An elder once told Adrian Brown that when Aborigines with stone axes cut away a great slab of bark from a trunk to make a canoe the old tree would sigh.
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''It's almost like the tree is breathing, and talking back and saying, 'Look after me', '' Mr Brown said. ''There's a lot going on when we are scarring trees.''
A Ngunnawal Country ranger for ACT Parks and Conservation Service, Mr Brown is helping Aboriginal youth from Canberra reconnect with their culture and country.
The bark of a mighty yellow box tree at Lanyon Homestead, between 200 and 300 years old, has weathered the axe blows of centuries ago but it left a significant scar. This tells Mr Brown the bark was taken from the southeast side where sap is always running, making it easier to cut.
''It almost pops off,'' he said.
But the whole process would take hours, needing patience and respect for the tree. ''Try and rip it off too soon, you will break it. Because the bark has all lines in it, try to push it and it will snap.''
Mr Brown is chairman of Murumbung Yurung Murra - or ''good, strong pathways'' in the Ngunnawal language - and spends several days at a time sharing his knowledge of the bush south of Canberra.
He's showing the group of 14-to-20-year-olds how to identify stones for axe making, heritage sites and where native animals and plants fit into indigenous land management. He has a wealth of material to work with along the Murrumbidgee River from Tharwa to Tidbinbilla.
His students have been surprised by how much food is available in the bush and how easy it would be to live off bush tucker.
Mr Brown hopes they will apply for rangers' jobs in years to come. Several Aboriginal rangers work in the parks and conservation service, preserving indigenous land management.
His knowledge of local history goes way beyond the early European settlement at Lanyon.
''You've got the homestead over there, '' Mr Brown said, pointing to the building.
''So what was going on before that homestead was built? Use your imagination, and think how many campsites would have been spread out over here.''
In pre-European times Mount Tennent was known as Darwa, meaning the beginning of a ceremony and from which later settlers took the name for Tharwa, he said.
As well as a legacy of canoes and shields, scarred trees marked boundaries, burial sites or areas for women's business, where men were not allowed.
''The old people left a story for us. We have to interpret that and keep telling it and make sure we are telling our young ones, like we are today,'' Mr Brown said.
