Phantom in the Landscape

Abstract

AbstractThe body of artworks entitled The Golden Feral Trail emerges out of my journeys tracing the relationship between South Asia and Western Australia (WA). Linked by trade and migration flows since the early 1800s, the trail unfolds along the Gold Rush in WA and the detritus it has left behind. Drawing upon visits to cemeteries, abandoned graves, deserted mining pits, ghost towns as well as on institutional archives, oral histories and personal photo albums in WA, I collected traces of the South Asian cameleers and traders, referred to as ‘Afghans’. A shorthand for very diverse nomadic sects found in British records, together with local Wongutha ‘Afghans’ led British explorers in their gold exploration missions into the outback. This article argues that much has gone feral in the contemporary Australian landscape, including seeds, animals, abandoned mines and mining towns. The Golden Feral Trail – a history of nomadic economy, loss and erasure – runs beneath the Australian red soil. What is left on the surface is landscape phantoms.Keywords: Archana HandeCameleersPhantomFeralAfghanNomadicAbandonmentGhost-TownsSouth AsiaWestern AustraliaCalcutta PortCamel-trading AcknowledgementI am grateful to the following people and institutions for their support to my research: Rucha Vibhuti, Christine Boase, Doreen Harris, Laurinda Hill, Julie Ovans, Tegan Dodd, Joanna Seczkowski, Elli Hill, Annette Nykiel, Ann Delroy, Ian Day, Spaced 2 Future recall, International Art Space (WA), LLCCA: Laverton – Leonora Cross Cultural Association, (WA), Asialink, Melbourne, http://www.cameleers.net/, Australia’s Muslim Cameleers, pioneers of the inland, 1860s – 1930s, Eastern Goldfield Historical society, State Library of Western Australia, Battye Library, Eastern Goldfield Historical society, Shire of Laverton Archives, Poseidon Nickel Ltd, Windarra Nickel Project, Western Mining Corp, Laverton Public Library, Laverton Community Resource Center, Western Australian Museum, Western Australian Museum Kalgoorlie Boulder, WA Museum (Dwyer collection), and the Local History Archives, City of Kalgoorlie-Boulder.Notes1 The Phantom, The ghost who walks, https://thephantom.fan/2 The ‘Ghost Who Walks’, also known as ‘The Phantom’, is a character who operates from the fictional country of Bangalla. Lee Falk created the character for the adventure comic strip The Phantom, which debuted in newspapers on 17 February, 1936. 3 ‘Horses and Camels’, https://depts.washington.edu/silkroad/exhibit/trade/horcamae.html, accessed 15 May 20234 Alexander Cook, Andrew Reeves, Iain McCalman, eds, Gold: Forgotten Histories and Lost Objects of Australia, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 20115 Paul Kelly, Kev Carmody and Maireah Hanna, ‘This Land is Mine’, from One Night the Moon [soundtrack], MusicArtsDance films, Sydney, 20116 ‘The Desert Frontier: A History of Travel and Nomadism’, https://www.sahapedia.org/the-desert-frontier-history-of-travel-and-nomadism, accessed 15 May 20237 Stephanie Jones, Two Centuries of Overseas Trading: The Origins and Growth of the Inchcape Group, Macmillan, London, 1986; Stephanie Jones, Merchants of the Raj British Managing Agency Houses in Calcutta Yesterday and Today, Macmillan, Basingstoke, 1992; Samia Khatun, Australianama: The South Asian Odyssey in Australia, C Hurst & Co (Publishers) Ltd, London, 2018; Samia Khatun, ‘The Book of Marriage: Histories of Muslim Women in Australia’, Gender & History 29, April 20178 ‘Wongutha’ (the spelling used by the family I interviewed for the article) refers to a language and identity of eight Aboriginal Australian people of the Eastern Goldfields region. It is also written as Wangkatha, Wongutha, Wankatja, Wongi and Wangai.9 ‘Welcome to the Shire of Laverton’, https://www.laverton.wa.gov.au/welcome.aspx, accessed 21 April 202310 ‘Only Planet – Archanadevi Travels – A Tourist Guide’, https://archanadevitravels.blogspot.com/2013/09/olr-site-1.html, accessed 15 May 202311 In Australia ‘the bushes’ refers to a natural, undeveloped area. The fauna and flora contained within this area is indigenous to the region although exotic species will often also be present.12 ‘History of the Muslim Cameleers of Australia’, video, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=buMLmCBzNSs, accessed 15 May 202313 ‘Welcome to the Shire of Laverton. Discover the Outback Spirit’, https://www.laverton.wa.gov.au/welcome.aspx, accessed 15 May 202314 Philip Jones, Anna Kenny, South Australian Museum, America’s Muslim Cameleers: Pioneers of the Inland, 1860s–1930s, Wakefield Press, Adelaide, revised edition 201015 Ibid16 National Archives of Australia, https://www.naa.gov.au/17 State Library of Western Australia, https://slwa.wa.gov.au/18 ‘Britain’s First War in Afghanistan: What Happened and Why’, https://www.historyextra.com/period/victorian/a-familiar-tragedy-britains-first-war-in-afghanistan/; ‘First Afghan War’, National Army Museum, https://www.nam.ac.uk/explore/first-afghan-war19 Zinnia Ray Chaudhuri, ‘For 18th Century Painters, Indian Port Cities Calcutta, Bombay and Madras Held a Very Special Place’, 30 October 2017, https://scroll.in/magazine/855352/for-18th-century-painters-indian-port-cities-calcutta-bombay-and-madras-held-a-very-special-place, accessed 15 May 202320 ‘Brief History of KoPT’, Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, Kolkata, 2014, https://smportkolkata.shipping.gov.in/index1.php?layout=1&lang=1&level=1&sublinkid=1429&lid=563, accessed 15 May 202321 Local Wongutha do not eat camels but forage for Emu eggs.22 ‘Only Planet – Archanadevi Travels – A Tourist Guide’, https://archanadevitravels.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-camel-feral.html23 Nathan Morris, ‘Black Mum, White Mum: Recordings Capture a Nomadic Indigenous Life Roaming the WA Desert, ABC News, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-11-15/dimple-sullivan-roaming-the-desert-and-running-from-police/9144690, accessed 15 May 202324 ‘Cremation of a Sikh’, The Register, Adelaide, 5 May 1903, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/article/5542929025 Mary R Terszak, Orphaned by the Colour of My Skin, A Stolen Generation Story, Verdant House, Maleny, 200826 Philip Jones and Anna Kenny, Australia's Muslim Cameleers, op cit