The vision for an Indigenous-themed community gathering place and nature playground is now a reality for residents and visitors to the south west coastal town of Dunsborough in WA’s Margaret River region. Created by local labour and contributions, Djiljit Mia is believed to be the most significant acknowledgement of Indigenous culture in the town.
18 months in the making, Djiljit Mia is an Aboriginal-themed community gathering place in the centre of the town adjacent to Dugalup Creek. The Creek and park were degraded crown land now transformed into a beautiful cultural interpretative space incorporating aboriginal artworks, sculptures and nature based play features - tree rope swings, cubby house making, log balance, sound sensory play and water play. It will be a gathering place for community members of all ages, families, tourists and performers.
Trish Flower, from the Dunsborough and Districts Progress Association had the initial vision for a gathering space and said it was a community effort from planning to completion.
“The community have planned and constructed Djiljit Mia together, it’s been a grassroots project. The name Djiljit Mia means ‘fish home’ so the whole idea of the park was to have an aboriginal theme that paid tribute to the original inhabitants, the Wardandi people, who used to place fish traps out in Geographe Bay. They would camp around this area and have ceremonies, and dry their fish over their campfires. We wanted to local people to know about this history.
“The park includes a lovely sculpture by local sculptor Greg Banfield of an aboriginal elder and his son. They’ve got traditional gidgees on their back, and the elder is pointing down to the fish traps, teaching his son how to hunt. The nature-based play feature here – a rope and log course - symbolises the fish coming in at high tide and they might have thrown nets out as well. There’s lots of carvings in the wood that local primary school children created the designs for to symbolise some of the seafood and sea life in the traps. There are a couple of beautiful wooden benches in the park that are made in the shape of boomerangs and a shield made by members of the Men’s Shed. There are all sorts of references to the Wardandi culture in the park,” Trish said.
Cultural Custodian Josh Whiteland who consulted on the project and contributed artwork, information and stories said that Djiljit Mia was one of the first big acknowledgements of country in the City of Busselton and for the community of Dunsborough.
“The feedback has been overwhelming. I think the community has really harnessed reconciliation and I think we’ve involved the children, the community and we’ve acknowledged country through Djiljit Mia. This is a step closer for a stronger community and a step closer to reconciliation.”
The park opened last weekend when community members, supporters and sponsors who contributed to the project through providing labour, time, resources or money for the project came together. The park is now open to the public to enjoy.
Djiljit Mia supporters included City of Busselton, The Cove Dunsborough, Bendigo Bank, Capecare, RAC Connecting Communities, Federal Government’s Stronger Communities Programme, and the Dunsborough Lions Club.
Image: Djiljit Mia Opening. Photo: Jill Rogers, Kinfolk Photography
