Rhonda Bracey: At Random

Today I finally learned the name of the First Nations Australians whose land my house sits on. Yes, I knew it was Noongar land, which covers most the south-west corner of Western Australia. But I also knew that there were various named groups within the broad brush of ‘Noongar’. For example, nearby Bunbury is on Wardandi land. A couple of months ago, I asked a Noongar woman I know if she knew which specific people were the original inhabitants here, but she didn’t know—she just knew she was Noongar. But she did tell me that the mob up at Collie were different to her mob and that her people couldn’t marry anyone from that mob even though they were all Noongar (I think I got that right).

So today I had a bit of time to do some research and found out that the First Nations people on whose land my house stands are the Elaap, and officially they are the Elaap Wardandi Noongar people.

Our research shows that Elaap karlaboodjar – the home-place of the Elaap people – covers around 1250 square kilometres of coastal plain, estuary, bushland and foothills. It is the place that has very recently – only within the last 200 years – come to be known as the Leschenault Estuary district in the Greater Bunbury area of South West Western Australia. Its enduring name is Elaap and the Elaap Wardandi Noongar people are the traditional owners. People have continuously lived in the South West for over 45,000 years, but the Leschenault estuarine system is quite young, beginning as a coastal lagoon only around 8,000 years ago.

From: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/321579306_Stories_want_to_be_told_Elaap_Karlaboodjar

(Random associated fact: The massive Eelup Roundabout at the entrance to Bunbury and where you turn off to head to Busselton and Margaret River is named after the Elaap people.)

And here’s the magnificent Wardandi Boodja sculpture at Koombana Bay in Bunbury: https://regionalartswa.org.au/stories/wardandi-boodja/