On Thursday 30th August, a small team of volunteers from UQ Anthropology spent the day at Baryulgil cemetery in northern NSW. Baryulgil cemetery was recently recognised by the Heritage Division of the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage as an Aboriginal Place under section 84 of the National Parks and Wildlife Act (1974 NSW). As part of its ongoing protection, the Local Aboriginal Land Council (LALC) is in the process of gathering together additional physical knowledge of the place as well as stories of its importance to the community. The LALC contracted Dr Emma St. Pierre (Honorary Research Fellow in School of Social Science) and the team from Virtus Heritage (whose principal Dr Mary Jean Sutton is also a UQ graduate) to undertake a GPR survey of the cemetery in the hope of identifying the location of unmarked graves. They also invited Dr Sally Babidge and students Jo Anne Booth (ANTH/POLS), Kate Morris (ANTH/ARCA) and Morgan Marks (MaPCS, Rotary Peace Fellow) to assist. Sally, Jo, Kate and Morgan spoke with a group of elders and other members of the Baryulgil community (see images) about their memories of the place and their future interests in the site, while archaeologists undertook a GPR survey of the cemetery grounds.
UQ anthropology staff and students enjoyed a beautiful day in the bush, listening and making recordings that we hope will be of use to the Baryulgil community.
