Chapter 16: Perth and the Coastal Camp

A limo carried Sam and Tessa back to the airport on Thursday morning, where Patrick met them. He already had tickets and the 10:25 to Perth was comfortable – they sat 3-across with Tessa at the window and Patrick on the aisle. Patrick read a government document for the first hour or so; Sam looked at Sinister Stones; Tessa viewed the changing colors of the landscape below.

Around 1100, Sam asked “So, what will we be doing in Perth?”

Patrick answered “I’ve made reservations at the Duxton. That’s right downtown. Your mother and I stayed there when we got married. We’re free in the afternoon, though I’ll need to make two or three calls. Tomorrow morning all three of us need to appear at the Supreme Court of Western Australia – it’s under ten minutes from the Hotel. By noon we should know out next steps.”

“What are the choices?” Tessa asked.

“Options, I’d say. Not ‘choices’. Well, we might be flown north tomorrow afternoon, but I think Saturday morning is more likely. The next choices are whether they’ll fly us up in a plane equipped with pontoons or in a helicopter.”

“That’ll be an adventure, either way!” she responded. “I’ve never flown in a seaplane.”

“Are you nervous?”

“No. Sam and I are both avifauna; flying isn’t intimidating. And now that I’ve done it several times, it isn’t even distressing.”

“If we’re free tomorrow afternoon, I want to see the Western Australian Museum,” said Sam.

“It’s an interesting one. I visited it several times before we moved to Sydney.”

The Anthropology and Archaeology department specialises in cultural anthropology and archaeology. Our research, collections and public programs focus on understandings of what it is to be human, to understand cultural diversity, and to explore complex relationships between society, culture, language, sociality and economy.

The department cares for over 10,000 ethnographic objects collected mainly from Western Australian Aboriginal cultures, stone tools from locations throughout WA and other parts of the world, and 5000 objects from other parts of the world such as Papua New Guinea, Melanesia and Africa. Museum blurb

“Isn’t there a gallery in Kings Park?”

“Doing research, eh? Yes, there’s an Aboriginal Art Gallery. But it’s largely contemporary Nyoongar work, much of it quite Europeanised. Rachel said their stuff was as influenced by western realism as Williams was by native symbolism. The Modern Gallery is quite near the Western Australian.”

They had a snack and a beverage and had only a little more time prior to landing.

At the Duxton they were shown to their rooms. “You go down and have a snack; I’ll call and learn our fate.”

Sam delayed Tessa for a quarter hour or so and then they washed up and had coffee and cake. It was somewhat later that an enraged Patrick joined them. Sam flagged a waiter and ordered an ale for his father.

“Bloody stupid bureaucrats!” Patrick began.

“C’mon, Dad, let us know how you really feel.”

“The flights to Kimberley Coastal Camp are from Darwin or Broome! We could easily have flown to Darwin!”

“But then we’d have no way to get Western IDs.”

“True. But that could have been worked out. Anyway, we fly to Broome early Saturday and to the Kimberley Coastal Camp from there. We’re to be at the Court after nine in the morning.”

“How did they manage to screw things up?”

“Oh, straightforwardly. The Camp and Kununurra are both in Western Australia, ergo, you get there via Perth! Simple for a simple mind.”

“That is dumb.”

“Especially as I’ve seen the Camp’s own blurb which talks about getting there from Kimberley destinations.”

“Perhaps the people in Canberra don’t know much about western geography,” Tessa suggested.

“I’m sure they don’t! Most likely don’t differentiate the Pilbara from the Kimberley and don’t realize that the Nyoongar Claim is far from both.”

They chatted a bit longer while Patrick finished his drink and then went for a stroll in the Supreme Court Gardens.

“We won’t have far to go in the morning,” said Tessa.

“Further than it appears,” Patrick responded. “You’ve got to go around, you can’t just walk straight through. But we should think about dinner. It’s Thursday so nothing will be mobbed. Tomorrow we’ll have to sandwich between ‘happy hour’ and Friday dinner-goers.”

“I’m not that hungry.” “Nor I,” added Sam.

“Hmmm. I’ve a notion.” Patrick walked over to the concierge, spoke for a minute and returned. “He suggests A’Caverna on Hay Street. Let’s try it.”

So they had wine and tapas in lieu of formal dinner.

In the morning, Tessa and Sam each got two new laminated cards: one from the Ministry for Aboriginal Affairs and one from the Attorney General’s office. They agreed to meet back at the hotel by 1800, and Sam and Tessa went off to the museums.

Back in the Duxton, they showered, occupied themselves, got (re-)dressed and met Patrick for dinner in the hotel. In the morning they took a taxi to the airport and flew to Broome.

They had an hour lay-over, but didn’t leave the airport, sitting outdoors in the bright sun for a while.

“Anything else we should know, Dad?”

“Not as far as I can tell. There’s a representative from Fitzroy Crossing who claims the area around the Camp was sacred ground. The Bunuba’s traditional territory extended over some 2,500 square miles. But not this far west. I think this bloke sees himself as a modern Jandemarra.”

“Who?” asked Tessa.

“Jandemarra, or ‘Pigeon,’ was a young Bunuba who led an armed uprising about 150 years ago.”

“Sad story,” said Sam. “So what do we do?”

“We look at things. A python, an eagle and a raven should have different views. I know that I can ‘feel’ things. Sam’s told me that he can. I would guess Tessa can relate to the sacred. We will visit a few of the sites. If we sense a presence, we will report it. If, like so many sites, it is inactive, we’ll report that ... That’s for us.”

“I’ve read something about the language group,” Sam said as they walked to the gate, “But I can’t recall where.”

“Not very helpful,” Tessa chided him.

An hour or so later, they were set down at the Camp’s pier.

Australia has numerous rock art rich regions. These include the central desert, Cape York and Arnhem Land, the Burrup Peninsula (with over 1 million engravings) and the Kimberley. Even near large urban centres like Sydney, there are significant bodies of rock art.

Western Australia’s Kimberley is a major rock art landscape. It’s in an area approximately 423,500 square kilometres, roughly the size of the United Kingdom. Much of the art is in remote areas which are very difficult to get to. Other sites are more accessible but can only be visited with the correct Indigenous permissions and protocols in place...

Kimberley rock art was made by indigenous Australians on their traditional land. Many different groups created many different styles of rock art. The art has been made by the people of the Kimberley region for thousands of years...

The sites of the rock art are very important to traditional owners in the Kimberley because they are records made by their direct ancestors. Many of the sites are considered sacred because of the ceremonies that have been carried out in those places.

How traditional owners interact with the rock art varies from site to site and community to community. It is sometimes difficult for traditional owners to get to the sites of rock art that are in very remote regions.David Wroth, Japingka Gallery [Perth] and Peter Veth, University of Western Australia, 2017