WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

Aboriginal trade in pearl shell
Kimberley pearl shell (Pinctada maxima) has associations with water, rainmaking,
ancestral Creator Beings, stories and songs. The significance of the
modified pearl shell changes as it is traded from its source, where it was
created by powerful Dreamtime Beings.
Highly valued by Aboriginal people as the 'emblem of life' with potent
correlations with water, and the power to regenerate, renew, and transform;
modified Kimberley pearl is the most widely distributed commodity in
Aboriginal Australia, covering two-thirds of the Australian continent.
Pearl shell beds at a number of identified sites from Bidyadanga to Cape
Londonderry, where in Aboriginal law and culture, the shell is believed to
have been created by Dreamtime Beings and is collected by Traditional
Owners, have outstanding heritage value to the nation under criterion (a)
as the source of the item most widely distributed by Aboriginal people in
the course of Australia's cultural history.
Contact, change and continuity
European explorers
In the sixteenth century long, dangerous and difficult voyages across
uncharted oceans began to shape ‘new worlds’ on the maps of European
navigators. In the pursuit of knowledge and wealth beyond the borders of
Europe, early expeditions by the Portugese, Spanish, Dutch, French and
British began to reveal the outline of the Australian continent.
The William Dampier (Cygnet) 1688 landing place
William Dampier stayed in the west Kimberley coast area for more than one
month, landing first at Pender Bay, then sailing and anchoring in Karrakatta
Bay. Dampier and the Cygnet crew lived at Karrakatta Bay, camped and
careened the ship on land, 'canoed' and fished in the nearby sea, met a group
of Aboriginal people on an island, observed Aboriginal people elsewhere
and swimming between islands. Dampier also notes in his account old wells,
low even land, sandy banks against the sea, rocky points, the careening
beach, the islands in the bay, the 'dragon' trees and the Aboriginal stone fish
traps described as 'weirs of stone across little coves or branches of the sea'. A
full description of his observations is included in his account of his voyages
around the world (Dampier 1697). The environment Dampier observed is
substantially unmodified since his 1688 landing and can be seen today.
William Dampier's published accounts of his voyages around the world,
which included his observations at Karrakatta Bay and nearby, were
significant in stimulating European exploration interest in the Pacific and
Australia which foreshadowed Cook's voyage to the Pacific and eventual
establishment of a British colony in Australia in 1788. Dampier's
observations at Karrakatta Bay and nearby were also influential in shaping
late seventeenth and eighteenth century attitudes towards Australia and its
Indigenous people. His observations made at Karrakatta Bay were also
influential in the British Government's sponsorship of another voyage to
Australia in 1699 during which Dampier collected some Australian plants,
foreshadowing the birth of Australian botany.
The Kimberley coast is recognised for its association with early European
exploration of the continent. The William Dampier (Cygnet) (1688)
landing place, around Pender Bay, Karrakatta Bay, King Sound, the
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