Aboriginal Australia — tours, stories and art
There was a great article recently in the Guardian about Aboriginal tours in Australia. These are not a 'new' idea, as for many years there have been 'cultural centres' and 'Aboriginal tours', but in some cases these have not been as authentic or run by/for the communities they are promoting. But that is increasingly changing, and this article lists a great range of options where you get to experience some 'original' Australian culture. To see the outback is always amazing, but to understand it even a little bit is incredible.
The article includes:
- Bob Taylor's "million star restaurant", which according to the article's journalist Sam de Brito is watched over by stars that are "so bright, they look like burning aircraft", and explains the meal he enjoys of "wild barramundi and kangaroo while Bob "explains the concept of "stories", how almost every landmark we pass has a myth attached to it, often part of a larger story that can run the length or breadth of the continent." Bob offers all manner of 'Aboriginal chef's tours', from lunch, to a 9-day trip.
- Jungala's painted mountain bike tour — which is described in the article as "On the surface, Jungala's bike tour is a cruisey, guided glimpse of Alice Spring's better known landmarks, predictable as any tour visiting the inanimate cultural furniture of a town. What could never be predicted, however, are the people we meet as we ride through the incongruous spitting rain: Jungala's cousins, friends and elders who stop to chat. "It's a living culture tour," says Jungala."
- Ricky Orr's Rainbow Valley Cultural Tour — written up in the article to allow you to understand the real value of what you see and learn: "Everywhere I look there are petroglyphs of emu tracks, kangaroo prints, concentric circles and wagon wheels, some so old they've been split in two by natural movements of the rock. 'A lot of teaching went on here,' says Ricky, and I can't help conjure the thousands of Aboriginal men who dreamed and carved and sang their stories here over millennia."
|
|
|
|
 |
All these tours depart from Alice Springs, the town that I tend to describe as 'in the middle of nowhere' (well it is!). I've been to Alice a couple of times now, and while it's certainly isolated, it's a great place to really start to comprehend the vastness of the outback and the 'red centre' (especially if you travel there by bus...zzz...). It's also a fabulous place to look at art.
|
|
 |
The generally dried-up River Todd in Alice hosts the annual Henley-on-Todd Regatta, where competitors pick up their boats and run in them Flintstone-style — liable to be postponed if wet! |
|
|
|
|
While Andy and I are certainly not aficionados, we have nevertheless fallen in love with certain Aboriginal artists and regions (for those who this means anything too, we're big Utopian fans, but have some other pieces too).
Now, Aboriginal Art probably warrants another post on its own, but I'm mentioning it now as the Guardian article recommends this places to stay in Alice Springs — Vatu Sanctuary — which I hadn't heard about before, but as soon as I saw it was part of Gallery Gondwana, I knew it would be the place we would go to on our next visit. Gallery Gondwana is a very well respected aboriginal gallery in Alice Springs (and they also have a gallery in Sydney too). I like to go and swoon over their big canvas Dorothy Napangardi's... beautiful...
When we last stayed in Alice Springs, we spent a few days at the Alice Springs Resort which was very nice — great pool, nice restaurant and a stroll to town (watch out, as some of the hotels and resorts 'in' Alice aren't really walking-distance).
If all this has inspired you to take a more indigenous approach to your visit to Australia, here are 2 great books I recommend as pre-holiday reading: The Songlines by Bruce Chatwin and Mutant Message Downunder by Marlo Morgan |
