Wiradjuri Nation: Aboriginal elder, Rylstone man, Wally Washbrook. cont. P.16

Left: a grinding stone for Aboriginal women to grind seeds into flour. Right: Aboriginal stick tools.

Mr Washbrook said every Aboriginal tribe has its own particular patterns that are used in paintings and drawings, and no other tribe is allowed to use them.
 
The patterns today are copyright, and cannot be used by anyone without permission from the tribe the patterns belong to.
 
Each intricate pattern has religious and cultural meanings, which are layered, and each layer only known to the person authorized in the tribe to know that level. The deeper the meanings, the more secret they are.
 
Mr Washbrook said Aboriginal people carried little as they travelled from place to place, and made new tools from local stone, sharpening and grinding them on harder stones.
 
Camps were usually beside water, and this assisted in the grinding process.
 
“They made the tools on the occupational site at the camp,” Mr Washbrook said, showing some abandoned spear head artefacts that were not finished because of one problem or another.

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