After an hour and 15 minutes stuck in traffic I finally got the city at 9.15. Rebecca (the founder of Urban Indigenous Tours) was able to pick me up and we were on our way in Bec’s awesome Van and with Noongar Radio on!(The local tribe in Perth is called: The Noongar tribe)
First of all, for those not too familiar with it just to give a bit of background information. Before 1967 Aboriginals were not considered citizens of Australia which meant they didn’t have the right to vote, the right to own property (land or building), they were not allowed in the CBD of Perth after 6pm and a lot of aboriginals weren’t even legal guardians of their own children. Basically the state laws controlled where they lived, whom they worked for, how and where they moved and whom they could or couldn’t marry. A referendum was held in 1967 to change the law. And an astonishing 90.7% voted YES to the change. This meant a Council for Aboriginal Affairs was set up, aboriginals could own property and vote, and they were actually counted by the government as citizens and had the same rights. Obviously a huge step forward!! Back to the tour:
Our first stop was Sheila Humphries in Guildford. She opened her house for us and we sat in her backyard at the same table she does all her artwork. On a black canvas she explained a lot of aboriginal art symbols to us e.g. billabongs, camps, travelling, roo tracks, sun, moon etc. That was amazing to learn, now I’ll be able to walk into an art shop and recognise some of the symbols. But it is always still a good idea to ask in the art shop what the paintings mean. She told us about her past, which was very sad. She was born in New Norcia (about 150km north of Perth) and is from the stolen generation and was taken away when she was 4 to live with nuns until she was 21. In that time both her parents had passed away. Her life in that house was horrific and she was exposed to both physical and mental abuse. She told us that up until 20 years ago she wasn’t even able to look at a white person (wodgula). Her husband (who passed away in the late ‘90’s) helped her through a lot of it and encouraged her to write down how she felt and to paint. She is now a highly respected aboriginal artist who is in the Guinness Book of Records and has been in the media all over the world with her art.To end this visit we had the chance to draw our own little story with our new learned aboriginal symbols!
Our next stop was Maalinup Aboriginal Gallery in Henley Brook. This gallery is owned by Dale Tilbrook and her brother Lyall Tilbrook. Dale is a well renowned speaker. They have amazing art (paintings and ornaments), books and bush food. As part of the tour we got a tasting of some of the food. Yumm!!! We got Kangaroo sausage rolls with Quadrong chilli sauce and a beautiful cake. They have everything from herbs, sauces, jams, marinades and much more. All with local bushfood in them! Beautiful gallery to go to!
Then it was time for lunch!! We drove back to the city and had lunch at Kaditj Café (which is the Noongar name for: To think and reflect). This place brings us back to even before the referendum. The location is right on the old curfew border of the CBD, and as I wrote down, aboriginals were not allowed in the CBD after 6pm. A group of aboriginals wanted to buy this building before 1967 but the law at that time didn’t allow aboriginals to own property. But finally the government said yes, the catch being that the price would be 26000 pounds (which was a ridiculous amount of money in that time considering a house for a rich white person would cost around 6000 pounds). And finally after 10 years of saving up buy selling art, fundraisers and other community initiatives they bought the building and called it the Aboriginal Centre until 1968 when they renamed it the Aboriginal Council Advancement Centre. In the old days it was a night club and community centre. Nowadays it is an internet café with amazing food and also an avenue for aboriginal people to get a training position in hospitality. We got a massive gourmet lunch with Kangaroo meatballs in tomato sauce, a beautiful salad, chicken skewers and the best damper I ever had. To finish it all off we had a wattle seed cheesecake with berries!!
We had one more place to go to. We drove for about 40 minutes and Rebecca kept us entertained with great stories about her work with Aboriginals. Our destination was Didgeridoo Breath, this is a didgeridoo shop in Fremantle. The shop is owned by Tony and Matt who opened it in 2002. In 2006 they added another business partner: Sanshi! He know everything there is to know about didgeridoo’s and has spend a lot of time with the locals up in Arnhem Land. We had a private didg lesson to learn the basics (dingo and roo sounds etc) and did our own little story to finish it.Awesome tour!! Would recommend it to anyone, local or traveller!
Love Ivette
