Life in the Alice

 

The Sydney Morning Herald’s travel blog ran a story on life in Alice Springs. As one of the commentators noted, it’s mainly a run down of local restaurants and bars (but then the NT Tourist Commission did pay for the writer to visit).

Link

But there is a mention of our indigenous problem. Which has featured rather a bit in Australian news coverage during May and June when federal politician Mal Brough became involved in the argument of “how do we solve THE PROBLEM?”

I don’t know about other residents, but I’m getting tired of it all. I’m tired of the city media and citizens not understanding the realities of life in the Territory or the Outback in general. I’m tired of being made to feel like I should be “doing more” to raise living standards for the indigenous population. I’m tired of being branded a racist simply because I live in Alice Springs.

The issue is so much more complicated than simple racism. Indeed, if racism was the only cause then it would be an easy fix. But it isn’t.

I’ve lived here for more than two years now. And it has taken that long to really see the intricate complexities behind the problems and impoverished living standards for many of our indigenous peoples.

The only racism is the sheer lack of insight and understanding of traditional, nomadic Aboriginal culture. So many of the “do-gooders” do not recognize the fact that you cannot treat the indigenous population as a single entity. There are many tribes, many peoples, many skins and they all have slightly different cultural rituals and beliefs not to mention language. One government-provided solution does not and will not fit all.

And it doesn’t help when the NT government fights the Commonwealth government and we have all these disagreements and scrambling for funding amongst the many and varied organisations purportedly set up to help indigenous people.

I read a comment a couple of weeks ago suggesting what we really need to do is go out to some of the indigenous communities that are working well and have solved the alcohol and petrol sniffing problems and ask them HOW DID YOU DO IT? And follow their template. Simple. Maybe that strategy will work.

In the meantime, perhaps tourists visiting my town will do their bit by keeping an open mind when they see public drunkenness and violence, especially after dark here in the Alice. It isn’t a simple case of racist whites against blacks.