boat people how to know this land as their mother too. 394
The new piano soundscape was in this research, perceived as a modern Australian sound of the 21st century. Using this piano sound to play the historic chant manuscripts brings the old stories and descriptions of place into the present. The aspect of ‘place’, the land the Conservatorium was situated on, as well as my cultural relationships to that place were expressed in this music very easily. This ease, a natural connection, supported my aspirations for using the Stuart piano sound to collaborate with the Aboriginal music practices of Sydney.
What we know about this place.
• Aboriginal people have lived in the Sydney region for over 47,000years, an age established by archeological discoveries.395
• ii) Over 4340 archaeological sites have been recorded and registered with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service in the Sydney region.396
• iii) The accounts of Lt David Collins, Captain Watkin Tench ,Captain John Hunter, and paintings by Thomas Botting, and Joseph Lycette and engravings by James Neagle document evidence of ceremonial corroborees occurring in the same location that this research is being conducted in.397
Ritual played a significant part in their lives; Woccanmagully (Farm Cove) was an initiation site while corroborees took place at Walla Mulla (Woolloomooloo).
The decision to build on the eastern side of the Cove allowed [Gov] Phillip to determine that the entire area east of the Tank Stream, across to the stream that ran into Woolloomooloo Bay, would be reserved for the Governor’s use. This was not always taken with good grace, but it did prevent early commercial development.
It did not stop destruction of the native trees that had covered the Domain, nor did it prevent Aborigines being displaced from their ceremonial grounds of the ‘Kangaroo and Dog Dance’ on the tidal flat of Farm Cove, or Woccanmagully as it was known. 398
• The spoken language vocabularies spoken by the Sydney Aboriginal people were notated by William Dawes and many others in the early years of white settlement and are compiled into several language directories.399
395Nanson,G.C,Young,RW& Stockton,E.D (1987) Chronology and palaeoenvironment of Cranebook Terrace (near Sydney), containing artefacts more than 40,000 years old. Archaeology in Oceania (1987) 22 (2) 72-78
396 Val Attenbrow, Sydney’s Aboriginal Past, (Sydney:University of New South Wales Press Ltd, 2002)
397 2 Collins, 365.; ii) Watkin Tench, 1788 Book 2 Complete Account of the Settlement at Port Jackson :Transactions of the colony in April and May 1789 : Source Tim Flannery, Two Classic tales of Australian Exploration, (Melbourne: Text Publishing 1996); iii) John Hunter, An Historical Journal of the Transactions at Port Jackson and Norfolk Island (London: Printed for John Stockdale, 1793).
398 History of the Domain The Royal Botanic Gardens and Domain Trust (accessed 15 Nov 2015).
http://www.rbgsyd.nsw.gov.au/welcome/royal_botanic_garden/history/discovering_the_domain/History,
399 Language notebooks and responses to language contact in early colonial NSW”. Australian Journal of Linguistics, vol. 12, (1992): 145-170. ; Green, R. Dharug Dalanghttp://www.dharug.dalang.com.au, accessed Aug.’15 Centre for Technology
Information and Technoloy and Solutions, NSW Government.; Steele, J. ( 2005) A Partial Reconstruction of the Indigenous
