How To Find Culture on Wadandi Boodja

How To:

FIND CULTURE ON WADANDI BOODJA

WORDS | Sarina Kamini

Cultural Custodian, Josh Whiteland, says that to “Leave no trace” is a key to unlocking an intimate experience of culture on Wadandi Boodja – which is the Aboriginal name for the Margaret River Region. “Enjoy your natural surrounds and only leave your footprints. The wind comes along and blows your footprints and your tracks out.”

To educate yourself on what this Country means to our First Nations People, there are a number of ways you can explore and connect with the land.

Koomal Dreaming Cultural Tour

Leaving no footprints is both a perspective and a way of physically engaging. A cultural tour with Josh Whiteland of Koomal Dreaming provides a framework for understanding. Josh defines the landscape with traditional place names, their meaning, and the Dreamtime stories that establish origin. The experience of foraging turns coastal heath into an outdoor market, and the ocean into both touchstone and resource. Josh knows the medicinal plants of the coastal ridge, shares music and traditional fire lighting. Taking Yallingup and its surrounds back to the land makes us accountable to how we move through it.

Djiljit Mia Community Garden & Gathering Place

Djiljit Mia means ‘fish home’ – and these gorgeous gardens are a great place to visit for groups of all ages. Fishing for the Wadandi people was a community activity. Quedjinup (Dunsborough) means meeting place of the fish traps: the coastline where families gathered to catch and cook fish over fire, make thatched frames from peppermint trees and create community on Country. What appears as a nature playground at Djiljit Mia is a landscape designed around the story of the Wadandi people’s use of the land.

Pronounced Jill-jit My-ah – the park includes a sculpture of an Aboriginal elder and his son. Local artist Greg Banfield constructed the piece to reflect the fishing stories that extend back through

generations of the region’s Wadandi people. They’ve got traditional gidgees on their back and the elder is pointing down to the fish traps, teaching his son how to hunt. The fishing theme is also represented in the nature play, where a rope and log course symbolises the fish coming in at high tide.

Ellensbrook on Mokidup

Ellensbrook House is one of the region’s original accommodation homesteads and is situated just south of Gracetown. It was settled by Alfred Bussell in 1857. The Aboriginal name for the locality is Mokidup, and it was a traditional camping spot for thousands of years. Drawings by Noongar artist Sandra Hill at the site’s entry detail the plants and animals that sustained the Wadandi across the year’s six seasons. Settlers benefited from Wadandi knowledge of Country, shown as they were to fertilise the ground with fresh seaweed. Behind the homestead a trail leads to a grove, housing the legend of Meekadariby, the place where the moon bathes, held in the waterfall that flows with the rains.

Redgate Beach

Redgate beach is the place where Aboriginal stockman Samual Isaacs and Grace Bussell rescued more than 50 survivors from the Georgette shipwreck in 1876. On a clear day, you can see the sunken ship in the bay at Redgate. Josh says beneath the story lies the uniqueness of the landscape. Redgate beach offers a chance to respect the ferocity of the ocean, marvel at the striking boulder formations and wonder at a geography whose provision of rich cultural resources requires such gentle handling.

This article was originally published in 2020 on margaretriver.com and has been adapted for print

Opposite: A Koomal Dreaming tour with Josh Whiteland is an unforgettable experience Left: On a clear day, you can see the sunken ship, The Georgette in the bay at Redgate beach Below: Ellensbrook on Mokidup is a beautiful location where a self-guided walk reveals the history

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