Our Story

Drawn from personal, local, state and national archives and collections, the Yuin Digital Keeping Place is designed to be a rich and deep learning experience about life for Aboriginal people on the Far South Coast of NSW. 

The Keeping Place holds more than 160 short films, three language dictionaries, Custodian biographies, photo collections, a community photo gallery, articles, and timeline of defining moments in history. 

Developed as a collaboration between the Yuin community and SharingStories Foundation, the project aims to record Yuin cultural knowledge, language and history, and share and celebrate this with the wider community.

Initially planned as an arts project with visual artist Cheryl Overton (Davison), the opportunity was opened up into a community project. Consultations were undertaken with the Guluga and Biamanga Boards of Management who invited SharingStories into the community and approved a list of possible Elders and Community Leaders to engage between Eden and Batemans Bay. 

In 2022, a Working Project was formed to devise the project, including: Bunja Smith (Batemans Bay), Patricia Ellis OAM (Moruya), Vivienne Mason (Narooma), Lynne Thomas (Narooma), Cheryl Davison (Tilba), Warren Foster (Wallaga Lake), Gary Campbell (Wallaga Lake), Judy Norris (Cobargo), BJ Cruse (Eden) and Lorraine Naylor (deceased). Continued efforts to source a community Elder from the Bega community were unsuccessful.

Throughout consultations in 2023, the Project Working Group identified the need for an online Digital Keeping Place to share cultural knowledge and language with current and future generations and as a truth telling and relationship building process with the wider community. 

Funding was sought and granted by The National Indigenous Australians Agency with additional funding from The Australian Governments Indigenous Languages and Arts Program and Creative Australia.

Throughout 2024 and 2025, SharingStories Foundation met quarterly with the Project Working Group who directed and participated in all aspects of the project including project design and governance, cultural mapping of content, film production, branding and marketing, website layout and design, and language work. 

The Yuin Digital Keeping Place website was proudly launched at the Giiyong Festival in Eden on 22 November 2025. The Working Group would like to thank the community for supporting the project.