Project History

The Yuin Digital Keeping Place is an online portal housing more than 160 short films, three language dictionaries, and cultural and historical documentation drawn from state institutions, local archives, and personal collections. Developed as a collaboration between representatives from the Yuin community and SharingStories Foundation, the project aims to maintain and reaffirm Yuin cultural knowledge and language, and develop a shared sense of belonging with the wider community.

In 2022, SharingStories Foundation met with artist Cheryl Overton about the potential of collaborating on an individual arts project. Cheryl initiated the idea of a community project which led to consultations with the Guluga and Biamanga Boards of Management. The joint Boards invited the organisation into the community and approved a list of possible Elders and Community Leaders to engage between Eden and Batemans Bay. The Yuin Project Working Project was established with ten members 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 2023, consultations were held with the Yuin Project Working Group who identified the need for an online Digital Keeping Place to share cultural knowledge and language with current and future generations. The project also includes non-Aboriginal information that impacts Yuin people. Funding was sought and granted by The National Indigenous Australians Agency with additional funding from The Australian Governments Indigenous Languages and Arts Program.

Throughout 2024 and 2025, SharingStories Foundation met quarterly with the Project Working Group who collaborated on and directed 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. Filming, content creation and website development was undertaken in 2025 and the Yuin Digital Keeping Place website was launched at the Giiyong Festival in Eden on 22 November 2025.