Wominjeka fellow travellers!
This Sunday we celebrate Hurstbridge Wattle Festival and since 1910, the 1st September has been a day of celebration in Australia that marks the official start of Spring, known as ‘Poorneet’ in Wurundjeri.
Wurundjeri people used wattle in numerous different ways, for food, tools, medicine and ceremonies. Wattle seeds were ground into a flour, and a damper type of bread was cooked in the hot ashes of the fire. The gum of the wattle was used as an antiseptic for minor cuts and abrasions and also as a glue for binding flint or bone to spear heads.
Today we welcome the first wattle blooms as a sign the worst of the cold winter weather is behind us and the rebirth that comes with a warmer sun is beginning. First Nations people would have used this time to start moving to lower ground from the shelter of the surrounding high country where the abundance of food was now growing daily.
We celebrate this change of season and the rebirth it brings in Hurstbridge Village today, not just in the colour of our beautiful wattle but in the changing of attitudes to our first peoples and the road to reconciliation that we all travel.
Have a great Wattle Festival this Sunday! Triganin – see you soon!
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Images:
CSIRO ScienceImage 4021 Seeds of the Elegant Wattle Acacia victoriae
CSIRO ScienceImage 3155 Roasted and Ground Seeds of the Elegant Wattle Acacia victoriae
Advance Australia postcard – circa 1910
“Wattle Flower” by HerPhotographer
‘Wattle time: Travel by train’ poster 1923–28, James Northfield Heritage Art Trust. National Library of Australia obj-2626925936
Hurstbridge Wattle Festival 1912
