Parramatta’s modern Eel Festival pays tribute to a custom the local Duareg people observed for thousands of years. It celebrates the traditional gathering, eel fishing and cooking practices of the Burramattagal people, who would congregate each autumn as mature eels prepared to migrate.
The eels have an astonishing life cycle. All were born in the Coral Sea, thousands of kilometres from their adult habitat. As larvae, they drift towards the Australian coastline and, locating fresh water, swim and wriggle their way upriver as tiny elvers. There they grow to maturity, perhaps living for decades before beginning the migration in reverse, returning to the Coral Sea to spawn. After spawning, they die.
The name Parramatta is derived from the local Aboriginal language. It means “place of the eels”, and the eel is the totem of the Burramattagal. At the festival, they refrain from eating their own totem but prepare eels for others by wrapping them in bark and roasting them on an open fire.
The modern eel festival was initiated by Clive Freeman, a Yuin, Eora and Wiradjuri man and an Aboriginal education and interpretation programs coordinator for Sydney Living Museums. The first festival began with a traditional smoking ceremony at Elizabeth Farm. Now held annually, it features traditional activities like storytelling, food stalls showcasing eel preparation, toolmaking displays, weaving, and Aboriginal artists’ products, along with guided tours that explore the traditional festivities.
It wasn’t the first modern eel festival to be held in Australia. The Lake Bolac Eel Festival, in Western Victoria, was first held in 2005. It, too, recognises the historic gathering of Aboriginal peoples during eel season, a time when clans congregated for exchange of ceremony and lore, trading of goods, and marriage celebrations. It was initiated when a group of Gunditjmara and Kirrae Wurrung people, along with some non-Aboriginal locals, walked from the mouth of the Hopkins River in Warrnambool, Victoria, to Lake Bolac over nine days. The walk became known as the Healing Walk. At first held annually, since 2014 the Lake Bolac festival has been held every two years.