Day Trip: Rottnest Island

Today was an incredible day, both in terms of the weather and the trip itself. We left early (before 8 a.m.) for Rottnest Island, which is off the western coast of Australia. We had to take a ferry from Perth down the Swan River to Fremantle, and then change boats to cross the ocean passage to Rottnest. Both parts were incredibly beautiful; we even saw dolphins as we approached Fremantle! The Swan River (named for black swans which were first seen by Europeans here) is full of history and, as it is very shallow, is used frequently today by mainly recreational users as it is pretty ineffective for shipping. I love all types of bodies of water, so the boat ride was right up my alley! The ocean passage was quite choppy, and a lot of people felt pretty sick as we arrived at the island, but looking out on the waves I thought about nosing a kayak into a big drop and my stomach stayed in line.

The forecasts predicted rain for today, but as soon as we landed we were greeted by beautiful sunny skies. Our group parted ways shortly after landing to explore the island, with everyone planning to meet up for a 2 p.m. tour of the history of the settlement. There is a guide service on Rottnest staffed by volunteers dedicated to educating the community; many are retirees who hold a special place in their hearts for the island.

In fact, Rottnest is a very interesting place. It was originally intended for farming, but the first land grants were revoked in 1839 so that the government could use the island as a jail for aboriginal men from throughout Western Australia. It stayed that way until the turn of the century when the jail was closed and the island became a popular tourist destination. Most of the original buildings are still standing, but have been converted to tourist lodgings rented by the government and almost always fully booked. As a result, many Western Australians have grown up vacationing on the island, a place that holds such terrible cultural memories for Aboriginal Australians.

Iris and I went exploring the island together right after the group split up. Our first stop was the Lomas cabin, a small facility originally built for an ex-convict who probably had a mental breakdown and was cared for by the state for a number of years. The highlight of the current facility, though, is this stunning collection of mounted photographs from the late 1800 and early 1900s. Some are of incarcerated Aboriginal men dressed for corroborees, while others from just a few decades later are of white Australians on the island for recreational purposes.

We next went through the small chapel on the island which is really beautiful and briefly through the island museum. Though small, it takes in a broad array of subject matter from island geology to plant and animal life to human history. I was most interested in its history as a jail site, but was very disappointed by the interpretative text on the display. Though informative, it was clearly written from a white perspective; and while at least the history is reported, the bias is still evident in the text.

Iris and I then rejoined Professor Kraly and a few other group members for a tour of the island’s World War II fortifications with Irene, one of the volunteer guides. The seven of us took the free bus to the southwestern end of the island which overlooks the channel between Rottnest and Fremantle (mainland Australia). Two huge guns with a range of over 20km were installed at this point on the island, so they could protect the port. As early as 1936, Australia had anticipated being attacked during the war, and thus began to fortify. (They had expected a naval attack, but Japan ended up trying to launch an aerial attack on Western Australia. It turns out that their planes couldn’t reach the coast, though, and that the attack was unsuccessful.)

As we walked along old railroad tracks, now filled in to become a path, we were stunned by these incredible views of both the Australian bush and the ocean. Mixed into this landscape were the cement and metal remnants of the World War II fortifications. Barbed wire still dots the hills and many of the buildings, though now abandoned, are still standing.

On the way up the hill was also stumbled across a quokka. These marsupial creatures (they look like big rats, but cuter) are indigenous to the island and roam pretty freely. They eat everything they can find and aren’t afraid of people, but are also pretty harmless. We missed the quokka tour, but still, I took a number of close-up pictures of the animals which were just wandering around Rottnest with all of the tourists.

After resting for a bit by the water, we met up with the group at 2 for a tour of the settlement. Practically all of the original buildings are still standing; they are made of thick limestone walls, nail-less roofs, and painted a rusty color. (The original buildings were white, but there was such a glare off of them that in the early 1900s they dipped horseshoes in sulfuric acid to produce an ochre-color that was mixed with the sealing paint.)

The tour itself was interesting, but perhaps the most fascinating part was that this area is a hot tourist spot. The jail, which held Aboriginal men with up to 7 people in a small 15’ x 11’ cell, is now converted into a hotel with a sign for a poolside restaurant. There is no sign of the people who suffered there, as it is now a spot of luxury. Many of us were pretty appalled at this rendering of such a tragic site, although the Australians on our tour didn’t seem as much affected by it.

Our trip to Rottnest brought up two points that I want to consider further. The first is whether it is easier for us as outsiders to come into a culture more sensitized to the marginalized peoples and thus able to see and lend critique easier. If an Australian came to the U.S. and began criticizing our Native American policy, would we feel offended by such an outsider who is missing the larger picture? Are we doing a service by lending such a critique, and how can we do so in the most effective manner? Ultimately, in three weeks I will be going home; my goal cannot be to change Australian hearts and minds, but still, the cultural discrepancies are so evident from the outside perspective.

Secondly, I have been very challenged professionally, as I seek to bridge my education background with a future career in the museum field. Coming from a teacher certification program that so heavily emphasizes and prizes dialogue about social justice, how do I integrate that into core belief into museum work which can be very static. While Rottnest had a number of very interesting exhibits across the island, this was something that was definitely missing and, in my mind, MUST be present at such a site. This is a perfect place to impart a message of social justice to the many vacationers and visitors. When a wall text reads: “Many aborigines were apprehended for infringements of imposed English laws. Naturally, the aborigines had difficulty understanding these laws and the reasons for the imprisonment,” though, the museum has done a cultural disservice by not clearly illuminating the cultural discrepancies, instead focusing just on the results. The Aboriginal Australians did not naturally have difficulty understanding English laws because they were stupid, as you might fill in the blank from the text; they followed their own law systems, not realizing they were subject to the laws of their conquerors, or possibly that they had even been conquered. And yet, there is a huge hole where a powerful social justice message could be put in place. This should be Rottnest’s biggest goal for the future.

Peace,

Jill

PS Iris and I walked out on a dock to look at the water and saw these three HUGE stingrays. I thought it was pretty cool until she informed me that stingrays will jump at shadows. So then I used my handy zoom to take this picture!