OVER the weekend Aboriginal people from as far as Northam travelled to Busselton to attend the final gathering at the Bardimia campsite at Locke Estate.
After talking to the people at the gathering it became clear it was a sad day for their community.
The campsite which was used by generations of Aboriginal people as a place to holiday in the South West was originally built by children from the stolen generation who had been taken to the Roelands Mission.
South West custodian Wayne Webb told me the people who came to the campsite were able to go fishing and crabbing and relive the lifestyle that most of them were brought up doing.
In March last year, the City of Busselton council reviewed the lease for the Locke Estate campsite and voted unanimously to give the campsite to a non-Aboriginal organisation.
The decision was met with “disgust” by Aboriginal elders and custodians and ex-Roelands Mission children who pleaded with the council to renew their lease.
The campsite had become a place of cultural significance.
Ex-mission children had even gathered at the city council chambers ahead of the vote to make one last plea to keep the campsite for Aboriginal use.
Roelands Mission executive officer and ex-Roelands Mission child Les Wallam told the Mail last year, that there was important Aboriginal history on the campsite.
Mr Wallam said ex-Roelands Mission children had spent time on the campsite and it was their break from the mission, their happy place where they could go to have fun, peace and serenity.
“Many of the children worked Lot 14 by clearing the area, digging holes by hand for septic tanks and they also helped put up buildings,” he said.
“There were many tears shed about losing the lot as fond memories were had there.”
A group of stolen generation women visited a nearby campsite last year to hold a healing camp, however they were unable to visit Lot 14.
One member told the Mail, it would have been nice to camp with the Wardandi people and share some stories.
For Aboriginal people land is central to their culture and according to an Australian Government website, it is fundamental to their wellbeing.
“The land is not just soil or rocks or minerals, but a whole environment that sustains and is sustained by people and culture.
“The land is the core of all spirituality and this relationship and the spirit of 'country' is central to the issues that are important to Indigenous people today.”
The relationship to land is deep for Aboriginal people and all aspects of their lives are connected to it, according to creativespirits.info.
“They have a profound spiritual connection to land. Aboriginal law and spirituality are intertwined with the land, the people and creation, and this forms their culture and sovereignty.
“The health of land and water is central to their culture. Land is their mother, is steeped in their culture, but also gives them the responsibility to care for it.”
For the people gathered at Bardimia over the weekend it was an opportunity to say goodbye to a part of their Boodja (country).
Mr Webb said that everyone still had special feelings about the place because everyone went to Bardimia over generations at one time or another.
“There are lots of memories for everyone,” he said.
”It is a sad day to see it go now.”
A memory Mr Webb shared was when you could not see the beach from the campsite because of a big sand dune which was now gone.
“There was bush here,” he said.
“You would walk up over the sand dune and walk through the track then come across where old Mr Brockman would bring his horses before stepping off the sand dune and onto the beach.”
