Life+ with Fiona Della-Sale: Off track and on country with Yamatji Noongar man Cameron ‘Danna’ Danischewsky

“G’day, I love hunting, fishing, camping and I’m deadly.” I was greeted with a hearty handshake and big grin featuring beneath a beard and shaded under a worn-in akubra hat. Jeans and steel capped boots completed the picture of “Danna” as he’d just introduced himself. We’re standing amid the crowd at the recent Backroads Gravel Race welcome event, down at the new Blue Heeler’s Square. There’s a busy bar, festoon lights but right now, a spotlight is on a panel interviewing ex-professional cyclist, podcaster and special guest of the race, Mitch Docker. There’s an excited buzz in the air as the biggest ever sporting race north of Perth has lured 640 riders to compete. And Danna is one of them. Only as Mitch joins our circle am I struck by the contrast — it’s pro meets novice. And that may be even a stretch because I can’t remember the last I rode I bike, and tomorrow I’m riding 60km (expletive withheld!) As the Saturday of race weekend dawned, fog lifted in the Chapman Valley like a stage curtain to reveal rolling paddocks of flowering canola or “fields of gold” as one race of the day had been named. Showcase weather conditions and smooth gravel roads paved the way for an outstanding event for runners, those on mountain, gravel and e-bikes. There were kids, grannies and all abilities taking on the various distance races. Farmers threw open paddocks and sheds, country cooks baked madly and volunteers lined aid stations. Amid this, stood Danna, no longer in his tradie threads but transformed to athlete status. Resplendent as any real cyclist in a lycra triathlon suit, he was helmeted, shiny bike ready. “I couldn’t borrow my mate Shaun’s tri suit ‘cos look, I have emu legs compared to his, so I borrowed his sister’s. I rocked that outfit, I was deadly in it,” he said. But the highlight of many on the day was the sight of Danna in his shoe choice, which was revealed at the race start. For Danna, he readied himself at the start line not in cleated bike shoes, nor even runners, but his chunky steel capped work boots! It’s later that night, when a crowd of weary but still elated riders sit around a fire, reflecting on the day’s race that Danna yarns his own recall. Unlike many riders, he and mate Shaun Dynan’s four siblings made a day out of it, somewhat of a Sunday drive equivalent. They cruised, paused for food breaks, and chatted happily their way around the valley for four hours. But for the crowd around the fire, we laughed heartily, when Danna regaled us with a classic tale of the day. “Oh mate, we really had to stop, I could go no further, when I spotted a quandong tree!’” While other riders only saw the wheel in front of them, a blur of orange dirt or the odd sport gel as they raced along, this Yamatji Noongar man had at least one eye always on the roadside. “So we dumped our bikes when we saw bush tucker, the fruit was high up, and I had to climb to get it,” he said. This area is home for Danna and when asked how it feels to have ridden out on his country, he warmly replied: “I travel through there with an open heart.” Danna was born Cameron Danischewsky in Geraldton in 1991 to a Yamatji father and Noongar mother, his surname from a Polish grandfather. He grew up and attended schooling between Northampton and Perth. Danna cites securing a carpentry apprenticeship at 15, with a local building company, as pivotal in his life and giving him a strong pathway to work and lifestyle opportunities. He recalls his pop driving him daily into Geraldton and instilling that “such an opportunity should not be wasted.” Danna, for whom schooling was a struggle, especially having dyslexia, concurred but was driven more out of spite than anything else as he felt people hadn’t believed in him for so long. His determination saw him complete the apprenticeship at 18. “Before I even could enter a pub legally,” he laughs. He continued on a quest to challenge and prove himself. Danna has enjoyed varied work settings from a job in a chicken farm, landscaping and more recently paying didgeridoo in schools. Work has been above and below ground. At Golden Grove, underground he was a machine operator, then turned back to carpentry in Onslow and he even undertook army training in Darwin. During this training he met a woman with whom he moved over east with and settled with a new, job, house and car and baby. During his apprenticeship, for two surreal weeks, Danna traded building sites and tools for high seas and heaving sails. Setting and handling sail, climbing aloft and standing night watch, he was fortunate to win a scholarship on the Sail Training Ship Leeuwin on a Dampier to Broome voyage. Danna learned team work and leadership skills. His time ashore on a Dampier Archipelago island had him waxing lyrical, a gift I note in Danna where the listener is absorbed in his rich imagery, analogy and story telling. He describes the vista of red rock, spinifex and sandy beaches surrounded by brilliant blue sea and sky, as holding a “vibrant energy. It was like putting my hand on an electric fence so powerful was that landscape for me.” Asked the inevitable of any first time sailor, he replied “salt water life has been my life, so I didn’t get sick at all!” Danna has enjoyed treasured time at and in the sea, fishing and diving. He loves getting adrenalin rushes as sharks swim close by. He finds calm underwater like no other environment and describes it as a great stabiliser for him. On the land, Danna was taken on country by family when growing up and taught basic hunting, butchering and cooking of wild animals. He discusses the wonders of wattle, how he’s learned about bush tucker that some of the 1000 plus species provided in the Mid West. A sweet favourite was bimba gum he’d chew, wattle seed ground up for damper making and even “bush soap” that provided a fresh scent and cleaning solution for washing. With fond reference back to his mate Shaun, Danna says he’s “not family, not friend but a loved one.” They met through a mutual friend on a camping trip and hit it off despite being quite different — Shaun the logical, engineer brained and talking one, Danna the practical, listener and heart-strong one. But mutual interests they shared in common, and Danna tributes their friendship for keeping him on the straight and narrow through some difficult times. They laugh together about one of many camping trips that started and ended on a road. For when the boat trailer broke down, along the Brand Highway, they had to sit tight and wait for assistance, all day. As dawn turned into dusk, Danna, never one to waste an opportunity, convinced Shaun to rest outstretched in the boat while he played didgeridoo for entertainment. “It was quite a sight to passing traffic and even better when we found some coldies in the esky.” One camping trip in recent years stands as the highlight for Danna as it was “where I met my Helen from Uppsala, Sweden,” says a grinning Danna. They now have a gorgeous boy, Soren. But returning to crazy bike-riding pursuits, does Danna have another one in him? Shaun chuckles, and suggests there’s a gravel Perth to Geraldton ride on the horizon. “We could even get you sorted with some proper cycle shoes”, and through Danna’s raucous laughing response, there’s a twinkle in his eye.