Tasmania’s wukalina Walk is an Indigenous-owned, multi-day hike via a few of the most beautiful surroundings on Australia’s wind-battered southern coast. For journey author Kerry van der Jagt, it was a life-changing expertise – a stroll again in time, tracing the footsteps of the palawa.
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The Bay of Fires is past evaluate. An arc of untamed magnificence, the place peacock-blue water froths towards bone-white sand and sea eagles soar towards an enamel sky. Hemmed by fluorescent grass timber and pinned in place by lichen-covered boulders, it’s arguably one of many loveliest stretches of coast on this planet (with the Lonely Planet badge to show it).
I’m on the ultimate leg of the four-day wukalina Walk, Tasmania’s first Indigenous–owned and –guided multi-day hike, ranging from wukalina (Mount William National Park) and ending in larapuna (Bay of Fires) on the north-eastern fringe of the state.
At intervals we pause, foraging for saltbush – which is used so as to add flavouring to kangaroo meat – or snatching a chunk of sea spinach, eaten as briny salad greens. Our tempo is gradual as we scan the moist sand for sea treasures. One minute it’s a drift of sea sponges, the following it’s the silver thread of a seahorse. Later, we’re standing ankle-deep in cockle shells.
As we stroll alongside, our younger information Carleeta Thomas, a descendant of Mannalargenna, a famend 19th-century warrior chief, shares her tales about connection to Country, and explains how the stroll is permitting her folks to regain their independence and reclaim their tradition, birthright and palawa kani language (at all times written decrease case).
For 1000’s of years this distant shoreline – named the Bay of Fires in 1773 by English explorer Tobias Furneaux – was the standard homeland of the palawa. Then, inside three many years of the invasion by British colonists in 1803, the unique inhabitants of lutruwita (Tasmania) had been murdered, brutalised and enslaved to close annihilation. It was systematic genocide on a grand scale.
While textbooks could have you imagine that the final Tasmanian Aboriginal died in 1876, when native girl Trukanini handed away, it’s a little-known proven fact that 47 First Nations folks survived on Wybalenna (Flinders Island) after being detained there. It’s the descendants of those survivors who now lead the wukalinaWalk: a challenge of hope, survival and recognition, greater than a decade within the making.
“The walk was founded by palawa Elder Clyde Mansell,” explains Gill Parssey, General Manager of wukalina Walk. “In conjunction with community and the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania, the project came about as a way for palawa people to come onto their cultural homeland and share their stories through tourism.”
Day One sees us trekking up wukalina (which, at 215 metres, is extra mound than mountain) earlier than turning in direction of the coast to spend two nights on the wukalina Walk’s standing camp of krakani lumi (resting place). Designed by Hobart architects Taylor + Hinds, the award-winning camp consists of 5 elegant sleeping pods and a classy, eco-friendly communal constructing.
“The design of the pods is based on the domed shape of the palawa seasonal shelters,” says Gill. “The sleep that you have here feels like being in a cocoon. It’s incredible how well they knew the environment and how to situate themselves in it.”
After being welcomed by a smoking ceremony, we’re handled to a twilight barbecue of freshly caught scallops, mutton chicken and doughboys cooked over an open fireplace pit. As the celebrities blaze throughout the night time sky, Carleeta and two different palawa guides, Danny and Djuker, discuss to us about Muyini the daddy spirit of the palawa folks, and Earth Mother, the giver of all issues.
“For our young guides, the opportunity to share stories with visitors gives them a new-found sense of pride and independence,” says Gill. “It also means the correct stories are now being told.”
If Day Two round camp is a mild day of studying cultural practices, reminiscent of shell stringing and basket weaving, then the lengthy stroll of Day Three is a time for quiet contemplation. Drawn ever ahead by the decision of the ocean, I replicate on simply how far we’ve journeyed; not the 34 kilometres now we have trekked, however the 1000’s of years of palawa historical past, which is being reclaimed, one step at a time.
We spend our closing night time in a restored lighthouse keepers’ cottage on the Aboriginal-leased land of larapuna (Eddystone Point lighthouse precinct). Aboriginal paintings, an open fire-place and communal lounge/library invitations additional dialogue; how a lot now we have to study from First Nations peoples about caring for Country, concerning the non secular connections palawa folks must their land, and the way all of us have an obligation to acknowledge the wrongs of the previous.
“Universally, our guests say the walk has been life-changing,” says Gill. “They feel transformed, their perceptions have changed and they want to learn more and do better as allies.”
Ready to trek the wukalina Walk? Welcome to Country has all the information you want over right here. For extra unimaginable excursions round Australia, take a look at Intrepid’s First Nations cultural experiences.
The author is a descendant of the Awabakal folks of the mid-north coast of NSW.