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Womin djeka meeram biik biik. Boon wurrung nairm derp bordrupen uther weelam.
I would like to pay my respects to RMIT – you come with purpose to our beautiful home, the lands of the two bays.
My name is N’arweet Carolyn Briggs and I am a senior elder and a proud descendant of the Yalukit-willam of the Eastern Kulin Nations.
It is my great pleasure to be able to welcome all of you today. But it is my responsibility to ensure that you come with a purpose.
Womin djeka.
I do so not on only on behalf of my ancestors of the Yalukit-willam, I do so on behalf of all First Nations People on whose lands we meet today.
The First Nations People across Australia all share a special connection to the lands and waters of their ancestors that has not been disconnected since the millennia, despite the dispossession, the displacement and the discrimination that we have all experienced over the last 200 years.
This connection dates back to our creation stories. For the Boon wurrung, our Creation stories tell us about Bundjil – our creative spirit who travels as an eagle – and how he created the lands and waters around where we meet today. He also created the Kulin Nations. He taught them about the circular relationship they had with these lands and waters, in order for us to be taken care of by the land. We also had to take care of the land, and we did this through adhering to the Wurrungi biik – our laws of the land, our customary laws. Much like the laws we have today, these laws dictate how we interact with each other, how we interact with the land and how we conduct ourselves while we are on other peoples’ countries.
The Boon wurrung Wurrungi biik speaks three specific laws.
The first law: Yulendj. It is the responsibility that we have for knowledge. We have responsibility to our younger generation to maintain that knowledge and pass it down, so it can be used by our future generations – our yirramboi.
We also have the law of Djambana. This law speaks of community, the importance of community, the importance of diverse community, but a unified community. The Yalukit-willam of the Boon wurrung People of the Eastern Kulin Nations understood the power of diversity – that it is within our lands and increases our capability. It is always good to share our stories and different experiences. However, they understood how to utilise this very powerful tool. They had to identify our common purpose, and what things we all have in common.
Finally, the last law is our Connection to Country. We might call it honouring sacred ground. Paying respects to our past generations, to the people who took care of the land before us, and the people who have lived and died on this land before we were here. Paying respects to the stories and history of the lands in which we live today.
We are very fortunate in this continent we now know as Australia to have 80,000 years of human history, and it is most important that we pay respects to that history – not only while we are at home but when we are at work.
If you adhere to these three Wurrungi biiks, I can say in the words of my ancestors.
Womin djeka meeram biik biik Boon wurrung nairm derp bordrupen uther weelam. (Come with purpose to my beautiful home, land of the two bays).
Ngun godjin. (Thank you).
