A clash of cultures: Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
Something I recently posted on another blog belongs here, so I reprint it below.
A clash of cultures: Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
I'm not sure what it is, exactly, that I'm going to say in this post. I only know that my own personal encounter with Aboriginal people, over a 17-year period touched every aspect of my being, in ways too complex to articulate and that it has affected all aspects of my consciousness, including my relation with and ability to function in my own culture. I've noticed, for example, that my reactions to people and events, to whatever it is that passes for "news" in the mass media and to views and attitudes expressed by family and friends - as well as to their actions - have been radically transformed since my first contact with Aboriginal Australia at the beginning of 1985 (I ceased my active involvement in mid-2001). My decision to write something about what I see as a clash between two fundamentally distinct cultures has been triggered by two occurrences. The first is all the nonsense that has recently appeared in the media - and in private conversation prompted by the media attention. The second is one such recent conversation with someone who showed genuine interest in this minefield.I was well aware that, when my plane landed in Canberra on Australia Day in January 1985, to enable me to take up employment with the then (Commonwealth) Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA), I was beginning a journey of discovery. I had only a vague idea where such a journey might lead and I had high hopes and dreams that I would some day be a part of something far bigger than anything I could then articulate. When, after a mere six months in the Department, I was sent to Kempsey, on the mid-North coast of New South Wales, to undertake a so-called "social impact study" of the area, I was, again, well aware that it was the next step on the adventure I had begun when I moved to Canberra. I spent three months in Kempsey, working with two local Aboriginal people, employed as my "research assistants". Nothing in my life to that point had prepared me for my first real meeting with Aboriginal people. Certainly, I had, by this time, met many Aboriginal employees in DAA, including some senior Public Servants - some of whom were controversial public figires - but in Kempsey I began to meet Aboriginal people who struck me as being very different from those I had come to know in Canberra - and totally different from those I had seen and heard portrayed in the media [To be continued]
A clash of cultures: Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal
I'm not sure what it is, exactly, that I'm going to say in this post. I only know that my own personal encounter with Aboriginal people, over a 17-year period touched every aspect of my being, in ways too complex to articulate and that it has affected all aspects of my consciousness, including my relation with and ability to function in my own culture. I've noticed, for example, that my reactions to people and events, to whatever it is that passes for "news" in the mass media and to views and attitudes expressed by family and friends - as well as to their actions - have been radically transformed since my first contact with Aboriginal Australia at the beginning of 1985 (I ceased my active involvement in mid-2001). My decision to write something about what I see as a clash between two fundamentally distinct cultures has been triggered by two occurrences. The first is all the nonsense that has recently appeared in the media - and in private conversation prompted by the media attention. The second is one such recent conversation with someone who showed genuine interest in this minefield.I was well aware that, when my plane landed in Canberra on Australia Day in January 1985, to enable me to take up employment with the then (Commonwealth) Department of Aboriginal Affairs (DAA), I was beginning a journey of discovery. I had only a vague idea where such a journey might lead and I had high hopes and dreams that I would some day be a part of something far bigger than anything I could then articulate. When, after a mere six months in the Department, I was sent to Kempsey, on the mid-North coast of New South Wales, to undertake a so-called "social impact study" of the area, I was, again, well aware that it was the next step on the adventure I had begun when I moved to Canberra. I spent three months in Kempsey, working with two local Aboriginal people, employed as my "research assistants". Nothing in my life to that point had prepared me for my first real meeting with Aboriginal people. Certainly, I had, by this time, met many Aboriginal employees in DAA, including some senior Public Servants - some of whom were controversial public figires - but in Kempsey I began to meet Aboriginal people who struck me as being very different from those I had come to know in Canberra - and totally different from those I had seen and heard portrayed in the media [To be continued]
posted by Andrew Reiner at 7/03/2006 11:55:00 PM
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