In Twofold Bay on the coast of New South Wales, orcas used to hunt baleen whales cooperatively with the aboriginal Thaua tribe, in an alliance honoured by both parties for thousands of years. The deal was that the orcas ate the tongue and lips, leaving the rest of the carcass for the human beings. This was the Law of the Tongue.

In the 1860s, European whalers took over from the Thaua, but the alliance fell apart when the white men started killing orcas and not honouring the age-old bargain.