Walkabout Statement

For those who are new to this project, some food for thought... this was intended to be a part of the prelude to the game.

 

Statement

The Walkabout project was started on Tharawal Country, roughly 25 kilometres southwest of the site of the Appin Massacre of 1816, the first recorded instance of government ordered “removal” of Indigenous inhabitants from their homes. Colonial soldiers drove men, women, and children to their deaths; whether shot, plunging over cliffs, or driven from their land not to be seen again. The area was considered prime agricultural land for the colony. 10 kilometres further west of this project’s origin, lies the Warragamba catchment area, where the Gundungurra people were removed from their Country to dam a vast valley as a water catchment for the city of Sydney. They were forbidden from returning, and no regard was given for their ancestral sacred sites which were flooded.

In the years since the Walkabout project started, work continued in the lands of the Barapa Barapa people on the Murray River. The first historical evidence a visitor might find in many parts of this region is that there were no Indigenous people living in these lands, many are the stories of farmers who found the lands free of owners, and who laid out their farms along the riverbanks. Further research indicated massacres in the area, clearing Indigenous communities from the  

Walkabout moved to the Wiradjuri lands, where the culture was fractured with the policies of the stolen generation. Those who might be integrated into colonial culture were removed from their families. Those who were too dark were indoctrinated by missionaries in exchange for food and medicine, since they could no longer forage or hunt on Country that had been divided up and claimed by farmers and government. The native vegetation of these lands had often been cleared for crops and livestock, the native animals decimated.  

It’s current home is on the lands of the Gomeroi people, it’s fertile black soil farmed for generations, it’s scattered towns holding stories of segregation and generational racism. They too faced the massacres and issues of the stolen generation, but now they fight deeper threats to their country as mining companies threaten to rip apart the landscape for minerals and coal.

In each of these lands, elders were consulted. Stories were researched, knowledge was sought, respect was maintained. Yet even with this, the surface was barely scratched. In some cases the elders were mistrustful of outsiders, some no longer had the stories due to being removed from their families as a part of the stolen generation, others did not want to bring back the trauma of memories they’d rather forget, or told stories that contradicted those of other elders because the majority of the truth had been lost and the remaining fragments had been spun into new stories.

Walkabout draws inspiration from the lives, communities and culture of the lands where it was developed. It does not seek to replace the stories of these communities, but to honour what remains of them. It takes the fragments of the stories of these people, and uses creativity, acceptance and improvisational narrative techniques to weave these fragment strands into new tales, and new lessons moving forward.

Although it draws on the folklore and cultural heritage of Indigenous Australian communities, as well as the Dreaming stories and historical narratives of those people, there are a few things that Walkabout does not do. Specifically, Walkabout does not use the stereotypical “dot art” Indigenous Australian artists are known for. This form of art may be commonly associated with Indigenous communities, but it was actually only practiced by a limited group of artists in central Australia before other communities adopted and appropriated it. This form of art was not traditionally practiced on Country by any of the communities where the Walkabout project was developed, so it would not be appropriate to use this artform, regardless of whether artists from these communities have adopted these techniques as a part of their creative style. Walkabout also makes no attempts to claim authenticity as a source of Indigenous Australian lore. Instead, it is a storytelling game of collaborative imagination and shared exploration of morality and dramatic themes. Participants in Walkabout sessions will be prompted to learn things about the world, and about the people around them.

It may be a generalization to say that the tales of the Australian Indigenous communities are layered parables, combining elements of morality tales, gender relations, and survival secrets under the guise of children’s stories and folklore. However, this is common among the stories that connected the people of the various regions across Australia, and continues to be common among the stories that connect Indigenous communities to colonial communities and the immigrant communities as new families brought their own tales to the land. Walkabout is a storytelling game, a set of conventions used by a group of participants to weave a communal tale that captures elements of morality tale, social exploration, and eco-mysticism in the guise of a post-apocalyptic odyssey. The aim of these stories is to keep some of the oral traditions of an ancient culture alive, to accept the changes that have come from and to understand the world around us all. The group who uses the rules and setting of this book is encouraged to make the stories their own, perhaps using humour, drama, tragedy, horror, or whatever makes the story more engaging for them. As long as the cultures are respected, lessons are learned, and enjoyment is had, there is no wrong way to tell a Walkabout story.

Morality tales have historically been easier to accept with a level of fantasy and detachment associated with them. In ancient times the stories might have been the talking animals of the Dreaming, the Greek fables of Aesop, or the mythic stories of legendary heroes. In past centuries they might have been fairy tales involving witches and monsters, or mysterious tales of journeys to strange imaginary lands,

In more modern formats we see graphic novels and movies grounded in the topes of science fiction or superheroes. These tales are still grounded in something close to our reality, but a step removed to allow viewers to make morality judgements without needing to reflect too closely on what these decisions might mean in their own lives.

(A call was placed for photographs of game designers and other folks who were interested in the project, back in the early days of development. The image at the start of this post was one of the illustrations I had drawn and digitally manipulated based on an Aussie gamer from Katoomba. There are roughly thirty images in that series which will be used as a part of the illustrations for this work.)