Gumbaynggirr

The traditional lands of the Gumbaynggirr nation stretch from Tabbimoble Yamba-Clarence River to Ngambaa-Stuarts Point, SWR- Macleay to Guyra and to Oban.

Clement Hodgkinson was the first European to make contact with the local Aboriginal community when he explored the upper reaches of the Nambucca and Bellinger Rivers in March 1841.

Lindt produced photographs of local indigenous people both in their environment and conducting actual traditional ceremonies in the Clarence River district,[1][2] and made portraits in his studio.

"[4] The Sydney Morning Herald, of 24 November 1874 expanded on what made the photographs attractive to Europeans: There is no settled portion of our colony which affords a better field for the study of aboriginal bush life than that presented by our northern rivers, for there – although decreasing yearly in numbers as their territories become more settled upon by white population – the local original inhabitants preserve their customs and traditions, adhering more closely to true aboriginal life than tribes in other districts of New South Wales, and Mr Lindt can be complimented upon the artistic use he has made of the rugged subjects he has had at his disposal.

[5] The report clearly sets out a cynical nostalgia for the traditional ways of these people made sentimental by noting their 'decreasing numbers', expressing a common attitude amongst the colonists that the Indigenous populations were doomed.

This resulted in relocation of Aboriginal people from their ancestral homes, only to be returned later after years of trauma (the Stolen Generations)[citation needed] The Gumbaynggirr have the largest midden-shell deposit in the Southern Hemisphere.

[19] The Gumbaynggirr made sweets (bush lollies, called jaaning)[a] by rolling tender shoots from the Acacia irrorata in the sap oozing from the tree.