Fremantle
In cities like Perth, I almost every time look into day trips. Not to book them, per sé, but to have some inspiration, how I can make the most of a day. Fremantle was one of the places, that popped up frequently. I ignored it, until it also came along in a search for aboriginal information centers. Now we are talking! Thus, looked into ferries, busses, trains, and decided for the bus to the train station, and take it from there. What a lovely landscape during the train ride! Worth every minute! In Fremantle, I started with the usual unguided walk, turning left and right, depending on landmarks I saw in the distance. At lunch, I took a moment to locate the Aboriginal center. Seemed to be less than 200m away. Lucky me!
When I came to the center, two ladies stood at the porch. They came out of a workshop about aboriginal weaving technics. Told me straight away how much they loved it, at what they already had learned. In the center, I was allowed to roam around. Spent quite some time affront of the TV: one interesting short film after another! At some point, I had to leave. I had to be back in town for … the next video call. Would have loved to have more time at this place!
It wasn’t the first time, I heard about the stolen generations. Until now, it never was more than a little note along the side. For the first time, I got more into the depth of the tragedy. By government order, Aboriginal children were taken from their parents, their families, no longer allowed to speak their own language, follow their customs and traditions. They never ever had contact with their families again! Children were put into orphanages, or given to white families ‘to teach them well’, enslaved, humiliated, traumatised. As I understood it well, it stopped less than 50 years ago. For the last 20 years or so with some attention to acknowledge the wrongdoing and start a process of healing. Generations, which still looking for their rotes, trying to find some kind of family, identity, to balance themselves. They come together, to rebuild their past. Identify words, they still use, clarifying the meaning of them. Sometimes, just because of a specific word, somebody finds the tribe, where she or he belongs to, find new connections and a bit of peace. Sometimes, certain elements in drawings help to identify, help to connect. Sometimes, strange enough, records of early colonisers provide crucial information.
And then, people at the center like, love to share, every bit they know, every bit, that can bring people closer to each other.
In Fremantle, an initiative started, which became a nationwide movement: they searched for a date, they can have a shared celebration, black people, white people, any colour, any ethnicity. To celebrate healing, and a path to the future.
