Term 4 Week 7

November 18, 2020

The following recount was written collaboratively by Paige, Georgia, Flynn, Tieg, Justin, Jasper, Jeremy, Joe, Mahley and Noah.

It is Part One of our Cape Naturaliste Experience!!

On Monday the 16^th of November we went to the historical Cape Naturalise National Park. We travelled by bus and it took 11 minutes to get to this magnificent location!

First of all, we met Josh Whiteland, who is a Wardandi Custodian of the local region. Wardandi means “forest people by the sea.” He calls the land "country". Aboriginal people see “country” as being like a mother. It gives to them what they need and protects them. Respect of country is the backbone of Noongar people. Josh learned all of his knowledge from Aboriginal elders in our region. He encouraged us to make a “connection to country” where we can become “cultural custodians” thus developing our own identity and sense of belonging to the place in which we live.

Josh led us on a brilliant bushwalk (approximately 5km) around the tip of Cape Naturaliste. The Noongar name for this area is named Kwirreejeenunup, place of beautiful scenery. He taught us all about how the Wardandi people used the land. We had to walk single file so that we would have less impact on the bush. We safely walked 2 metres behind Josh so that he looked out for snakes.

The first thing we learned was how useful the Pepermint tree (Wannang) is for Wardandi people. While there are still blossoms on the tree, we can expect more rainfall. When all blossom has fallen, this indicates the wet time is over and dry weather will follow. If you crush up the leaves and rub them onto your skin, it will deter mosquitos. If you chew the leaves in your mouth it will act as a mouthwash. They use the bark to make ropes by twisting it together when it’s dried.

The next tree we stopped at was a Melaleuca. This type of tree is good to camp under as the ground is damp and spongy. The thick branches stop the rain and sun, providing excellent shelter and shade. The ends of the branches provide great kindling to start a fire.

After that, Josh drew a map in the sand of the South West area, marking out the rivers and forests that were so important to nomadic Noongar families. Every two months, families would walk about 13 to 14 kilometres per day to relocate to a more useful environment for the season. Wardandi people simply adapted their lives to what they found. “Our people are hunter gatherers and we’ve always eaten well by taking only what we need and what the seasons offer us,” he said. They would come to the Cape for good access to food during the Birak season (December and January).

He also taught us the Noongar meanings of the names of many of the towns in our region. The suffix “up” on the end of towns means “place of”. This included Injidup (place of the little red flower) Quindalup (place of the Quenda), Yallingup (place of the caves), Curbitchup (Sugar Loaf Rock - named after the Western blue groper, or curbin, which come in and run along the reef shallows here during their breeding season), Whycheracup (Eagle Bay – place of the white sea eagle). Dunsborough was known as Quedjinup, which means "Place of Women”.

Next, we hiked down to the whale watching platform. We found out there was a colony of seals on the Cape and we could spot some in the water. He taught us that in October there were killer whales just off the cape. This is very rare in our region and they must have been there to feed on the baby whales as they were migrating southward. Josh saw 2 blue whales this season and Cielo and Tieg saw the spray from a whale blow hole that they determined was a blue whale by looking at the information sign.