Wooden fishing vessels - perahu - in the Spermonde archipelago, South Sulawesi. Photo by Marshall Clark.
A little known and deep historical link between Australia and Indonesia will be explored at a two-day symposium starting this Thursday at The Australian National University. Leading Indonesia and Indigenous Australia experts from around the world will gather to examine the journeys of Macassan fisherman from the island of Sulawesi to northern Australia. The symposium will focus on Macassan encounters and long-lasting connections with Indigenous communities in the north of Australia. Symposium co-organiser, Marshall Clark from the ANU College of Arts and Social Sciences, said that many Aboriginal Australians have centuries-old links with the Indonesian fisherman. "The Macassans, who came from the port of Makassar on the island of Sulawesi, were attracted to the waters of northern Australia for a maritime delicacy which they called trepang - a kind of sea cucumber. "Between the early 1700s and 1907, the sea cucumber brought Macassan fisherman down to Australia every Monsoon season. Large fleets would arrive and they would employ local Indigenous Australians to help find and harvest these sea cucumbers.
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