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Home » Themes » Culture » Indigenous
Aboriginal Grave MarkerPrint Page 
Headstone painted with local flora and fauna relevant to the local Aboriginal people erected in remembrance of families and friends who are laid to rest in the cemetery.
The headstone was created by five students at TAFE Western who finished the 10 week course in Wellington, which taught basic literacy and numeracy skills and how to cut material like granite and to do inscriptions.
In a bid to get more Aboriginal people involved in “sorry business”, the traditional processes of dealing with death, Teresa Yasserie of the Aboriginal Education Training Unit, funded courses in Bourke, Dubbo and Wellington that would involve a broad range of skills and training.
The monuments are in memory of the Aboriginal people buried with no remaining headstones to indicate the location of the graves. The monument for the Old Wellington Cemetery depicts a goanna, the area totem, while the Falls monument depicts other totems for families of the area: the possum, black snake and echidna.
The monuments have taken since February to complete because of the weather and the difficulty of the paint drying.
“It introduced me back to skills I’d learnt before, but brought me up to using them again,” student Raymond Newman said of the program. He felt that it also helped him foster qualities which he hadn’t sought out, but would be useful in the future. “I also took on a leadership role, people looked up to me and if I can help other people to get there I will,” he said.
Wellington Times (NSW), 29 July 2013.
Location
| Address: | Mitchell Highway , Wellington Cemetery , Wellington, 2820 |
|---|---|
| State: | NSW |
| Area: | AUS |
| GPS Coordinates: | Lat: -32.581836 Long: 148.953183 Note: GPS Coordinates are approximate. |
Details
| Monument Type: | Monument |
|---|---|
| Monument Theme: | Culture |
| Sub-Theme: | Indigenous |
Dedication
| Actual Monument Dedication Date: | Wednesday 14th August, 2013 |
|---|
In remembrance
of our Aboriginal
families and friends
who are laid to rest here.
