Remembering the cameleers

Artefacts, memorabilia and photographs play a key role in maintaining memories of the cameleers. Reunions and re-enactments enliven these memories.

Australians make and remake their historic landscape, placing different emphases on its past Aboriginal or European associations. With their roots in desert culture, their allegiance to Islam, and their vital contribution to Australia’s inland economy, the Muslim cameleers occupy an ambiguous, unresolved role in our national story.