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Six years ago I visited the east coast and the centre of Australia as part of a round the world trip I took in 1996. There is not much cultural shock to be enjoyed in Australia for a Canadian but I was curious about the Australian Aborigines and I did want to see Perth. The original French settlers of "Nouvelle France" mixed quite freely with the indigenous populations (erroneously called Indians). Today, most Quebecois have some Indian blood in them. In my case my ancestor Zacharie Cloutier settled in Chateau Richer near Québec in 1635 and a Huron lady called Catherine Annenontak entered my family line in 1668. Manitoba was initially settled by Frenchmen who took Indian wives, giving rise to the proud Metis nation vanquished by the British in their westward expansion. Portuguese and Spanish settlers also mixed freely with the indigenous populations they encountered. British settlers, however, seldom mixed with the "natives" whom they considered by far too inferior wherever they went. Natives were to be "pacified" and sometimes exterminated to free the best lands for white use. Where the natives were relatively few, like in Canada and Australia they were relegated to reserves where they could pursue their traditional way of life as wards of the State. Until only recently, the epithet "half-breed" was a bad word in the English language. The problems this negative attitude created are not yet solved in Canada so I was curious to see how Australia was getting along with the Aborigines whose ancestors have been living here for 50 000 years. |
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Darwin is a small city of about a hundred thousand with a bit of everything, commerce, shipping and tourism. It is also a road, air and sea hub for the North.
It was raining most the time I was in Darwin. February is summer in Australia and this one was hot, hotter and more humid than the last time I was here in 1996.
On several occasions, I tried to start a conversation with Aborigines that I saw in public places but I almost always met distrust and sometimes even hostility. Wherever I went, I noticed that there was very little communication between the Whites and the Aborigines. It was obviously "politically correct" to show a positive attitude towards aborigines in the media and in anthropological museums but in practice they were completely excluded from society.
The situation is complex, those who survived the first extermination campaigns that followed colonisation, were used as cheap labour while their children were removed to "missions" to wean them from their ancestral culture and mould them into docile Christians. Then, they were isolated in reserves where the state took charge of their subsistence. No wonder they're marginal!
Félix Leclerc was right to sing that the best way to destroy a man is to provide for him instead of giving him work. The results are the same in Australia as in Canada, alcoholism and abuse of all kinds of drugs, delinquency and astronomical suicide rates. In Canada the Amerindians who have managed to escape from the reserves by becoming responsible for themselves, can integrate the mainstream society and many of them have done so brilliantly, but in Australia this social mobility is extremely rare for Aborigines because of the high visibility of their heritage.
The Whites with whom I have talked about this are fully aware of the human drama before them. They say they wish to respect the culture of the Aborigines but they don't want them as neighbour and even less as in-laws. The governments acknowledge their past errors and the media have a positive attitude but there is a huge chasm between these "politically correct" behaviours and the real feelings of most people!
The case of Australia's aborigines is only one example of the hypocrisy of political correctness. In my opinion the present tendency to self-censure everything that is not "politically correct" is extremely harmful because it hides the reality which can then remain unchanged. It probably comes from the conformism of the media who try hard to avoid displeasing anyone for fear of losing their audience. After all, publicity sales are based on audience ratings and profits are the bottom line for private media.
The problem, is that as we get used to to being "politically correct" we lose the capacity to generate our own individual critical thinking based on our personal experience and we end up by not knowing why we think what we think. "Political correctness" is the Trojan horse of memes, it is an open door to all forms of manipulations and it leads to the abdication of the right to think for oneself. To resist this brainwashing, one must first become aware of it.
There are only two seasons in northern Australia, the Wet, October to May and the Dry. Kakadu is a large wetlands national park in Arnhem land east of Darwin. The best time to visit is in the late Dry, July and August when wildlife and birds are easy to find for they crowd around shrinking water holes.
My timing was off but I went anyway hoping to see something. I didn't see any wildlife but I did get a picture of this big anthill.
I was the only guest at the Mary River Lodge and had this four bed, air-conditioned self-contained unit all to myself for a pittance.
John, the lodge manager did warn me that crocodiles would be hard to see because of the high water level, but having come so far, I took a chance to go on the river cruise. Of course I didn't see anything.
I did get to see this wallaby, held captive in a pen next to a restaurant in Jabiru, so my tour of Kakadu was not a compete washout.
I could have taken a discounted flight from Darwin to Perth for less than the price of the bus ticket but chose the latter to see what the north west coast was like.
The roads are often flooded in the North when it rains hard. A gauge on the side of the road a little further showed that there were 40 cm of water when my bus passed here on the way from Darwin to Kununurra.
Naturally, I stayed in youth hostels which are generally quite comfortable and cheap in Australia. A dorm bed in this one, the Desert Inn, cost 8 $US.
There isn't much to take a picture of in Kununurra. It's only a small place with 5000 people. The building shown here houses the district government offices.
The trip by bus along the north coast showed me what a huge and empty country Australia is. Of course most of its waterless centre is uninhabitable but there is still lots of usable space for human settlement.
It was finally realized that the traditional "White Australia" policy rejecting Asian immigrants was untenable and Asians are entering in growing numbers. So much so, that the difference between now and six years ago can be seen in the streets.
In Broome, I stayed in "Broome's Last Resort". Where else! Broome is twice the size of Kununurra with 12 000 people.
The Raspaley shopping centre on Carnavon street shown here and the Boulevard shopping centre on Frederick street are the only establishments of that size within hundreds of kilometres.
Pearl fishing used to be Broome's specialty. Now it's cultured pearls and Raspaley's Pearls ship their famous black beauties all over the world from this house on the corner.
This stretch of Dampier Terrace is all that is left of the Chinatown where Japanese pearl merchants plied their trade in Broome's pearl fishing days.
Six hundred km further west we come to Port Hedland which is a railhead from which the iron ore from the huge Tom Price, Paraburdoo and Newman mines is shipped.
Evaporating sea water in extensive salt flats produced these shimmering mountains also waiting to be shipped.
Iron ore red is Port Hedland's favourite colour.
I had originally planned to stop in many places along the way but it was so hot and so humid that I skipped Exmouth, Coral Bay, Carnavon, Monkey Mia and Kalbarri to make a bee line to Geraldton, 26 hours by bus further down the coast.
This roadhouse, called Overlander, is one of those isolated places where we stopped to snack, stretch and scratch.
It was definitely cooler and dryer in Geraldton. Actually the weather was quite pleasant here.
I stayed at the Batavia Backpackers. This is one of three buildings, built in 1887, that served as a hospital and later as a prison before being abandoned and finally restored to become a superb youth hostel.
With about 25 000 people, Geraldton was the first place that felt like a town since leaving Darwin.
It is a charming town with an old-style town clock. The main commercial street is called the Mall but it is nonetheless a street with through traffic.
This fine building is the Geraldton courthouse.
And here is the Maritime Museum with relics from the "Batavia" and other Dutch ships wrecked off the western coast of Australia in the 17th century after being blown off course on their way to the Dutch colonies that are now Indonesia.
Geraldton also has a fine beach, a fishing harbour and lobster packing plant.
I was anxious to see Perth so after a day I moved on...
