‘We’re still here’: La Perouse community retains strong connection to culture and Country

‘This is our country’: Kodie Mason’s family have lived in the tight-knit La Perouse Indigenous community for seven generations. Photograph: Bec Lorrimer/The Guardian

Plucking the grass from a lomandra plant, Kodie Mason braids three strands of bright green flax. She breaks one off and splits it down the centre. Less than 30 seconds later she has a small coil, the makings of a basket. She’s been weaving since she was little, a skill passed down from her grandfather.

Mason has an intimate knowledge of plants: what to eat, which ones can be used to make soap or shampoo, which ones can be ground to make bread, the ones to stun fish.