The Camel Feral

The research - I
WA 2013

The common question is - why i was in Laverton a remote place in WA? 

wrote a proper idea of my existence in a desert - when i say "proper" it means grammar and spellings  has been checked. 

but still i feel there is more than what i wrote so will expand in parts. 

Immigration museum, Melbourne

Part 1

Introduction: 

 

The Golden Feral Trail is a journey, which records local oral histories and stories of the region that trace the relationship between South Asia and Western Australia. The records found through the stories of the trade and migration between the two region go back to early 19^th century to the present. The stories of “Afghan” or the “Pathans” or the geographical route to Calicut –the origin of Calico or the recent traces of the call center’s. 

 

My interest lies on the claim of an identity, which doesn’t have to be directly linked to a country border or religion. The word ‘Afghan’ doesn’t necessary mean from Afghanistan. An ‘Afghan’ could be the “Pathans” of the South Asia or the Sikhs of Punjab or the Marwardi community from Sindh or the nomadic sect of community from the North west region of South Asia. The word ‘Afghan’ I realised was the password for men to enter Western Australia for trade and building infrastructure. 

The research has taken me from Laverton to Coolgardie – which follows a heritage trail of the Goldfields – The Gold rush to the Ghost towns.  It also leads me to North America to Africa to Western to East South Asia – a thread that starts with the British Trade. A trade which also records the import and export of animals, seeds and plants, particularly those that have become a feral or weed – an ecological problem. 

The south Asian trade and migration helped this area to build infrastructure before the introduction of roads and railways. The Trail, which remains beneath the red earth, this WA horizon tells a story of a nomadic establishment of economy but also a loss of identity. 

My research and trail has taken me to places like: cemeteries, most of the ghost towns, a few abandoned graves and mining pits, to many existing archives and also have peeped into personal photo albums. 

Looking at the archives I have also come across few stories of the early native guides in WA and their associations with the nomadic community that came from South Asia and settled. Now when I mention the native guides – they basically were just not a guide but translators and interpreters who formed the foundation of building the present society or the infrastructure and welfare, which we witness today.  

For me now the question is - are these things lost or abandoned? 'Lost' because of the loss of history but still in contrary it records the trail of the human history. ‘Abandoned' because it gives you the feeling of homelessness and also a sense of meaningless of the life circle. Homelessness and restlessness and flatness all falls into a thought of boredom or does it also fall into the thought of loss of a power and identity?