Final-community Guide 03 04

                            OUR UNIQUE
                                              HISTORY
                                                     KINSHIP
P   revious editions of Council’s Community
    Guide     have    charted    some    of   the
chronological history of Noosa (copies available
                                                     In traditional Indigenous society, each family
                                                     was an extended family with each member
from Publicity Officer Susie Osmaston on             giving support of every kind to all other
5449 5282 [email protected]).                     members. Though there were hierarchical
                                                     obligations to observe, in the main each separate
The following Aboriginal history notes were
                                                     family unit in turn shared what they could with
provided by the Cooroora Historical Society.                                                                     For more information on
                                                     other families in that group.
ENVIRONMENT                                                                                                      Noosa’s history, check the
                                                     In these societies, rules of descent were based on
The original Indigenous inhabitants of Noosa         matrilines or patrilines; i.e. group names,           Noosa Shire Digital Heritage
traditionally believed that every animal, bird and   custodial responsibilities and decisions regarding    Network website :
rock that belonged to their group’s totem species    land were passed down through children of the
was, in fact, the actual living spirit of an                                                               www.heritagenetwork.org
                                                     female or through the male. Matrilineal descent
ancestor. As a result each member felt a definite    was locally expressed as “we take our tribe from
kinship with that species. The totem, if it were a   our mothers.”
bird or animal, was never hunted or killed for
                                                     A matriline did not infer female control and
food by the person whose totem it was.
                                                     children inherited certain rights from both
The seasonal nature of food resources meant          parents. However, the right to and decisions
that Aboriginal groups travelled over what           regarding land came through the female. The
seemed to non-Indigenous people a vast area.         strongest male in such a group was a woman’s
Weather and seasonal variation affected shellfish    mother’s eldest brother (not the woman’s father).
supplies so that land-based resources needed to      The    group    recognised      close   patrilineal
be used to supplement their diet. The seasonal       relationships and, where appropriate, cared for
availability of fruits, grasses and vegetables       and treated the children of male relatives (whose
meant that groups travelled to these locations       partners were not members of the group) as
when necessary. This seasonal migration was a        close kin. Power was vested in both a male and
form of conservation.                                female Council of Elders.

By varying their diet to include everything in the   FOOD GATHERING AND HUNTING
area that was at all edible, the Aborigines          The role of Aboriginal women in the task of
ensured that the one or two favoured food items      supplying food was to gather and cook the
would not cease to exist.                            smaller creatures and the plant-associated foods




                                                                                                                    This page: Netting in the river;

                                                                                                               King Brown & Susie at Cootharaba.


                                                                                                                  Opposite page: Ready for hunting;

                                                                                                              Grinding the bungwall stone at Bribie

                                                                                                             Island; Old growth forest; Mt Cooroora


                                                                     42