To identify strategies for the protection, management and presentation of Indigenous land and sea country heritage, a number of these values are described below. Although most of the heritage values are primarily in Commonwealth waters, many heritage values cross over State and Commonwealth marine and terrestrial boundaries, and require actions from both parties to achieve these goals.

a. Sea estates

Sea estates refer to the coastal and marine components of a Traditional Owner group’s country, and extend along the coast and out to sea to varying extents. Physical features in a land or seascape such as rivers, islands, mountains and reefs often mark their boundaries. Sea estates are the space in which various past and present sea country heritage values exist and where connections to sea country may be expressed.

b. Fish traps

A number of fish traps exist in the intertidal zones of the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area, especially the islands. They commonly exist as stone structures that use the incoming tides to bring the fish into the trap, then retain the fish as the tides recede. Some fish traps are well known in the public domain, such as the fish traps at Hinchinbrook Island, Magnetic Island, Gould Island and Boat Bay in Mission Beach. Others are likely to be well known only to those people for whom they play an important cultural and heritage role.

c. Burial grounds

Burial grounds are known to exist in the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area (GBRWHA) and are of high cultural and heritage significance to Indigenous peoples. Many thousands of years of rising sea levels have meant that many old burial grounds and sites have become immersed in seawater. Contemporary burial grounds also form a highly significant part of the region’s cultural heritage. A burial ground at Piper Island holds the remains of a prominent Traditional Owner who died in a marine accident while travelling from the Old Site at Lockhart River to Forbes Island. In this case, the vessel trip, vessel accident and burial place form part of the cultural heritage.

Erosion along the coast and islands has in the past exposed burial sites and remains. Traditional Owners have in the past conducted traditional reburials on islands within the Great Barrier Reef World Heritage Area. On some islands, within the World Heritage Area, there are massacre sites, which are very sensitive to Traditional Owners and require special management of heritage values.

d. Traditional cultural lifestyles

Traditional cultural lifestyles are an important aspect of Indigenous cultural heritage in the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and refer to the way in which people have, or continue to:

• Seek food for nourishment on a day-to-day basis and for special occasions and for ceremonies etc. (e.g. traditional use of marine resources)
• Seek natural products including plant material for the production of baskets, necklaces and other goods
• Implement, control and monitor traditional management measures to maintain biodiversity in the sea and on the land
  
• Develop and use knowledge systems including Traditional Ecological Knowledge, for day-to-day interactions with sea country.
  

e. Places of aesthetic value

Places of aesthetic value in land or sea country may include places that are underwater today, but were used as places to meet, eat, gather etc. when sea levels were lower. They may have rock art and/or shell middens associated with them, and may also include places that people look to from the land. Places of aesthetic value are likely to be used in similar ways today (i.e. for meeting, eating, gathering etc.) and may occur on land or in sea. For some Traditional Owner groups, the Great Barrier Reef and lagoon contain a large number of heritage sites and cultural places that are presently underwater. These places remain important for future management. 

f. Important grounds for traditional use of marine resources and breeding grounds

Areas in sea country may be valued by Traditional Owner groups for their ecological importance, and for what they provide in extractive and non-extractive cultural activities. Areas may be valued because they are known to be a good and consistent place for catching a certain type of fish, or because they are known to be breeding grounds for a particular kind of marine organism. Such areas continue to be subject to a range of traditional management measures including taboos, traditional access restrictions and catch limits.

g. Sacred sites of significance

Sacred sites may occur in sea country as features in a landscape, such as rocks, reefs, cays and islands and/or as areas such as channels and passages. Examples of sacred sites may include traditional initiation grounds, women’s birthing places, dreaming story places, ceremonial grounds, “bad luck” or “poison” places, burial grounds, and more. Sites may be associated with a long history of tradition (e.g.  sites associated with dreamtime stories), or may be given importance in contemporary settings due to contemporary contexts and events (eg. a place where many ships run aground might be considered a ‘bad luck’ place). Knowledge about sacred sites, and access to them, may be restricted to certain people based on one’s membership in a particular group, and/or according to factors such as gender, age, time of year, or according to a particular time in one’s life.

h. Ceremony sites

Ceremony sites may include sites for men or women, or both; and may exist underwater from former times, or on land or sea. They may refer to an area large enough to encompass several islands or reefs within a cultural landscape, or to a smaller area such as a bay, or a particular reef etc.

i. Totems

A totem could be a physical object or animal that is adopted as a family or clan emblem. Some Traditional Owner groups and individuals in the groups can be identified by their totems, which can be such things as birds, reptiles (like crocodiles), sharks, turtles and fish. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children are bestowed totems from an early age. They are an important part of their cultural identity and are especially significant in song, dance or names on cultural implements. Some clans forbid their individuals from hunting or eating the animal  that is their totem.

j. Storylines and songlines

In the Great Barrier Reef region, a number of storylines and song lines run across the land and into the water, linking natural environments and Traditional Owner groups, and crossing modern-day natural resource management jurisdictions. Various features in the landscape may represent parts of stories and may have songs associated with  them. For example, in the Tully - Cardwell - Townsville region, a number of Traditional Owner groups have a story line for the rainbow serpent, which moved from the Tully River, through the Hinchinbrook Channel, through the Palm Island  Group to Magnetic Island, which is the serpent’s head.

k. Practice of cultural protocols in sea country

A number of Traditional Owner groups practice cultural protocols for access to land and sea country, to pass land and sea country knowledge on to younger generations, and to manage land and sea country. Practice of these rules/protocols may involve travel to, or use of, a particular site or area in sea country and may be part of Traditional Owners’ expression of customary marine tenure. There may be a variety of rules for:

• Participation in various activities or ceremonies (for men, women or both, and involving members of one Traditional Owner group or several Traditional Owner groups)
• Transferring knowledge (this may result in the practice of new activities, or the power to sing, tell stories etc)
• Practice of traditional management measures (e.g. restrictions on fishing at certain times of the year)
  
• Ownership and use-rights between users of marine environments, including food allocation, division of labour for collection and production of food, and access to sea country and its resources.

l. Travel routes- ritual paths through land and sea country

Travel routes through land and sea country may refer to paths that ancestors have travelled for trade, hunting, ceremony, warfare or to collect resources; or in the Dreaming, and where people continue to travel to fulfil various obligations including for ceremonies or to collect resources etc.

m. Place Names / Area Names

Features in a seascape, and seascapes themselves, may have names to describe their shape, their geological composition, their colour, various flora or fauna associated with them (e.g. a place where fish congregate), various conditions associated with them (e.g. a place where wind comes up), and more. Names may also be given to places and areas according to their connection with a story or song (i.e. where such-and-such happened) or according to their connection with current practice (i.e. where such-and-such happens). Names may spread beyond tribal boundaries, and may exist along the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park in over twenty distinct languages.

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Citation and/or URL

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Heritage Strategy 2005.  Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority, Commonwealth Government.   

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Spatial Coverage

Great Barrier Reef Marine Park

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Temporal Coverage

2005

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Update Frequency

Not applicable 

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Other Information

 None