OUR STORY

I've always believed that Aboriginal interpretation is about taking our people and putting them in the landscape where they instinctively interpret their culture. It's a thing they're so used to doing. It makes Aboriginal people who we are. Lots of Aboriginal people unfortunately don't get the opportunity to be able to show their knowledge and I always thought that the walk would give that opportunity to younger community people. 

Now I can see that, guiding the walk, they grow so much. Given the opportunity of going on the walk means they pick up the very thing that we've always thought we wanted to achieve, and that is the knowledge that our young people already have and can build on.

Some of the guides say to me it’s such a privilege for them to be out on Country. They treasure the opportunity to get out there and express their culture. wukalina Walk is about cultural expression and providing an opportunity for community members interested in expressing their culture in that broader way to people who they don’t know. To walk them across Country and interpret the culture.

Just as an example is that harvesting of the weriner shellfish. It's just a simple exercise of knowing where to look, gather them and prepare them, and we do it when we're on Country day in and day out so for us it's just normal. But to take people out and show them becomes a wider example of culture and cultural practices. 

People come on wukalina Walk because they are interested in learning. They come to walk on Country with us. You go on the walk because you want that more in-depth expression of culture.

People can think that because our traditional people were taken away from the land then we've lost our culture, but all that occurred was that the culture was relocated. They practiced the same thing in a different place, but what was daunting for them – though was the reality – was that they might never get back to their own Country. 

For us as a community it was so important to be able to regain a connection and the Aboriginal Lands Act provided that for us. Unfortunately, there was nothing in the wukalina area that was returned to us even though that's our cultural homeland. But the wukalina Walk can be so important for those sorts of discussions too because it shows that this is our place and should be rightfully ours.

Clyde Mansell, Palawa Elder and founder of wukalina Walk

palawa Enterprises Trust Board

Initially, palawa Enterprises Pty Ltd (pET) was established by the Aboriginal Land Council of Tasmania (ALCT) to oversee the operation of wukalina Walk tourism venture within wukalina (Mt William National Park). This area is the cultural homeland of the majority of First Nations people of lutruwita.

The ALCT is the ultimate beneficial owner of pET which, in turn, is managed by a seven-member independent Board. wukalina Walk has been supported by Department of Premier and Cabinet, Tourism Tasmania and Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service.

wukalina Walk has received financial assistance from Indigenous Business Australia, Indigenous Land Corporation and Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and been the beneficiary of support from a number of philanthropists and Tasmanian tourism businesses.