Site Visit to La Perouse

“When you walk here today, you walk among the spirits of our ancestors,” reads a brand-new Welcome To Country sign above the front desk of the La Perouse Museum, the text an evocative reminder of the resilience of Indigenous Australians in places where they have struggled for a voice. While this demonstrates a shift in recent years to acknowledging and valuing the Indigenous heritage of these places, an exploration of the museum makes the precedence given to eponymous explorer Lapérouse clear. This is a place where the French community has long celebrated their own place in Australia. However, despite their tens of thousands of years in the area, the addition of Aboriginal history is a recent one. If Aboriginal history can be considered a battlefield of conflicting accounts and perspectives, then the exhibits in this museum are the survivors of a long war