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Here are some words from Allan Carriage:

Abuse of water resources

I would like people to understand that water is a  very  strong part of Aboriginal religion. Water was used by our women, where it falls off the high rocks, to have their children. They had their children next to waterfalls.  Water is sacred to the Aboriginal people - moving water makes noises and the baby was more relaxed, my mother used to tell me; it made birth more easy for women. It's been handed down to me from my mother.

The fine mist from the waterfalls used to fall all over the ferns and put a glittering mist on delicate ferns in the rainforest when the sun hit it. It was a gentle way of nature watering their very delicate plants.

We have abused this system of our waters so much that money cannot pay for the damage what has been done to it. What's our future generations going to do?  The land,  the sandstone , will keep moving for years after the support has been taken from underneath it and the water will end up where it will do damage to long term issues - it is going into the coal mines.

Protection of the land and culture

I do not know how people can think money can keep our environment together. We need to be more aware of the environment and what we have done to the catchment areas. I feel sorry for my peoples' and the non-Aboriginal peoples' children and my people's religion. My people used to treat the heritage with respect. We never abused one place too much. You call us walkabout - but we walked about for a good reason - to protect our environment and our culture.

I have sat in the court for many years and got abused by the white man's legal system on about the long term damages on our waters and rainforest and Aboriginal history and culture; our creeks and estuaries, our waterways. A lot of fish come up there to lay their eggs and we are putting concrete barriers in the way. The fish names are snapper, trevally, silver biddies, mullet, yellow-eye mullet, pink-eye mullet, the bully mullet, bream and many other breeds of fish.

Aquifers are being destroyed elimination water supple's for flora and fauna

Some of our old people know freshwater is vital to our flora, our fauna (ocean and land) and most of all for the Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal people. I went to a couple of sites at Kangaloon and they were pumping water out of the sandstone pockets which act as a sprinkler system to our rainforests. That is heritage water, spiritual heritage water being pumped from our basin of sandstone to make the rivers run. There are big pockets of sandstone what holds water. I don't know if people realise this or not. My elders taught me about the vital role of the sandstone. It cannot support itself for that vital role if support is taken from underneath it and our water is going down where it is doing no good for our animals and our flora and our future children. 

I wish our powerful people would understand how important that is to our heritage and environment of Aboriginal people and non-Aboriginal people.

Longwall mining causing destruction of river beds

The animals knew where the closest water to the surface was because they used to go drinking water at Kangaloon and they used to dig  a hole and the water used to be there for them to drink from it - that has all disappeared. I don't know about our fragile flowers that depend on that water - how they are going to survive I don't know. I am very worried about the toxins out of the shale that will sooner or later get into our drinking water, if it's not happened already. I have seen many riverbeds  fell away and caved in because the support has been taken from underneath them.

We still have our religion in our hearts,  our culture, our environment, our water and our tribal areas.

Failure of government to recognise irreversible damage to essential water sources

Our religion is still strong there.  Your leaders are still assimilating us with the white man's law. They don't realise what's really happening to the land that they live on.  I do not know what to say any more. I've been abused all the way through the legal system trying to bring awareness to everybody of Aboriginality in this land and a big part of this land is water.  I've been to many meetings trying to bring this water issue awareness to my non-Aboriginal brothers and sisters but  I think they don't seem to understand.

They don't even obey their own law.

My Mum  and my Aunties, the main elders in Wollongong area and Botany Bay, used to fight in the same area that I am fighting in now about water and heritage and religion, the governments broke their hearts  many times.  I've got a very strong heart for other peoples' well being. I just wish the governments and BHP would have a good heart towards my people and our waterways. My heart has taken a hell of a hiding too. I know that a lot of my people are trying to do the same thing; they've seen what the white man's law  has done to country through greed but they are frightened to speak out.

I feel like government is just giving us flour & beads like in the old days, and hoping we accept that through the legal system today. My people didn't accept it then and I do not know why the government is trying make us accept it now. I thought we were more advanced.

Allan
Tribal Elder
Wadi Wadi People 

Wadi Wadi History - Lake Illawarra Authority

Before European settlement, many Aboriginal groups lived on the NSW south coast. The area from Bulli and Stanwell Park, in the north, to Shoalhaven and Kangaroo Valley in the south was and still is called Thurawal. There were many different Aboriginal groups living in the Illawarra region. The Wadi Wadi people occupied the southern part of the Thurawal area with several camp sites around Lake Illawarra including Berkeley and Hooka Creek. They moved freely throughout the region and shared resources with their near neighbors without fear of trespassing.

Lake Illawarra was a valuable source of food and spirituality for the Wadi Wadi people. Burial sites and middens (shell and camp rubbish heaps) discovered at Windang (meaning "battlefield") and surrounding areas indicate that the Wadi Wadi used the area extensively and performed various corroborees and ceremonies here.

Life for the Wadi Wadi revolved around seeking food, finding shelter, participating in ceremonies and managing family matters. Men performed specific hunting duties and ceremonies, and the women were responsible for fishing, gathering food, cooking and rearing the children.

Most families lived in the open, or within gunyahs (bark shelter or hut) or rock shelters, their only clothing consisting of possum skins and personal adornments such as hairbelts and shell necklaces.

There were, and still are, hundreds of different Aboriginal languages spoken on the Australian continent. The Wadi Wadi people spoke a version of the Thurawal language. Many of the town and locality names in the Illawarra have derived from this language - Tongarra, Kiama, Illawarra, Wollongong, Minnamurra (plenty fish), Dapto (broken foot, Unanderra (place of larrikins, Bellambi (no), Towradgi (sacred site), Cringila (pipeclay), Warrawong (side of hill), Bulli (two).

The Wadi Wadi people found time in their day for leisure. Children especially played games of throwing spears at targets and small game. Ball games, using a ball made from soft bark tied with sinew or yarn, were also played. Making animal tracks in the sand was popular and taught the children to recognise the different tracks, a skill necessary for hunting. Games which involved remembering how a group of objects were arranged on the ground helped develop skills in observation.

Swimming and body surfing at nearby Windang Beach were also popular activities. On special occasions, other Aboriginal groups would gather together prompting contests in spear and boomerang throwing and dancing.

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