Mutton Fish
The surviving culture of Aboriginal people and abalone on the south coast of New South Wales
The people of the south coast of NSW have a long and complex relationship with the coastal environment; one that has nurtured them for thousands of years. Mutton Fish includes lively interviews with Aboriginal people who have fished traditionally and taken part in the modern fishing industry. With clarity, it introduces some of the issues that arise when Indigenous cultural practice confronts white law.
They used to gather mutton fish and trade with Chinese people...it would really be a family gather, where men would be diving, gathering mutton fish, bringing it to share and women and kids would be lighting the fires. So our people started trading way back then.
Mutton fish, or abalone, is a subsistence food easy to find and harvest, extremely rich in energy and accessible for as long as the beaches are freely open to all. Mutton Fish, unique in its breadth and accessibility, seeks to tell of this relationship and what has happened to the south coast people as their access to the coastal resources has been progressively restricted by European competition.
The authors have created a thoroughly researched, readable history of Indigenous life on south coast NSW. Mutton Fish includes lively interviews with Aboriginal people who have fished traditionally and taken part in the modern fishing industry.
Production Details
- Paperback
- 230mm x 150mm x 7mm
- 128pp
- Released April 2005
- ISBN 9780855754822
Contents
Preface
Acknowledgments
Illustrations
Introduction
Map
WALKUN
Chapter 1: A Day on the Beach
Chapter 2: What the Middens Tell Us
MUTTON FISH
Chapter 3: Early Contact
Chapter 4: Land
Chapter 5: Livelihood
Chapter 6: Life on the Beaches
ABALONE
Chapter 7: Put in for a Licence
Chapter 8: Bag Limits
Chapter 9: Court Cases
Chapter 10: The Future
Glossary
References
Notes
Index
About The Author
Beryl Cruse was born in Port Macquarie in 1934. Her mother came from the Campbell family of the south coast.
Liddy Stewart was born in Gunnedah in 1941 and came to the south coast aged 17 years.
Sue Norman was born in Melbourne in 1953 and moved to the south coast in 1982. Along with Beryl, Liddy and others, she helped produce the children’s book, Bittangabee Tribe.
All three women are at present working to establish an archive at the Monaroo Bobberrer Gudu Keeping Place outside of Eden, and love to eat mutton fish
About The Cover
Front cover: (Top) View of fish trap area at Mystery Bay, Narooma Region. (David Jefferies, After 200 Years project, 1989, AIATSIS Collection); (Bottom) Shane Carriage with Keith Nye in background, cleaning mutton fish at Bateman's Bay,1989. (David Jefferies, After 200 Years project, 1989, AIATSIS Collection).