Cape Byron Light

On Wednesday September 26, just a few days after our arrival in Byron Bay, our class took a trip to Cape Byron Light, located in the Arakwal National Park and were given a guided tour by Aunty Delta. We began our walk with a brief history of the land, talking about the Arakwal people and their job to protect the national park and be the custodians of country. One of the biggest themes that I caught onto while on our walk was the exploitation of aboriginal land after it was taken from the people through colonization and much later on, after there was little use for the land that was taken, it was ‘given’ back to them. Now, the land the native peoples protect is exploited for tourism. Many of the sacred spaces are used as attractions, such as the surrounding mountains that can only be climbed for specific purposes or by a certain gender. Aunty Delta voiced her disapproval that those mountains have now been compromised to travelers.

Another example that was brought up by Aunty Delta was the pond on Tallow Beach that is sacred to her people and she asked that we make an effort to not swim or use the pond for any purposes. That was interesting for me to hear because on the description of the house that is being rented for us, the pond is used as an attraction, saying after a swim in the ocean to take a dip in the pond and let the water soften your hair. From this I also remember walking past the pond on the way to the beach and there were no signs or descriptions explaining the significance and how it was sacred to the aboriginal peoples. It makes me wonder about the distribution of this knowledge and how it should be shared to everyone to make sure there is no form of disrespect.

In the readings, when talking about colonizing the land, there was a lot of mention of destruction of homes and how it connected to destruction of the land.  “Dispossession of aboriginal peoples and destruction of their villages was followed by an equally rapid deterioration in the soil” (Pascoe). This small passage became relevant when Aunty Delta talked about how the Aboriginal peoples took care of the land and “burned country small and slow to keep her healthy.” If the settlers watched them and learned and tried to understand, the soil would now have been destroyed. The aboriginal peoples took care of the land in a way that provided nutrients to the soil while getting rid of the plants that were no longer necessary. While the setters came in and made an immediate impact, clearing the land and making a man-made wilderness that the land was not ready for. Because they never learned, they destroyed.

Pascoe, B. (2014). Introduction; Chapter 1: Agriculture. In Dark Emu (pp. 11-18; 19-52). Broome, WA: Magabala Books Aboriginal Corporation.