JANET CHAN

二十八万步 280,000 STEPS: ON THE ROAD FROM ROBE TO BALLARAT

Through a discriminatory law in 1855, the Victorian government imposed a heavy tax on Chinese entering Victoria to work in the gold fields. As a way of avoiding the tax and resisting this legislation, an estimated 16,000 Chinese landed in Robe, SA and walked the 400km to Ballarat between 1857 and 1863. One account of the journey describes the hardship and adversities the Chinese went through:

They walked overland to the central goldfields of Victoria – Ararat, Ballarat, Castlemaine, and Bendigo – travelling in stages of about 20 miles each day. During the journey they dug wells for fresh water and purchased sheep for fresh meat. The Chinese passed through many towns, leaving messages for their fellow countrymen who followed, in the hope of making the journey easier. Often the messages contained the location of natural water sources or of the well which had been dug previously…They marked the way by inscribing Chinese characters in the bark of trees, leaving a trail for their compatriots to follow. (See The Walk from Robe, courtesy of the Golden Dragon Museum, according to the SBS webpage)

Anti-Chinese sentiments were, of course, not restricted to Victoria.  New South Wales passed The Chinese Restriction and Regulation Act in 1888 and the federal government passed the Immigration Restriction Act in 1901, this was the beginning of the White Australia Policy which did not end until the 1970s. In May 2017, the Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews formally apologised to the Chinese community for this unjust and racist policy (see link). 

280,000 Steps reflects my current interest in exploring issues of justice, truth and reconciliation in Australia. Over 10 days I walked 200 kilometres from Robe to Penola in South Australia, and then from Ararat to Ballarat in Victoria. My body moved through a great distance in space, but it was in my mind that I did most of my walking. Physically, I tried to walk the tracks taken by the mid 19th Century Chinese miners, although not many historical traces had remained from this period. I trod on the land, smelt the plants, listened to the birds, felt the wind and encountered some of the forces of nature (now considerably tamed). At the same time, I traversed my mind, one small step at a time, picking up pebbles of thought, trickles of memory, and sudden rushes of insights. I completed the physical journey, only to find myself lost in the landscape of my mind. The images and poetry that you see in this exhibition capture my observations and reactions to the physical and emotional textures of the places I went through.