Have you ever experienced a movie, exhibit, song, etc. for the first time that put you in a sorrowful mood? Well, allow me to share my Western Australia Museum experience with you. As I have said before I am in the city of Perth for a bit and today I decided to go to the museum. It's actually quite bare and the way it is set up was disorienting, but that is not the point. (Actually I wonder if it is set up in this way to go along with the way this country is mostly, a lot of open space with sudden areas of something.) Anyway, the last exhibit I left was the area that displayed modern history of the Aboriginal people. If you know nothing about this population I think that they are worth looking up. Not surprising, I have seen a lot of Aboriginals since being in Oz but not so many here in Perth.
The exhibit mentioned the "lost generation" as well as other older history of the population. Even just looking at the photography from the early 1900s I could see the lowly status of the Aboriginal men without even needing to hear the history. If there were white men in the picture then the Aboriginal man was in some way kneeling or at some lower physical position than the white man, very blatant actually. The history reminds me of the Native American's in the States except theirs is more recent. Even as recent as 50 or so years ago the Aboriginal people did not have the same rights as the rest of Australians.
I have talked with some Australian people and of course they are not the spokespeople for their country. That being said they had an expectation that anyone that comes to this country assimilate into their culture, period. I think that a lot of people in the States believe this too, it's sad really. We lose cultures when we think this way and have these expectations. I also talked with some Australian people that genuinely appear to have an understanding of the impact and meaning behind what has been done. The understanding and ignorance know no age limit because some of the people have been older and some younger. It's all about the heart I suppose :-)
The realization that people come from another country and kill, steal, rape, kidnap, etc. from the native people then expect them to be like you is RIDICULOUS!?! We did it with the Native Americans and they did with the Aboriginal.
Like I said, I'm in some kind of mood.
The exhibit mentioned the "lost generation" as well as other older history of the population. Even just looking at the photography from the early 1900s I could see the lowly status of the Aboriginal men without even needing to hear the history. If there were white men in the picture then the Aboriginal man was in some way kneeling or at some lower physical position than the white man, very blatant actually. The history reminds me of the Native American's in the States except theirs is more recent. Even as recent as 50 or so years ago the Aboriginal people did not have the same rights as the rest of Australians.
I have talked with some Australian people and of course they are not the spokespeople for their country. That being said they had an expectation that anyone that comes to this country assimilate into their culture, period. I think that a lot of people in the States believe this too, it's sad really. We lose cultures when we think this way and have these expectations. I also talked with some Australian people that genuinely appear to have an understanding of the impact and meaning behind what has been done. The understanding and ignorance know no age limit because some of the people have been older and some younger. It's all about the heart I suppose :-)
The realization that people come from another country and kill, steal, rape, kidnap, etc. from the native people then expect them to be like you is RIDICULOUS!?! We did it with the Native Americans and they did with the Aboriginal.
Like I said, I'm in some kind of mood.
Yeah, sorry...i will ask God how I can bless them.
ReplyDeleteLove the love :-)
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