WEST KIMBERLEY PLACE REPORT - Department of Sustainability ...

Indonesian fisherman brought tamarind seeds with them, and planted them at the
places they returned to each season; as the tree grew they could use its fruit in their
cooking. The tamarind would have provided not only nutritional value, but also a
welcome taste of home during their months away.
In contrast to the situation in Arnhem Land, all known oral and written accounts
indicate that the relationship between Indonesians and Aboriginal people in the west
Kimberley was hostile. There is no evidence that west Kimberley people provided
Indonesian fishermen with any assistance. Oral traditions recalled by old people today
describe fights between Aboriginal people and Indonesians, and ascribe hostilities to
the Aboriginal theft of canoes. Stories also tell of creation beings fighting Indonesians
and sinking their perahus, and being shot in revenge (Crawford 2009).
Despite the hostilities, there were some exchanges. Aboriginal people adopted the
dugout canoe from Indonesian prototypes, and it allowed them to voyage to more
remote islands and reefs including Cassini Island and Long Reef, far offshore. The
history of this contact is also recorded in language: for example, the word for canoe in
the Wunambal language, namandi, is derived from Indonesian.
European voyagers
In the west Kimberley, as elsewhere in Australia, first contact between Aboriginal
people and Europeans occurred along the coast. The outcomes of these meetings were
mixed; fear often led to misunderstandings on both sides, and sometimes to violent
retribution. Early travel accounts included narratives of such encounters between
Europeans and Aboriginal people, and some accounts circulated widely after the
voyagers returned to Europe. In the case of men such as William Dampier, his
accounts of his voyages around the world, including at Karrakatta Bay on the western
coast of Australia, gave him a degree of personal celebrity, and influenced European
perceptions of, and fascination with, the non-European world. Such accounts were
one reason why the settlement of Australia was long regarded as unattractive by
Europeans: the west coast was described as barren and few resources were seen which
had potential value for trade or commerce.
European travellers involved in imperial expansion were motivated by desire for
wealth, adventure and renown, and for knowledge and experience of what lay beyond
the borders of Europe. For centuries, Europeans believed in the existence of a great
unknown southern land: Terra Australis Incognita. The mapping of the coastline of
Australia played an essential part in the unfolding European understanding of the
southern hemisphere, and the delineation of the coastline by successive generations of
Dutch, French, and British navigators caused a quantum shift in European
worldviews. The observations and collections made by such voyagers formed a key
element of a grand Enlightenment endeavour, which aimed to develop comprehensive
scientific knowledge of the entire world. Voyages were also inspired by competition
between European nations to establish trading and territorial dominance. These
multiple factors propelled fleets of ships, with their vulnerable human cargoes, from
the far ports of Europe onto vast and dangerous oceans spanning the globe.
China and south-east Asia have been connected through trade, cultural exchange and
migration for more than 2000 years. From the sixteenth century, European voyagers
also began to take a keen interest in south-east Asia as a valuable source of spices and
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