Koori elders and dignitaries came to celebrate the launch of the book, which features the stories of 26 elders from across the Far South Coast.

Taken from oral histories researched and recorded by a team led by Susan Dale Donaldson, the elders have recounted simple, but powerful, memories of their families and growing up in the Bega Valley. 

As Ms Dale Donaldson notes in her introduction, “these stories are told with great generosity”.

Despite being memories that are filled with displacement and disadvantage, the stories are told without bitterness. 

Instead, the stories are simple, clear-eyed accounts of what it meant to grow up as a Koori and the importance of community, family and connection to the land.

Following a welcome to country by Djiringanj elder Colleen Dixon, Mayor Bill Taylor gave a speech talking about what the launch of this book meant to him. 

“These stories brought back to me memories of my childhood, but I was on the other side of the fence,” he said.

“I was part of the agricultural community here, I grew up on a farm in Jellat Jellat and I was surprised to see a picture in the book of that farmland.

“It’s a disappointment that we grew up living parallel lives but in the same town, I had a different understanding of growing up here than the Koori people who tell their stories in this book. 

“We were so ignorant and it brings tears to my heart that we had this other culture living beside us but were not involved with them and just didn’t bother to know.”

Cr Taylor also passed on condolences to the relatives of four elders featured in book who passed away before it was published.

Guests at the book launch were invited to participate in a smoke ceremony officiated by Djiringanj elder Stanley Dixon. 

In addition to friends and family of local elders, Koori students from Bega High School joined the event, which was catered for by the Bega Rotary Club. 

Koori Heritage Stories is a joint venture between the Bega Valley Shire Council, the NSW Office of Environment and Heritage, National Parks and Wildlife, the Biamanga National Park Board of Management and the Southern Rivers Catchment Management Authority.

“This collection of stories aims to foster a better understanding of how it has felt to be a Koori person in the Bega Valley Shire,” Ms Dale Donaldson said.

“As you read this collection of stories you will see how individual stories combine to form an overall picture of the lives and heritage of Koori people on the Far South Coast.”

Koori Heritage Stories is being distributed to local Aboriginal Lands Councils, libraries, schools, community groups and medical centres within the next few weeks.