Dhaka, Feb. 26 -- From the coast of Perth, a striking blue rise appears on the horizon, sometimes vivid, sometimes obscured by mist or ships at sea. To Glen Stasiuk, a lecturer at Murdoch University and director of the documentary Wadjemup: Black Prison - White Playground, the island feels alive. "Sometimes it wants to be seen, sometimes it wants to hide," he says. "It has a heartbeat."

That island is Rottnest Island, known to the Noongar people as Wadjemup, located about 19 kilometres off the coast of Fremantle. Today, more than 800,000 visitors flock there each year for its white beaches, turquoise waters and quokkas, the small marsupials that have become global social media stars.

For the Noongar people, however, Wadjemup is a deeply...