Aunty Fran Bodkin
Northern Cemeteries is delighted to work collaboratively with First Nations Peoples across the broader Sydney region with regards to the natural resources and cultural principles of the original people of this continent. Our staff continue to learn and build relationship with local communities and other knowledge holders to understand the land that we live and work on.
Our ultimate goal is to create pathways for the wider community to connect and to be better informed about the original culture, natural resources and land management on which our cemetery sites are located.
Aunty Fran is a descendant of the D’harawal People and combines the knowledge she learnt from her mother with her western education creating a unique and holistic understanding of the natural environment weaving in traditional practises of caring for country.
Fran holds a Bachelor of Arts and Sciences with five majors, including Environmental Sciences and further postgraduate degrees. She has published 3 books on the D’harawal culture, stories and also about our natural world and the natural resources revealing the traditional six seasons of the Sydney basin.
Throughout her life her keen observations skills developed into her being a great scientist and storyteller. She talks about associative ecologies, and the ways people have been part of such ecologies for tens of thousands of years.
Aunty Fran is fun to be with and to listen to with more than eighty years of stories which she joyfully tells anyone who wants to listen.
Watch Seasons and Plants with Aunty Fran Bodkin: