It is hard to believe that tonight will be the last of the three weeks
we have paid for in this camp. How the time has flown! We will extend a few more days, but we are now rationing our activities as our
departure day draws nearer.
The morning started as slothfully as the day before, however I have to
confess that this is also partly due to the fact that the Tour of California,
one of the main international cycle races, is currently under way and the last
fifty or less kilometres of each day’s race is being televised live, at a time
we would normally be rising and breakfasting. Needless to say, road cycle
racing is in danger of interfering with our own great Australia tour.
By the time we had called into the Dickson shopping centre for a few
provisions and the daily newspaper, it was close to midday, so again we parked
in our regular place by the lake, made a start on the newspaper and then had an
early lunch before returning yet again to the Museum.
Today I started on the Gallery of the First Australians. Since
arriving here fifteen months or so ago, and being regular museum goers, we have
seen so much about aboriginal culture, the lost children, the establishments of
land rights, and acknowledgement that these were citizens of Australia no less
than anyone else, to be counted in the national census and with a right to vote.
As avid newspaper readers we have also absorbed the negative commentaries about
the aboriginal people in Alice Springs and other remote places. As travellers we
have seen the drunks in the dry river beds and the listless aimless groups
under the trees in public places. From this one arrives at a particular
conclusion, which is prejudiced and tunnel viewed; for that I apologise but ask
how can I not arrive at this?
Today in this excellent gallery, much of what I have read about was
duplicated, and I learned too of the stories of terrible massacres of
aboriginals through the centuries after white men arrived, and the brave
rebellious battles the first Australians engaged in with the settlors. As a
foreigner, albeit from only across the ditch, I was ignorant of these matters.
In New Zealand, we had the Maori Wars and there is no secret about these. Such
matters here are no longer hidden away, but they are not advertised either.
On a positive note, I was encouraged to see scores of photos and stories
of folk, some with rather small amounts of aboriginal blood, but all claiming First
Australian heritage, as successful functioning articulate members of society. There
is one exhibition celebrating the history and the success of the aboriginal led
radio station in Broome (in Western Australia) that is now an equally successful
television station, dabbling in function organisation and media training
services. I came away with a more balanced view of the problems of the aboriginal
people, however cannot see too many others being as cheered as I was until these
people embrace education and shed their victim mentality.
Chris and I met up mid-afternoon and took in the special exhibition
currently on here in the Museum of Australia; Travelling the Silk Road, Ancient Pathway to the Modern World.
There is a charge for this, however I felt this was well justified given the
cost of bringing it here to Canberra. The exhibition takes the visitor one
thousand years back in time to experience the sights, sounds and stories of the
greatest route in history. Four cities on the route are described; Xi’an, in
China during the Tang era highlighting silk, Turfan (now known as Turpan), also in China, then
home to the Sogdian merchants, a thriving oasis and market centre, Samarkand , today the second largest city in Uzbekistan,
highlighting papermaking, and finally Bagdad in Iran, a great centre of
scholarly learning and commerce. The exhibition is beautifully done offering a
wealth of visual, audio and sensual exhibits; colourful and informative. I was
certainly glad we bothered to stray from the many free attractions that abound
in this wonderful city.
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