The final piece of a nearly 40-year project to restore and beautify the Aboriginal section of Moree cemetery was finally completed on Thursday.
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A small group of people, including local Aboriginal elders and school children gathered on Thursday morning to lay tiles on the graves of those buried in the Aboriginal section of the cemetery.
The tiles had been hand-painted in Aboriginal designs by students from four of Moree's schools, including Moree Secondary College, Moree Public School, Moree East Public School and St Philomena's School.
The tile-laying marked the end of a 37-year project by Moree Aboriginal elder Aunty Noeline Briggs-Smith OAM to identify the more than 200 previously-unmarked Aboriginal grave sites, as well as restore and beautify the section of the cemetery.
"Not only have we now recognised these grave sites, we have now restored, rectified and beautified it," Aunty Noeline said on Thursday.
"This was a paddock full of rubbish. There were only two graves visible; everything else was washed away during floods.
"Now the graves have been recognised, people can come down here and visit their relatives' graves.
"I feel grateful for the community and all those who've supported me and have come down and helped me lay the identification plaques, as well as my tiles."
The project began in 1983 when Aunty Noeline returned to Moree. When she went to visit her sister's grave in the Aboriginal section of the cemetery, she was "appalled" at the damage done by numerous floods through the area and its neglected state.
"Graves had been washed away in an area that resembled a paddock," she said.
Moree Lions Club then-president Robert Bartel suggested Aunty Noeline pen her grievances to the local club.
"He, along with his club members started on the first four monuments to be erected on departed Aboriginal ex-servicemen's graves," Aunty Noeline said.
The team then drew up a petition to identity and restore the graves in the neglected part of the cemetery. The movement drew more than 600 signatures.
Since then, Aunty Noeline has worked tirelessly to re-identify more than 200 grave sites at the portion of the ceremony named Ngindi Baababili Tubbiabri by Aboriginal elders in 1996. It means 'they sleep in place of quietness'.
In 2018, a plaque-laying service was held during Reconciliation Week to restore the identities to these graves, the culmination of more than 30 years of hard work.
Last year, the beautification of the section continued and it was finally completed with the laying of the tiles on Thursday.
The day was dedicated to Aunty Noeline's dear friend Gloria Ann French, who sadly passed away in August this year.
"Her caring for all those who are buried here is testament to her devotion, dedication and diligence to put right a significant and sacred burial place for our people," Aunty Noeline said.
"It is in Gloria's honour that this final project is dedicated to."
Gloria's three daughters - Polly Cutmore, Toni Wright and Jaki French - attended the tile-laying on Thursday.
Jaki said her mum would spend every Sunday taking care of loved ones' resting places in the Aboriginal section of the cemetery.
"Sorry business doesn't stop for our mob," she said.
"It's nice for our elders to come down and have a place to sit and enjoy the space and the peace.
"Aunt Noeline's dedication to it is commendable."
Both of Jaki's grandfathers, Jim Cutmore and Harold French, are buried there, as well as her great grandmother Bridget Tighe, a great grandfather, an uncle and aunties.