If you’ve been wondering what happened to your TS Designs Blogger for the past month, thank you. I didn’t even think you’d have noticed. For those of you who didn’t miss me, I won’t hold it against you. Honestly, you guys haven’t been on my mind a WHOLE lot either. I’ve been Down Unda’ for the past month, having the absolute time of my life studying Indigenous Australian culture in Western Australia.
My rigorous January Term abroad consisted of Sunbathing 101, Gourmet Australia for Beginners, Advanced Hiking…oh and Aboriginal Studies. No, in all seriousness, I learned SO much about a race, a people, a spirituality, and a culture that was absolutely alien to me less than 30 days ago. The Nyoongar people of Western Australia are a group of beautiful, family-centered, strong custodians of the land. Hardship has challenged them since European invasion as early as the seventeenth century. Unfortunately it continues to do so today. Social and environmental discrepancies make contemporary western lifestyles easy for a small percentage of Aboriginals, but most combat poverty, drug addiction, alcoholism, and abuse on a daily basis. The system put in place by the Australian government was forged with no room built in for the original owners of Australia – Aboriginal people. The worst part is, the entire continent is suffering from an ignorance of how to maintain such a unique environment. Interesting…Aboriginals never encountered such an issue before the whitefellas arrived…
Indigenous Australians possess the ultimate knowledge in sustainability. Indoctrinated through their lore and their laws, everything used and taken from the land can be no more than what is absolutely necessary. Natural cues like flowers blossoming or animal patterns tell the people when particular hunting seasons begin and end so as not to damage the population cycle. Each living thing has a purpose, and every part of every plant and animal is assigned a function. Nothing is wasted. Nothing is superfluous. This perfect balance came so easily to the Indigenous people, and they really had an incredible system in place. Today, I hope that big business will acknowledge their expertise and work closely with Aboriginals to improve sustainability and decrease negative ecological impact. Such cooperation would not only address the natural issues, but also the social plight of the contemporary Aboriginal. A job opportunity, a niche for specialized traditional education, and cooperative Australian advancement – why wait?
Colonialism, historically, has always been a horrendous attack on the non-white minority. Today, we’re far more educated with access to far more resources than we have ever had. We need to take a step in the right direction, uniting the world under a set of principles that benefit everyone involved – plants, animals, and humans of all colors.