White Man's Burden?

I enjoyed having guest speaker, Diane, from Safe Place come in and talk with us.  She has given me a lot to think about this week.

One of the discussions that we had was on ownership and it brought to mind the Aboriginal peoples in Australia and the history they share with our Native Americans.  I had the wonderful experience of visiting Australia last summer.  One of the places that we visited was Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park.  We had a guided tour from one of the aborigines and learned a little bit about their culture.  One of the things I took away with me was that they have no word for please or thank you.  The guide explained through an interpreter that their people don't have these words because they are raised to do what is expected of them without being asked.  This also lead to the discussion of how the aborigines are an equal society.  There were chores that were considered women's work and chores that were considered men's work and they seemed equal in difficulty and practical in nature.  Within a tribe everyone was considered equal and no one was the leader or made all the decisions.  They also felt no ownership of the land on which they lived.  The guide said that the land provides food, water and shelter but that they could no more own the land than they could own the sky.  The idea of ownership came to them from the Europeans and now they have to fight to keep the rights to the place their people have inhabited for centuries.   They were a nomadic people, and they owned what they could carry, and they had no horses or carts, they carried everything themselves.  This was a beautiful experience and I wish I could have stayed longer and learned more.

This is me with our guide who demonstrated how the women carried their things with them including a baby in the crook of their arm.

 The aborigines in Australia were also subjugated and many were killed either through diseases like small pox or through violence.  Europeans came to Australia and wanted to take the land and they wanted to civilize the native people, all in the name of the White Man's Burden, which is similar to what happened here in America.    Thousands of aborigines were killed and dislocated from their families and their tribes.  The area of Uluṟu-Kata Tjuṯa National Park was "given" to the aboriginal people much like reservations were "given" to the Native American tribes.  The National Park is open to tourists including the rock formations Uluru and Kata Tjuta, which are sacred to the native people.  This was an agreement made between the Australian government and the remaining tribes of the aborigines but I learned that the aborigines would rather keep their land closed to the public, but that the Australian government coerced them into allowing tourists to certain areas of the land. The Australian people that live on the land to manage the tour groups all seemed very respectful of the people and of their traditions. The aborigines suffer with some of same problems that our Native Americans, and they have a sadness that has colored their history.  Here is more information about the Australian Aboriginal people.  

Beautiful Uluru at sunset as the moon rises above.