Reconciliation at Ginninderra

Ngunawal Custodian Wally Bell will officially welcome community planters onto Country at Ginninderra on Sunday 27 May, as National Reconciliation week opens across Australia. It’s the final two days to register to take part in the event.

Community volunteers at this weekend’s shrub planting day will have the privilege of being ‘Welcomed to Country’ by Ngunawal Elder and Custodian, Wally Bell.

As well as the formal Welcome, Wally will be leading a walk through the old scribbly gum trees at Ginninderra, providing insights into Indigenous history and heritage of the immediate landscape and broader Ginninderra catchment.

Wally, who also represents the Buru Ngunawal Aboriginal Corporation and Mulanggang Traditional Aboriginal Landcare Group, has an ongoing involvement with the Ginninderra site and with our community planting partner, the Ginninderra Catchment Group.

Above: Ngunawal Custodian, Wally Bell at a recent cultural ‘cool’ burn.

He has provided input into the salvage of artefacts at Ginninderra and on conservation measures for protecting heritage features, as well as strengthening the connection between Aboriginal communities and their heritage values.

Wally mentored the Aboriginal Green Army plantings at Ginninderra that complemented the community plantings in 2017, and regularly provides advice on the cultural/‘cool burns’ to guide autumn burning activities such as at the grassland restoration trials at Ginninderra, and across the catchment.

We are very thankful to Wally and indeed to all of the Aboriginal Groups who contribute their knowledge, expertise, wisdom and advice to CSIRO and the Ginninderra project.

Recreating shrub layer in Dry Forests

Many thanks to all of our community volunteers who planted around 750 plants at the first planting day of 2018 last Sunday. Your enthusiasm and efforts are helping to recreate a shrubby layer in the Box Gum Woodlands and Dry Forests at Ginninderra.

Above: Planting action from community volunteers last Sunday.