The Department of Planning, Lands and Heritage has announced that a project to reconcile the history of Aboriginal people’s imprisonment on Rottnest Island was a step closer, with the development of a cultural authority process.
The Department said the process would lead State-wide Aboriginal community engagement.
It said the Wadjemup Project, reflecting the Noongar name for Rottnest Island, is aimed to be one of Australia’s first large-scale and genuine acts of recognition related to the impacts of colonising Aboriginal people.
Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Ben Wyatt said the project focused on how best to commemorate the Aboriginal men and boys who were buried on the island, and the use of the old prison building at the historic Thomson Bay settlement known as the Quod.
“Rottnest Island was used as a place of incarceration, segregation and forced labour for Aboriginal men and boys from across Western Australia from 1838 to 1931,” Mr Wyatt said.
“More than 4,000 Aboriginal people from all over WA were forcibly taken there and almost 400 men and boys, who died while imprisoned, were buried in unmarked graves on the island.”
He said the Whadjuk Noongar people were putting in place cultural authority protocols to lead engagement with other Noongar and Aboriginal people across the State.
“Extensive research, ground-probing radar and community consultation has taken place over many years to recognise and commemorate Rottnest Island’s Aboriginal history,” Mr Wyatt said.
“Ensuring the history of Aboriginal people on the island is recognised is imperative for reconciliation and will begin the healing process of historic and intergeneration trauma from the colonisation of Aboriginal people,” the Minister said.
