Aboriginal Encounters

Hello all! I would just like to take note on how interesting and complicated the Idigenous Australians live their lives. These peoples just obtained citizenship within the last 50 years and they are still struggling to survive with the White Australian culture. Many people also believe that these Idigenous Australians are dangerous and cause nothing but trouble for the White Australians. But in fact the Idigenous peoples are good natured towards Whites, and are instead more aggressive towards one another. They are having an extremely hard time adjusting to white culture. These people have been alone on this continent for the past 50,000 years till white man came and changed their lifestyle. There are only a few standing Aboriginal tribes that still live traditionally. Many have changed lifestyles to coincide with ours. Unfortunately for many that lead to more problems than it solved. Many Aboriginals fight amongst themselves for various reasons such as alcohol, drugs, previous fights, payback ceremonies, stealing and anything else that cause trouble.

Here are a few encounters that I have experienced with the Indigenous Australians while on the trip.

First Encounter: Thursday May 9th, 2013

I had been on an adventurous tour of the city of Cairns and on my return trip I almost got trapped into a fight... I had been walking down one of the main streets when a white Australian girl pushed me out of her way. I wondered what she could be in such a rush where she would purposefully push people out of her way when it wasnt that crowded. She then proceeded onward toward an Aboriginal girl and a group of young adolescent Aboriginal males. As the white Australian girl closed in on the Aboriginal girl she stepped on her thongs (flip-flops), and pushed her into a puddle. The young adolescent males rushed to the girls aid. Then moved on to get into the face of the white Australian girl, and since I was right behind her the moved towards me thinking I was with her. Quickly, I signaled that I didnt want any trouble and I power walked my way not looking back to see what else that happened... As you can see from the above instance, some Aboriginals are still being treated poorly by some of the white Australians.

Second Encounter: Friday May 17th, 2013

This second encounter is a mix of three or four other encounters, I have done this simply because of the same occurance happening repeatedly. That day I just ran into many different Aboriginals who were fighting amongst themselves in the streets of Alice Springs. Fortunately, they looked out for me and the others that were walking with me. By looked out, I mean they made sure they didnt touch us. I saw many different kinds of fights that went from verbal to physical violence. Hopefully these disputes will be settled soon. Another interesting fact that the group and I have learned is that Aboriginal people feel uncomfortable being inside buildings so they tend to crowd streets and just hang out outside.

Third Encounter: Saturday May 18th, 2013

In this third encounter I was eating by myself at a nearby KFC, and there were a few elder Aboriginal people hanging around. After I was done eating I was approached by one of these older Aboriginal. He did not speak but used hand motions to indicate that basically he wanted to eat whatever food I had leftover. Now I know that giving money away to people is against the law here, but I also did not know how that law would apply to food... But in any case I had no food leftover because I have a huge appetite. I felt really bad for the guy, but I did try to signal back to him and I showed him that I had no food left. I felt bad but I also did not want to get in trouble and I left after throwing my trash today. Aboriginal people are still being short-handed with wages and are the poorest people in Australia. Many find it difficult to find jobs in todays society because of a lot of misleading stereotypes.