Shell Middens

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- We're in south-west Tasmania at Stephens Bayand we're here to have a look at a midden.The middens are incredibly importantAboriginal cultural heritage sites.They're found all around the coast of Tasmaniaand basically they're the living places of our ancestorsso they're places where familiesand extended families have come together,collect shell fish and have a meal.Set up camp, yeah, so middens are basicallythe leftovers of those living places.Shell middens are one of the most common sitesfound in Tasmania and they're fairly easy to identifythrough the shell types that you would normally findso you're looking for large, edible shell fish,like abalone, whelks, warrener,sometimes oysters, mussels and you might also findstone tools, or charcoal left from camp firesand they built up over thousands and thousands of yearsof people coming back to the same placeand then setting up campand so they'll often end up in a big moundbut some other middens are a lot more discreetand you might just see layers of midden in the soil.So if you come across a midden,it's really important to not walk all over it.Not to trample all over,not to pick anything up or take anything away from the site.Try and stay on the outskirts and admire itand appreciate it and think aboutwhat those sites mean to the Tasmanian Aboriginal communityand what they mean to the broader community in general.Yeah it's an incredible feeling to bein places like this.You know they're usually in some of the most spectacularplaces around Tasmania,so you know, great views, great beachesbut also it's that spiritual connection I thinkto the place and knowing that our ancestorshave been here for so long and that these are the placesthat they chosen to live.