The Sydney Morning Herald August 19, 2010

Steve Meacham

A long-forgotten Aboriginal skill has been revived in a south coast forest, writes Steve Meacham.

 
Labour of love ... James Dodd shapes and fires a stringybark tree to make a traditional bark canoe.

It has been 170 years since a full-sized ''nawi'' or traditional Aboriginal bark canoe capable of carrying two or three adults has appeared on the ever-moving waters of Sydney Harbour. Drawings and paintings showing the canoes co-existing alongside English sailing ships faded from view in the mid-1830s.

So why were a trio of dedicated enthusiasts delicately stripping the bark from a selected stringybark tree deep in a little-known Aboriginal lands council reserve on the south coast of NSW on a chilly winter's morning last month?

James Dodd, a teacher-turned-canoe maker, was supervising. Although not indigenous, he has become an expert in building what was the main form of marine transport on the east coast of NSW before 1788. One of his canoes was used recently in an ABC Message Stick documentary about the rebel Bidjigal leader Pemulwuy.

Also present was Paul Carriage, an Aboriginal cultural heritage officer at Forests NSW. He has never built a traditional canoe, but he knows where to find an appropriately sized stringybark tree, as well as the importance of resurrecting lost indigenous skills.

The third member of the group was the historian Keith Vincent Smith, whose doctoral thesis was based on his research into the interaction between Australia's native mariners and their antipodean equivalents - resulting in extraordinary journeys to the other side of the word.

''We all got a great sense of euphoria once we got the bark off that tree,'' Dodd says. ''It is an ancient skill. We made Aboriginal rope, too, from the inner bark. The others had never seen that before. It was a highly energetic day, and everyone felt a great sense of achievement at the end of it.''

The results of their activities - an authentic 4.4-metre nawi typical of those used by the Gadigal people of Sydney Harbour in 1788 - will be seen in September in a new exhibition at the State Library of NSW, Mari Nawi: Aboriginal Odysseys. (''Mari nawi'' - or big canoe - was the name indigenous people gave to the ships of the First Fleet.)

Dodd explains that the carpet-sized strip of inner bark they took from the narrow-leaved stringybark (Eucalyptus obliqua) that day in July was soaking in ''a billabong near Batemans Bay''.

The problem, says Smith, was that July was really too early to harvest the bark. ''The men usually made the canoes in August, after the spring rains. They'd go down the Parramatta River to select a stringybark. Then they'd cut it, shape it. It could be made in a day, but usually they would leave it for some time.''

Dodd agrees. ''The theory of Sydney canoe-making is that you should be able to strip the bark off the tree when it is rich in sap. Then you wouldn't need to soak it. You would just fire [the stripped bark] in the same way you would fashion a spear. Let it harden, then refashion it again … concertina-ing the canoe until the ends meet.''

But the next stage is authentic. Once the rectangular cloak of bark is removed from the billabong, Dodd will be firing it in the time-honoured fashion. ''The firing is important for the hardening and seasoning of the bark,'' he says. ''All the resins spread. You can see it. And the bark becomes even more pliable. You're trying to get a leathery effect. Then you can bunch it up and tie up the ends.''

Finally, the canoe will be secured, with cracks and holes filled with the waterproof resin of the Xanthorrhoea grass tree - what Smith calls ''the Aboriginal equivalent of an all-purpose supermarket glue''.

This might seem familiar if you've seen Rolf de Heer's provocative movie Ten Canoes, but think again. Canoes in (what is now) the Northern Territory were sewn, rather than tied. They also had prominent bows to cope with the swampy conditions rather than the low-slung craft employed on Sydney's waterways.

''This is the first replica of a full-sized canoe built to the specifications we know from the First Fleet reports,'' Smith claims. ''Typically they took a family - women and children.''

Despite a handful of First Fleet depictions of Aboriginal men aboard canoes, Smith says the canoes were mostly used by Aboriginal women in Sydney Harbour.

''Fishing was divided [along] gender lines,'' Smith says. ''The men fished by using their long, four-prong spears, wading waist-deep into the water by the rocks.

''The women went further out in the canoes, using lines and lures. They used a little curved shell hook, but they didn't bait it. There was no need, because fish were so plentiful.

''There were something like 300 species of fish between the northern warm waters and the southern cold waters of the Sydney region.''

How robust were the local canoes? Early reports from members of the First Fleet were hardly complimentary.

''The first printed reference to bark canoes at Botany Bay, from an anonymous and unauthorised author calling himself 'an officer', appeared in London in 1789,'' Smith says. ''The author scorned the 'despicable' bark canoes of the Sydney area, but praised the skill and boldness of the paddlers, noting that Aboriginal people took their canoes to sea and valued them highly.''

However, the canoes lasted three or four years; new ones were as highly prized as a new car would be today.

''Since European settlement, basically all these skills have been lost,'' Dodd says. ''One of the consequences is that people aren't interacting with the bush, so they are losing an understanding of the bush.'' That is reflected not just in forgotten skills such as the making of canoes and the gathering of bush foods, Dodd says, but poor bush fire hazard management. ''For me, it's an environmental thing.''

For Carriage, on the other hand, making the new nawi is a cultural statement. ''It has been a long time since anyone has built an old-style canoe here on the south coast of NSW,'' he says. ''Bringing back aspects of our [indigenous] culture is important for our younger people. It is imperative, I think, because it gives them a greater sense of being - more self-confidence and pride in themselves. ''People tend to think the only real Aboriginal culture is in the Northern Territory. They forget Aboriginal people are still alive and surviving in these areas of NSW as well.''