It was heartbreaking as we walked the children through the stories of early Cooktown (Nth Queensland) and for the first time, even though they had spent years supposedly learning about Aboriginal history in their classrooms, for the first time they didn't move and were facing a different truth about colonisation.
Travelling across the outback we were faced by ignorant comments, total disregard in some circumstances for the disconnectedness of a whole group of Australians from their traditional culture and we, yes we have all been a part of this.
In Katherine the children came face to face with the issues confronting so many Aboriginal communities, the unemployment, the alcohol and substance abuse, the disempowerment, the sense of self and purpose. We don't even need to look at history, we can address theories of human development, each of us needing a positive self-esteem, sense of belonging, safety, love and empowerment to reach our full potential - For goodness sake Australia stop ignoring the truth and step up to the plate and start cleaning up what we have ignored for way too long.
The ignorance of people we would meet along the way and their comments reflect how uneducated they are and how easily it is to stereotype, that I can't even repeat what we were told.
I can recommend taking your children to every history museum in the country and other than a true focus at the James Cook Museum in Cooktown and the Museum of Western Australia in Perth, I was disappointed at the lack of celebration for Aboriginal History.
Most of the museums around Perth, are free - only place in the Country and yet the best museums we visited - you can make a small donation, please be generous they are so worth every donation.
To find my children after losing them in the Perth Museum, mesmerised by a video transcribing the sadness and experiences of stolen generation survivors, completely at a loss as to what they were hearing and then spending more time in this area of the museum than any other, with so many questions, quietly moving with respect and a sense of sadness and disappointment, yet them amazed at how strong and courageous the people were and resilient.
Why do we not have a Museum of Indigenous History? A National full scale Museum? a full history of Aboriginal history, languages....Oh which reminds me in Ceduna Sth Australia we found a culture and art centre doing amazing work in supporting the Aboriginal community. We were invited to watch talented artists at work, the children spent time in the language centre, where the University had put together a program which has documented the local languages, to be preserved for future generations, the children type in a word or browse the dictionary and then a voice over translates the word in both English and either language - it was just brilliant, in addition to flash cards for classrooms and books - why are we not providing this in every single community around the country and every single classroom - why are we not celebrating, not just identifying, but really celebrating Aboriginal culture, the birth of our nation we are priviledged to travel and share?
Services - oh I could be here all day telling you about the lack of services in remote and isolated areas - Why are we not all, every single Australia afforded the same basic services? Health care, education, transport, community support? Is it any wonder we are witnessing as General Sanderson suggests in his report the loss of a whole culture, if we do not stop now and do something about what as a nation we have done for too long.
Get out there, experience Australia, every corner and share the truth with your children.
