Submitted by Lindsey Cohen on the 2018 winter session program in Australia and New Zealand sponsored by the Alfred Lerner College of Business and Economics…
I recently attended an Aboriginal culture tour in Sydney, Australia. The Elder who gave the tour introduced herself and her culture with a “Welcome to Country” speech. During the introduction, she acknowledged the traditional custodians and welcomed the wider community. She gave her blessing to our group by putting a streak of clay on our left arms. She then explained that the Aboriginals’ cultural stories are as real and relevant as anyone else’s belief systems. I enjoyed learning about a culture that I did not know much about prior to the excursion.
Receiving a streak of clay on me made me feel like I was invited and welcomed into their community; I was honored. I adapted to this intercultural situation by respecting the Aboriginal culture’s norms, values and mores. I was open-minded to their culture and enjoyed my experience learning about how the Aboriginal culture differs from mine. Moreover, I enjoyed learning about and analyzing the similarities that our cultures shared.
During the tour, I learned about traditional Aboriginal custodians, who today are descendants of original inhabitants. They have a continuing spiritual, cultural, political and physical connection with the particular land where their ancestors lived. They utilize the natural resources that surround them throughout their everyday practices. In addition to inheriting their elders’ land, they inherit their cultural stories and customs. One of their ways of life, I learned, includes having a large and diverse family that is made up of humans, plants and animals. The Elder who presented the tour to our class said that she has six mothers. Her mothers include her birth mom, aunts and additional members of her family. Despite the relationship a custodian has with another group member, everyone in the Aboriginal clan looks after one another.
The Aboriginal culture values collectivism. By having large families with multiple parents, they emphasize groups and personal relationships. Laws, I learned, are especially important to their culture’s values and beliefs. Their laws are a way of life and no one in their clan turns away from them. The laws have centralized social and economic controls that created a collectivist system where everyone in their clan looks after and cares for one another. Their peaceful way of life was built on accentuating and maintaining strong relationships among the members in their community. Their cultural values create a safe, sympathetic and cooperative community that is one-of-a-kind.