New braided knowledge understandings of an Aboriginal earth ring and biik wurrdha (Jacksons Creek, Sunbury) on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country, southeastern Australia

Abstract

Aboriginal rings are circular, earth (or rock) features that are preserved at increasingly fewer locations across eastern Australia today. While previous studies indicate these rings are sacred locations of ceremony, little is documented from cultural values and landscape perspectives–particularly in southeastern Australia. This study applies a braided knowledge approach to the study of an Aboriginal earth ring, and the broader biik wurrdha (Jacksons Creek, Sunbury) landscape, on Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung Country in southeastern Australia. It braids together knowledges documented during a Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung-led cultural values study of the biik wurrdha landscape to understand the cultural context of the ring, and Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung-led archaeological analysis of 166 stone artefacts excavated at the ring in 1979 to investigate past activities by Woi-wurrung speaking people at this location. The results bring together Wurundjeri Woi-wurrung people’s understandings of the biik wurrda cultural landscape and archaeological evidence for cultural fire, knapping, movement, trampling, and tool-use by their Ancestors at the ring. The results provide a deeper understanding of Aboriginal ring and landscape occupation in southeastern Australia following a braided knowledge approach.