september-2011

MY JOURNEY
For Casey, the tour is about exposing
Aboriginal Australia in a positive way. “I
want people to talk and share, regardless of
their history or background,” she says.
Noongar radio, an indigenous station
playing soul, rock, roots and indigenous
music, is our constant soundtrack
as we circumnavigate Perth.
The station is based near the
indigenously run Kaditj
Café where the tour stops
for lunch on weekdays.
On the weekends, tour
groups lunch at Maalinup
Aboriginal Gallery, where
we pull in for our second
stop. Primus Ugle, another
indigenous artist, meets us at the
door. He wears a wide-brimmed akubra hat
and a beaming smile. Unlike Sheila’s art,
his works are pictorial. But his paintings,
which also hang in the National Gallery, are
about more than the landscape. “It’s about
the land, yourself and myself,” he says.
Dale Tilbrook, director of the gallery, has
also prepared a feast. First on the menu
is bush tomato, also known as kutjera,
or desert raisin, followed by sandlewood
064
For
Casey, the
tour is about
exposing Aboriginal
Australia in a
positive
way
kernels, which taste like macadamias. I
sample avocado, lemon myrtle and chilli
dip, and kangaroo sausage rolls. I feel
obliged to try all three sweets —chocolate
and river mint cake, lemon myrtle and
quandong swirl cake and, my favourite,
quandong jam tarts. They’re popular
with everyone.
Another slight deviation
from the weekday tours is
the Saturday Lancaster
Wines pit stop, an optional
extension of what is
already a delicious and
fi lling lunch. The friendly
James, who lays on a spread
of matching cheese and wine,
takes us through the picks of the
crop, saving the best until last. The 1994
muscat — a yellow rose-coloured drop that,
according to James, is “the essence of Swan
Valley” — is a hit.
We leave the rambling vine-covered shed
and head to Fremantle for our didgeridoo
lesson. Outside the Didgeridoo Breath store
we’re met with a fl oor full of didgeridoos in
all shapes, sizes and colours. We know to
expect passionate teachers and Simon, who
LEFT–RIGHT: Artist
Primus Ugle with Rebecca
Casey; tasty bush tucker
at Maalinup Aboriginal
Gallery; Dale Tilbrook
TRAVEL EPIPHANY
Urban Indigenous Tours
go beyond bush tucker
and dot painting. They’re
about connecting people
through stories and real
experiences. I think about
how good it would be for
every Australian to come
on Rebecca Casey’s tour
and how each city would
benefi t from an initiative
like hers. Kaditj, the name
of the café where the
tour stops, means “to sit
and refl ect” — a suitable
sentiment for how I felt
during, and after, the tour.