A Picture is Worth 1,000 Words

This is a picture I took at one of my field trips for Linking Indigenousness here at JCU. Uncle Rusty, an Aboriginal elder, teaches a group of students about the Aboriginal ways--here it is in the art of boomerang throwing. We also learned how to start fire without matches and spear throwing! During the trip, he told many stories about how they raise their children, live off the land, and have a direct connection with the land of their ancestors. These stories touched myself and my fellow classmates, both international and Australian alike.

I feel this picture captures an important part of Australian culture today-the idea of acceptance.

Here, in Australia, there is often a stigma associated with Aboriginal people. Many Australians have an aversion to Aboriginal's because they are raised believing 'they are are uneducated, drunk, or criminals.' Linking Indigenousness is a class aimed at opening eyes to what Indigenous peoples went through and how the Australian people are trying to make up for the discrimination and killings of them. Many people are able to learn acceptance and tolerance through being educated in the Aboriginal ways. I believe this class is definitely opening students eyes through knowledge about a different culture.

Having an Aboriginal elder willing to teach non-Aboriginal people about their ways is a great way of gaining acceptance from the outside world. We learn firsthand about how the Aboriginal's carry themselves and how they view the world. Being able to take such a class and have field trips where a local Aboriginal elder teaches about his people shows a clear step in the right direction for Australia in the acceptance of Indigenous peoples and just adds to a country already rich in culture.