Lady of the Lake is the story of Gunditjmara Elder Aunty Iris Lovett-Gardiner and her life at Lake Condah in the western districts of Victoria. "The Lake Stony Rises" is an excerpt.

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TRANSCRIPT

This place here is part of the lake. But it was big. It was really big, and there used to be a lot of water fowl, like swans, and ducks, and everything else, were around here now. You can hear their voices, swans as they're calling to each other, or whatever they're doing. And in the time of my people, when they roamed around this area, the lake was the thing that fed them, and the birds, and the fish, and things like that, they didn't have to move away from the area to look for food, because it was right within their back door, as you might as well say.

And I can remember the time at the mission when that swamp there too was full of ducks, and swans, and everything else. And Dad and Uncle Chrissy used to go down and get a swan's egg for breakfast, and we'd have a swan's egg for breakfast, everybody would have. And that egg would feed about six kids anyway, and make a scrambled egg out of it. We loved swan's eggs.

But they never took a lot. They'd only take enough for say, breakfast, or something like that. And it was the same with all the food that they had. It was only something for the need at that moment.