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Published: October 4th 2008
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In celebration of finishing my 30-source 12 page intensive Psychology paper, I'm going to try to do my best brief description of the Outback!
Before I get into the trip, though, I feel that it is necessary to give everyone a brief overview of the Aboriginal history here in Australia. I'm certainly no expert, but I've learned so much since I've been in Australia that I am embarrassed I knew nothing about before I got here. First of all, the Aborigines have been in Australia for AT LEAST 40,000 years, although some estimate that it is at least 70,000. When Captain Cook "discovered" Australia, the Indigenous peoples were viewed as savages and there was an extreme lack of understanding between the two cultures. The History between the early Europeans and Aborigines is still widely debated in Australia as some claim that there were many massacres of Aborigines while others view the battles as going both ways. In the early 20th century the principle of "breeding out" the Aborigines was widespread. They were viewed as an inferior race and the government hoped that the "pure-bloods" would die out, while taking "half-caste" (individuals with Aboriginal and European blood) children from their homes and
forcing them into "Missions." In these missions, the children were not allowed to speak their language or maintain any of their cultural traditions. Instead, they were forced to learn the White Australian language and customs. These children were then put into foster care or adopted by White families in the hopes that they would marry White Australians and the Aboriginal blood would slowly disappear. This generation of children taken from their families is widely referred to as "The Stolen Generation." Now, this is nowhere near a complete history of Indigenous Australians, there's actually a great deal more that is equally depressing. But, for now, I just wanted to make sure that everyone got the general idea that the Aboriginal culture is native to Australia and has been treated awfully ever since colonization. It's also important to understand that most White Australians know VERY little about this History or Aborigines as it is not taught in schools (until the University level and even there it is not compulsory).
Wow. Okay. Now that I got that Essay out of the way, Here is what we did in the Kimberley (the region in Western Australia that we went to):
Day 1:
We arrived in Broome (the only real city in the area) and got to go to Cable Beach, which apparently is one of the best beaches in the WORLD. We got to ride camels and our camel's name was Mustev. We then got to watch the sunset at the beach and went back to the hostel we were staying at, which is actually at the University of Notre Dame Australia's Broome campus.
Day 2: We woke up early at the hostel and the Morgan family, our Aboriginal guides, showed up to pick us all up. We then proceeded to drive North through the outback for about 4 hours. We started out driving on a paved road, but about 10 minutes into the trip the road vanished and we were driving on red sand! We stopped to visit Beagle Bay, which is an Aboriginal community of about 200 people. Unfortunately we didn't get to see any of the people there, but we did get to see the Catholic church that German priests and locals built there during WWI. It is a BEAUTIFUL church...as you can see in the pictures. We finally arrived at the campsite, ate dinner, had a campfire,
and went to bed.
Day 3: We went to a small bay on the peninsula by where we were staying and got to see 7000 year-old footprints! Being a nerdy Anthropology major who has just recently taken Archeology, I found it very cool. We then got to swim in the bay which was beautiful! That night we drove to a spot where we could see the sun set on the water.
Day 4: We visited Uncle Bundy, a community elder, and his family. He taught us how to make real spears and boomerangs! This is also the day that I hurt my knee by falling on the sand...don't worry, I'm okay! I just mention it because in some of the pictures you can see a pretty big gash on my knee!
Day 5: This was by far my favorite day! We woke up early and walked out onto the ocean floor when the tide was WAY in. There we found ancient Aboriginal fish traps--they had built walls out of rocks so that there were pools remaining when the tied went in. We then used an ancient Aboriginal method of catching the fish--by using a poisonous root that
takes the oxygen out of the water. We had to rub the root onto a rock and mix it with mud. Then uncle Bundy put the mud in the small pool. The fish that had been hiding in the bottom of the pool had to come up for air because of the poison and then they were able to spear or grab them! It was very cool. That day we also went to a "farm" I guess you could say--it was a place where they collected mother of pearl and all sorts of sea creatures for breeding and selling. We saw lots of clown fish and some turtles!
Well...there you go! The very short version of the trip! One last thing that is important to mention is the amazing people who were our guides--they shared so much about their culture and experiences and I learned so much from them. They even said that they may be visiting the US soon and if they did they would visit Notre Dame!
Okay--now time to write my 3 remaining papers!
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Nicole
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I am super jealous
This is so cool. When we see each other next, you have to teach me how to make a boomerang, kay?