Indigenous Australia

Cairns Art Gallery has an exhibition of contemporary indigenous art and we went to see it last week. There was also an indigenous art fair during the weekend. It's a pity I couldn't afford to buy a thing at the fair but on the other hand a painting is a bit difficult to travel with. Being inspired by these events, I decided to write a word about indigenous Australians. I don't mean to write a boring report of the current situation of indigenous people or examine the governments actions in this matter, but just to share with you some observations I've made since arriving to Australia.

We heard a lot of indigenous Australians from one of hour hosts. He had been working in an indigenous community for quite some time. He always spoke about them in a warm and respectful manner. Another host family, however, was horrified by the amounts of money Australian government wastes on education and support of the indigenous people. This family seemed to think the indigenous people are better off than other Australians because they receive special financial support from the government.

Original Australians were not so much present in Brisbane but here in Cairns we meet them quite often. Unfortunately the ones you see staggering in the streets are often drunk and spend their time in the parks getting even more drunk. In this light it seems a bit strange to think that they are the more successful and better off Australians. Just for comparison, I haven't seen that many Australians of European origin getting wasted in the parks during daytime. 

The indigenous people are the losers in the story of colonizing Australia. The European settlers got possession of a huge paradise island, natural resources and an opportunity to get a better life and standard of living. The indigenous people got the Western way of life, McDonald's, diabetes, obesity, alcoholism and all the social problems connected to Western lifestyle. The drunk indigenous people wandering in the streets are like ghosts, people, who don't have anything to lose because everything has been already lost. 

Western people often forget that our own culture is just one culture among the others, it's in no way superior to the other cultures and it's not universal. By universal I try to say that we can't just assume that people with different backgrounds will adapt to our culture without problems. Why should they even try, they have their own cultures much more suitable for them. Many Western people can't adapt to our culture either, we have more than enough problems related to our lifestyle. But the indigenous people have it worse than we do. They have mainly lost their traditional culture, their lifestyle has been swiped off the map and they've been forced to adapt to a culture that's strange to them and differs from their own traditional ways of living. No wonder alcohol starts to look like a savior. 

Well, I think it's time for me to stop preaching. The art fair was a very positive and happy event where indigenous people were presenting themselves and their culture that's finally being respected and valued by other Australians as well. In my opinion the indigenous art is beautiful, maybe that's your opinion, too?