ABOUT
The Dharug Durumbura Dhurabang (aka Lane Cove River) Wellbeing Project is an extension of existing Macquarie University post-doctoral research involving activation and the regeneration of Dharug (traditional custodians’) cultural practices to Dharug Ngurra/Country-as-city at one river location: Brown’s Waterhole (BWH). It includes the return of Dharug women’s-led cultural fire practices to nurture the soil, the plants, the fauna and avian life in a manner that resumes traditional custodians' ways of knowing, being and doing into the inner urban environment of what today is called Sydney, Australia. Resuming cultural fire, and women’s-led practices mitigates the likelihood of mega-fires that have devastated south-eastern towns and districts in recent years, through cool-fire nurturing.
This local Dharug activism is historic and a first, in this area, since early colonisation by the British. The research is creating important impact through State Government agencies such as mainstream fire and National Park managers
CONTEXT
The Durumbura Dhurabang (Lane Cove River) is an inner urban river that flows from the high ridgeline in north-west Sydney into Sydney Harbour’s significant western river, the Parramatta River. The Durumbura has many creeks and tributaries that flow into it, each potentially environmentally problematic due to the urban development all around.
Recent (2023) Professional and Community Engagement (PACE) student research of one tributary has shown that there are 3 times the acceptable mercury levels, as well as very high levels of poly-carbons and phosphorous within the creek. It is likely all the other creeks and catchments contain similar high pollution levels, all of which are affecting the marine life and health of the river as a whole.
Given the river’s valley areas form the Lane Cove National Park, home to 14 threatened species, including the Powerful Owl, Grey-headed flying fox, and Glossy Black Cockatoo, urban fauna and flora sanctuaries are critical to the biodiversity that is at the heart of this continent’s wellbeing.
Additionally, with 6 local councils, together supporting more than half a million human residents (2021 figures), some of the world’s biggest corporations, as well as Macquarie University and Hospital, the Durumbura River and Her valley’s wellbeing is critical to the wellbeing of Her human neighbours.
PURPOSE
In the context of human-induced climactic crises, the project aims to expand the research from one place along the river, to a whole-of-river approach, by formulating a Dharug Biocultural Zone. This holistic approach will bring together Dharug community, the neighbours and relevant stakeholders of the Durumbura Dhurabang, in order to establish a variety of sustainable approaches to care for this urbanised river as Country-in-the city.
Centering traditional custodian Indigenous values and practices, places the river at the heart, rather than human beings, and sets a precedent within Australian urban metropolitan settings by regenerating knowledges, ontologies and practices that have sustained this continent for many thousands of years before colonisation. As such it offers transformational opportunities to provide sustainable futures.
Through the river, including her riparian and catchment areas, research and training can be undertaken that returns Indigenous fire, water, astronomy, earth, medicine, and local language knowledges and practices upon which the localised biodiversity relies, while concurrently incorporating relevant western knowledges and technologies to assist.
Bringing relevant stakeholders together offers educational, business, scientific, artistic, and healthy, practical outcomes for future generations. Together we restore Living Ngurra/Country for sustainable futures.
