Meet the Tjapukai people and see the rainforest

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On Monday I went to Kuranda, a small village on the mountains just outside of Cairns. The village is so commercialized that it was really boring, but on the way I did some exciting things.

The first place I visited was an Aboriginal Culture park called Tjapukai. They call it "culture park" and not culture center and probably for a good reason - it does feel a bit like Disney, except for one very strong film about the sad history of the Tjapukai tribe since the white man arrived to this land. But this was the last thing I saw there so before that it was pure fun. It started with a show of the creation story according to the Tjapukai tribe belief, with lots of light and sound effects, dances, music - really nice. Then there was a traditional dance show, with Didgeridoo playing, some Didg and bushtacker demonstrations, we learned to throw a boomerang (I didn't do so well but I bought one to practice at home) and spears. It was all very enjoyable, and then I saw this history film which almost made me cry. The combination of the fun stuff and this "Yad Vashem" style of film was hard, but I think it's good that people, especially white Australians that tend to be very racists against Aboriginals (not everyone of course but you see a lot of it), will watch that and learn the truth.

from there I took the SkyRail to Kuranda. It's a cable car going 45 minutes over the rain forest, very close to the Canopy, which lets you see the rain forest very up close and personal. It was a beautiful trip. On the way there are 2 stops where you can actually walk a bit in the rain forest, see these ancient trees and learn a bit about them.

As I already mentioned, Kuranda itself is just a big commercial souvenir market. I went back to town with the "Kuranda Scenic Railway" that wasn't as good as the cable car because most of the time you see nothing...

In the evening there was a BBQ night in the hostel and that was a real fun evening, with good food, some really interesting conversation with the people around me, and a funny didg playing competition. It was a real great evening.

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Photos

Playing the Didgeridoo
In case you wondered what I was talking about - there it is

Lighting fire (1)
In the traditional way - no matches or lighter used!

Lighting fire (2)
It really worked!

Comments

[michellelucking]

did you go up yoursefl or organised trip?
just wondering if you made your own way up or was it one of these organised trips? some of those trips can be a little misleading. x

[Anat]

To Michellelucking:
I took a tour and it was a mistake and a big waste of money. Better take the bus (~2$) to Tjapukai and the cable car, go with the cable car and come back by the 2$ bus again. Save ~40$ and lots of time (pickup from all around took 1 hour for 10 minutes drive to Tjapukai!)