Hunter Valley region confirmed the presence of a large-scale stone implement manufacturing industry. An early settler remarked, the large axes were beautifully ground and polished. An amount of trouble was taken in fixing handles to them. Years were often spent in grinding them and otherwise preparing them for use. The manufacturing of these tools and weapons was indeed an industrial process. The use of fire and heat in the manufacturing process has been well documented. Heat was required in the construction of these composite weapons and implements. Spear, spear thrower, and stone axe. The point of the spear was fire hardened. The bent stem used for the shaft was straightened with the assistance of heat. There were many working quarries used for tool and weapon construction within the Newcastle area. Stone implements have a short working life so that quarries of suitable stone had to be visited regularly. The sheer scale of Aboriginal manufacturing industry within the local area is well described. And I quote, few people in Newcastle know that at one time, not so very long ago, there was a munitions factory at Glenrock Lagoon. The factory was run by Aborigines in a strip of sand between the sea and the lagoon. From hard stone founded strata running from knobbies almost to redhead, the Aborigines made axes and weapons, many of which they traded to inland Aboriginal groups who had no suitable stone for manufacturing purposes. The local Aboriginal people preferred multi-purpose tools such as their edge ground axes, which doubled up as hammers and anvils, or those which could be quickly fashioned when the need arose. The local people possessed high level skills and technique for manufacturing a varied toolkit. Most of the large stone tools can be recognised as chisels, scrapers, graters, rafts and spoke shavers, all needed to make the wooden implements of boomerangs, clubbed, spare throwers, shields, food vessels, canoes and paddles, which were so widely used in daily life. In conclusion, as the Lysent Pitcher illustrates, this area was and remains an area rich in Aboriginal culture. The reality is that since the British arrival in 1788, we have always shown that we were prepared to share our knowledge on how to care and protect country. There is nothing more important to us. All we need is for people to listen and embrace our knowledge and understanding. This is a magnificent area and we are truly so lucky to live in such an environment. Let us hope that we can all share a future where we can join hands and walk on to adjust an equitable future for all Australians. My final message is to all of our people here tonight and all of those people who support us, stay strong. The struggle for Aboriginal fight for justice goes on. Thank you and have a great night. Thank you.