A Day trip to Northam, with Uncle Patrick.

Northam, the second biggest town in WA located just 95km aways, is a town steeped in rich Noongar history. Many of our staff have had the opportunity to visit, learn and enrich themselves in the history of the town with our cultural awareness lead, Uncle Patrick Egan, who was raised in the small town.

Northam was and continues to be a sacred and spiritual place for Noongar culture, home to the site of the Avon river and Burlong Pool. Many groups travelled or resided within this area, where the spirit Waugal, a water serpent was said to have rested during the warmer seasons. Uncle Patrick took us to Burlong pool, a beautiful serene place, filled with rich history, culture and stories of the dreaming, alongside a photo of his own uncle Steve Egan.

Before Burlong Pool, Uncle Patrick started the day with a smoking ceremony on Boodja on Northam reserve- a place that holds significant memories for him, and Aunty Donna Pickett, another Noongar elder at Wungening who also grew up on the reserve.

Both Uncle Patrick and Aunty Donna recall their childhoods, making their own fun by swimming in the river, mushroom picking, hunting for jam gums and living in a community that treated everyone like immediate family, despite the hardships they faced. The reserve was simply tin sheds, thin mattresses, communal toilets, and a small community hall. The community was rampant with disease, poverty and segregation, built to contain the Noongar population, with no thought paid to basic living conditions, human decency and empathy.

The reserve itself today, is simply just a plot of land, with the bones of one structure still standing just near the famous Morby Cottage, the only place where Aunty Donna recalled emergency services could be called from nearby the community.

After the reserve we made our way to the Bilya Koort Boodja Centre for Nyoongar Culture and Environmental Knowledge, a newly opened museum in Northam that reflects the history and present of the Noongar population in the town. The museum holds accounts of families that have resided there for years, alongside artefacts of Noongar culture, such a traditional ceremonial outfits, instruments, hunting tools and artworks. The museum is a place that marks the history, resilience and strength of Northams Noongar population, and how they continue to persevere despite the challenges they have faced.

Uncle Patrick is a beautiful story teller of Noongar history, and every story is told in beautiful detail, with charm, strength and connection to land, history and his people. He describes Northam as the place where, “every river, every creek, every mountain, every rock formation, every bird, every plant and every animal has a meaning to Noongar people”.