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By Amanda Keesing
Gondwana Link
Welcome to Gondwana Link
Working with Aboriginal Noongar Women to Restore the Pallinup River
The Noongar people are Indigenous Australians who live in the southwest corner of the state of Western Australia. Recently Noongar women on the south coast initiated the Great Southern Wisdom Circle of Noongar Women’s Business. This group, which is open to women from all the Noongar families in the region, is exploring ways for Noongar women to be involved in restoring, protecting and sharing their cultural and natural heritage. The group has decided that its main project will be the cultural and ecological restoration of the Pallinup River.
I was privileged to be invited to accompany the Great Southern Wisdom Circle of Noongar Women’s Business group on their first field trip and speak about Gondwana Link. On the bus trip we visited the Pallinup River and the nearby Nowanup Reserve, both being within the 620 mile stretch of the Gondwana Link pathway.
The Pallinup River is one of the larger river systems in southern Western Australia. It naturally carries salt water, which gave rise to one of its other names—the Salt River, though some of the Noongar women know the river as the Mara River. It is a historically important place for the Noongar people—for a very long time families have camped, fished and traded along its banks.
In more recent times Noongar people worked on the farms in the area, with some involved in clearing the bush to make farmland during the government’s post-war policy to clear “a million acres a year.” This clearing was done by mechanically flattening out the native plants and then burning them. Clearing was the first wave of ecological destruction—now fragmentation, salinity, invasive species and climate change are driving a second wave.
For many of the women, the field trip was their first opportunity in a long time to come together and talk with other Noongar women, reconnect with the country, hear some of the Elders’ stories about life along the Pallinup River and reflect on their culture. Many Noongar people were separated from their homes and families during the "Stolen Generation" of 1905-1972, a controversial government policy to resettle Noongar people in state-run camps and place Aboriginal children with white families. Some of the women were born and raised near the Pallinup and were very emotional about returning to their childhood home. We were able to visit the site of one women’s first home and found the remains of her family’s tin shack and water tanks, as well as the nearby sandalwood trees where she had played as a child. Another of the older women found the place where the Wadjela (white) and Noongar families had played hockey together after sweeping the ground smooth with bush brooms. The hockey sticks were made of bendy tree branches.
For more information about Gondwana Link:
- The Nature Conservancy's role in Gondwana Link
Partnering with several other Australian conservation organizations, the Conservancy is helping to restore and reconnect 34 million acres of landscape. - How You Can Help: Donate Online
Support conservation by helping to save the last great places in Australia. - Visit the Gondwana Link website [gondwanalink.org]
Learn more about our partners in this ambitious project.
