City of Ryde wishes to advise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people that this resource contains images and voices of deceased persons. All of the documented information regarding religious beliefs, ceremony and burial practices has been published previously, or is publicly accessible. The words of eighteenth and nineteenth century writers are quoted at length. Many of these writers, although writing sympathetically about the loss of life and culture used words and phrases that may not be considered appropriate today. In quoting these words, without alteration, no disrespect is intended to living peoples.