These things connect us and confirm that we are all in this together no matter what the colour of our skin. Our conversation revolved mainly around our shared curiosity about each other’s family, friends and place – where we are from. She spoke to me in English but at times slipped back into her local desert dialect – Arrernte. She was slight, willowy and somehow fragile. She was probably in her mid-30s, but her life-ravaged face suggested a woman much older. Nancy was shy but curious and had come over to talk to me. Sitting beside me was ‘Nancy’ (the woman in the photograph). It was and remains a contentious social issue in Australia a political and philosophical minefield of sorts. I had been sent there by a major Australian magazine to document alcoholism among Aboriginal people. The “land” (Australia) was and remains sacred to the Aboriginal people, and they are its rightful custodians.īut then my reverie returned to the grim reality of where I was: sitting on the dried up bed of the Todd River outside of the town of Alice Springs in desert Australia. I understood – in part – the complexity of their “dreamtime” (Aboriginal myths and legends) and deep spiritual connection and affinity with the land. They were part of my world or, more accurately, I was part of theirs. The Aboriginals I co-existed with worked on the family farm, they were in town, and I went to school with their children. We drove “down the track” to drop Ilene back to the “mission” (Aboriginal settlement) to be reunited with her family and friends. The straight sealed bitumen road soon turned to dirt and a huge cloud of dust streamed behind us. I vividly recall at the end of each working week my father putting Ilene and me in his big 1966 Chevrolet car and driving us out of town. I had fond memories of being cared for by an Aboriginal nanny called Ilene. In reverie, I reflected on how I grew up in a rural outback town in Australia. It is confronting to see people in such dire circumstances – especially when you have a shared experience with those in question. Sometimes they would cause a flood of emotions, leaving me feeling overwhelmed. I had asked myself such questions many times before. And after that I simply did not feel anything. How could Australia’s indigenous people be reduced to such desperation and bleakness? Why is it like this? What was my role as a white Australian in what was before me? How am I responsible? Can I do anything to help? A sense of helplessness followed. Following the guilt there was the shame, the despair, and then the anger. It was not the country that I grew up in. I recall thinking to myself that it resembled another country, well more accurately, another planet. Flies crawled over their faces and tunnelled through their hair. They sat on empty cardboard beer cartons playing with torn cigarette packets and drinking the dregs of left-over alcohol from cans discarded by their parents. The children were peppered randomly around the dry riverbed. The riverbed was strewn with empty wine casks and beer cans. The leaves shielded us from the sun’s cutting rays.Īround me in the dried up riverbed were clusters of Aboriginal men, women and children mumbling in low fatigued tones. The birds had stopped singing and instead sat silently in the branches of the river eucalyptus trees. We would like to honour this Country, the Elders of the past and present and most importantly the young proud Aboriginal people as they are our Leaders for tomorrow.The heat was oppressive and crushing the kind that has claimed countless lives in Australia’s dead heart. We thank them for the care they have taken of Country the rivers, mountains, trees and animals. Jaara Country is the traditional home of the Dja Dja Wurrung people, who have been the custodians and caretakers of this land for tens of thousands of years. We would like to acknowledge the Country on which Saltgrass is produced. In the first half of the episode we get a review of Continue reading “S2E7 When the River Runs Dry” Posted by alliehanly OctoFebruPosted in Episodes, Season 2 Tags: aboriginal, action, activism, Andrew Skeoch, Australia, be heard, canberra, carbon, Castlemaine, CBF, change, climate, climate change, climate crisis, climate emergency, community, Community Broadcasting Foundation, Community Radio, conservation, doco, documentary, film, film review, fish kill, future, land rights, local, MAINfm, MASG, Murray Darling River, music, Nathan Johnson, no planet B, Peter Yates, podcast, politicians, politics, Rory McLeod, social benefit, social change, sustainability, voice, water, when the river runs dry 4 Comments on S2E7 When the River Runs Dry Acknowledgement of Country Only just released and already honoured with multiple awards, this film explores the 2019 mass fish kill event in the Darling River. In this episode, we discuss the documentary film ‘When the River Runs Dry‘ made by a father son team from Maldon.
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