2023 neon, red gum rehal, photographic collage

Cheshme-e Jaan explores the forgotten history of Cameleers and their long relationship with the First Nations people. In this work, Alavi reimagines the first meeting between First Peoples and the early Cameleers near a natural spring, honouring the knowledge that was shared when the Cameleers were shown regular water sources, rock holes, creek beds and springs.

Brought to Australia as cheap labour through inter-colonial networks of British India between 1860-1920, the origins of majority of these Cameleers included in today’s Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Kashmir, Pakistan and India. In Australia, their extensive network of tracks intersected and ran adjacent to those that had already been well established by First Peoples, and through their encounters and meetings, they build empathy and relationships through share values.

Inspired by rahel (book holder) at the Broken Hill Mosque established in 1887 by Cameleers, this work consists of a series of collages and rahels made from the discarded railway sleepers of the Old Ghan Railway, a railway line that was birthed from the cheap labour of the Cameleers. Onto each are simple patterns carved that is echo aspects of the artist’s hometown of Daikundi Province, Afghanistan.

On top of the rahels, there are two verses of Rumi’s poem in neon:

جان من از جان تو چیزی شنود

چون دلم از چشمه تو آب خورد

My soul heard something from yours

Since my heart drank from your spring

At the time, the Cameleers were vilified by media and government, despite performing a key function in their colonial endeavours. They were given temporary visas, prohibited from bringing their own family, they were refused naturalisation and many cases prohibited from officially marrying in Australia. A century later, thousands of people from the same region as Cameleers, facing similar discrimination because of Western imperialism. There are currently thousands of people who have been living in limbo for up to 12 years. They work in hard jobs and are not allowed to bring their family.

This is the eternal legacy of that The White Australia Policy.

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This body of work is currently shown at TarraWarra Museum as part of Biennial 2023: ua usiusi faʻavaʻasavili.

This project is commissioned and funded by TarraWarra Museum and Australia Arts Council (Project grant)

photo credit Andrew Curtis