As I continue to get more and more familiar with my surroundings I get the opportunity to learn more about Aboriginal culture. Once the people are familiar with you, they begin to trust you; but it takes quite a while. For example today, I was on the register and a fellow was standing in front of me as I put his groceries through. Then it looked like he spat something on the ground. I looked over the counter and it turned out he had just spat on my floor. Right in front of me. I couldnt believe it. He didnt care. How gross! I made him wipe it up and put the paper towel in the bin. Im not sure if he will respect me more for this, or if he will come and hunt me down for telling a man what to do. Either way I dont believe in getting walked over by somebody just because I am white. It is a very interesting change in life to be the minority when my whole life I have been in the majority. However when I was apart of the mojority, there is no way I would ever spit on someone's floor.
DEATH
As I wrote in an earlier post, our store had to close due to a dead body coming back into the community. This particular dead body only got burried Friday just passed; when it returned Thursday 3 weeks ago. The culture of the particular tribe that resides here is that their body stays above ground until most family members have paid respects. Alot of time they have to travel quite a distance to do so. From my house, every afternoon for the last 3 weeks I have been able to hear chanting and clap sticks, for hours on end. The family is required to attend the ceremony every night, and dance while helping the soul move on. One of the family members is one of my colleagues and I have been lucky enough to hear about the whole ordeal.
So basically this body has been sitting; most likely in this family's living room for the last 3weeks. I have heard stories about bodies sitting there for a number of weeks and starting to deteriorate due to the heat, and fluids seeping from the coffin; which by the way my shop sells so i found out today. These bodies, the family will bury in their yard. There have been cases of the Community Pigs (there are wild pigs that roam freely around our community) found eating body parts. You can drive around the area and see crosses and flowers in peoples yards (I had wondered why my work sold so many plastic flowers). After a while the family will then dig up the body and relocate to their traditional burial ground. My colleague tells me that his grandmother is burried here and that they have to move her before the end of the year. The reason they keep their loved ones in their yards is so that they can grieve for them and have them close by soon after their death.
There is an insane amount of hangings within Aboriginal culture. Within our community there has been 3 (that I know of) since I have been here. They live in the here and now. They cannot forsee or predict outcomes. Many times they will fight, generally over boyfriends, or wives or husbands. To show how distraught they are they, for some reason unknown to me, hang themselves. They do not understand that they will die from this act. I have been told that one boy, a while ago, hung himself. They family left him there to hang, for weeks. And after that they moved him onto a tree in town. And then to another tree out on their country. Sometimes they will do this as punishment, or because of disgrace.
Luckily I have not got to see any of this so far. But every person I speak to here has a similar experience of some kind. I live in probably the best neighbourhood within the community. Everyone in my street is white, and pretty straight edge, so in a way I am quite sheltered from the outside going-ons. I have made a couple of friends within the community and I get my info from them about what is going. Its even more interesting when you have an insiders point of view.
This weekend just past is a grog hand out weekend. Anyone over 18 can have a permit for alcohol within the community; however it is limited. The options are:
- one carton of heavy beer, and one carton of light or mid
- one carton of mid/light beer and 6 bottles of wine; or
- two cartons of light/mid beer
These are provided once every two weeks. So the grog handout day is every second Saturday morning. By the time I finish at lunchtime most of the community would be half cut. By night fall, I probably wouldnt walk around much. These are the nights when all the shit goes down. I actually pity the police on this night, as most people would drink all of their alcohol until they either pass out or until its gone. This is not to say that the white dont do the same thing. My colleague was telling me over the weekend his cousin stabbed his other cousin in the neck and slit his wrists, because he had smoked ganga and drank too much which caused some sort of disagreement between the two.
CULTURE
Today I was speaking with my friend who is a local. He is a really genuine hard worker, which is not common here at all. He comes to work every day without fail and is always in the brightest of moods. However within their culture it is one for all. If one of the family works they are expected to provide for the rest of the family. If you are asked by your family to give money, you must do it. It is expected. Anyway. We were speaking today, and he invited me to attend his son's coming of age ceremony next week. The terrible part is that the ceremony entails him being circumsized, however I am extremely honored to be invited. The fact that after such a short time I have been welcomed to share an event like this with his family is mindblowing. The fact that I'm white and I got asked to attend is pretty rare as well. I'm super excited - also quite nervous. But this is my first true traditional ceremony. Many coming of age ceremonies, women arent allowed to attend and are held in the bush. I am interested to see if where this ceremony will be held.
The more and more I get used to the way of life up here, the more I worry if I will ever be comfortable with main stream life ever again. I love the freedom here. If you dont show up to work the boss wont call you at all, they will just assume that you will show up one day. Doesnt matter if your late back from your lunch break, or late to work for that matter; these things take time. If your phone rings at work, just answer it. Never hurry. No need to stress because no one else in the community has anything of any importance to do. If you cant find your shoes in the morning, thats ok, wear whatever you like. It doesnt matter what you wear - as long as its not inappropriate, or how your hair is. Its great. Ive never felt so connected with myself, and so free to be me. I like it.
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