Seanachai wrote: » Has anybody here spent any time in the outback with the aborigines? I might be visiting my brother later this year and I'd like to hang out with some for a while. I don't want a tourist package but some pointers on meeting aboriginal people who preserve their traditions.
aido79 wrote: » There are very few places left in Australia where you will find aboriginal people who preserve their traditions. The only place I can think of would be Arnhem land in the Northern Territory. There are a lot of problems in remote aboriginal communities which you may not be aware of and they may not be the kind of places you would like to "hang out". I'd look into this a lot more before you consider it.
pete4130 wrote: » I don't really know how to take your post to be honest. I'm hoping you are simply naive. Indigenous people in Australia have suffered extreme hardship, murder, genocide, racism, slavery and discrimination since Europeans arrived on Australian shores and continue to to suffer right now. They are not a tourist attraction for people to "hang out" with and certainly aren't tourist attractions. You need to approach Indigenous Australians and their culture with respect. Do a lot more personal research on the matter.
mrcheez wrote: Pretty harsh post (akin to the style of posts you see on Thorn Tree rather than more measured boards posts). The guy was simply asking about how to experience a different aspect of Australia rather than the usual Irish-backpacker routine, just as if he was going to the Amazon and wanted to spend time with the locals there. If anything his acknowledgement of the aborigine culture as being worthy of experience shows sufficient respect.
Seanachai wrote: » I have immense respect for all aboriginal people and have spent time with other native people sharing music and culture, stories etc. I think you're misinterpreting my words, and no I'm not naive. It's the tourist attraction experience that I don't want, I want to spend time with the native people to learn about their culture first hand, not to patronise them in any way. I'm not looking to force myself on anybody or play the great white saviour role. I know from other native people that they are only too happy to invite outsiders into their world for a time. The reason I'm asking on here is I know that there are commercial packages that bring tourists on tours where you observe people as if they are animals in a zoo, I was looking to see if anybody here had previously made contact in an independent way and maybe had some pointers, that's all.
Canis Lupus wrote: » Imagine an American for example had found Boards.ie and made the above post but switch Aborigine for traveller. What would your response be to them? That's pretty much the same answer anyone here could give you. It's like.... an 'interesting' idea but a bit naive tbh.
Wanderer78 wrote: » not at all, plenty of people doing these kinds of things around the world, i was only watching a henry rollins interview yesterday whereby he has been pretty much doing this kind of thing his whole life, leading to amazing experiences. they are afterall, only humans just like us
Canis Lupus wrote: » Of course they're human. But like I said if an American said they were fascinated by travellers would you tell them to head on into a halting site and see how they got on? For most people how would that end up?
