Fanny Balbuk was a Nyungar woman born locally in 1840, when the Swan River settlement was in its infancy. As the growing town destroyed the food sources and sacred places of her ancestors, Balbuk stuck defiantly to the old tracks. Daisy Bates quotes
“To the end of her life she raged and stormed at the usurping of her beloved home ground” – in particular, her grandmother’s burial place, which lay behind the sentry- guarded gates of Government House. “Through fences and over them,” wrote Bates, “Balbuk took the straight track to the end.” (Source: www.themonthly.com.au) Fanny Balbuk, a feisty Noongar woman who lived from 1840 to 1907 and refused to let the European place-making of the Swan River colonists interfere with her traditional pathways. She staunchly maintained the pre-colonial ways by marching through the private gardens and houses of central Perth as if they didn’t exist (Source: http://www.artshub.com.au/) |
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