Submitted by Meghan Paulus on the 2019 winter session study abroad program in Australia sponsored by the School of Nursing…
G’day! During my first week in Sydney, Australia I was blown away by the differences I was not expecting to see from this country in comparison to America. Some of my group members, myself included, have unanimously agreed that we could never drive in this country as almost everything is reversed. While being in a English speaking country has been largely beneficial while traveling abroad, the biggest adjustment has been traveling on the right side of the road or sidewalk. Since it is expected that pedestrians fall in line on the same side that cars do, I have found myself correcting my positioning multiple times a day to give way to others passing by.
Other than that, our group has been continuously learning about the heritage of the inhabitants of Sydney and how healthcare has played a role in their lives over generations. We explored the first location of a hospital built for the colonial settlement as well as a hospital turned museum capturing the image of life and health for these first western inhabitors of Australia. Culturally speaking, many tour guides have acknowledged both their convict heritage as well as the colonization of Australia as an invasion of Aboriginal lands. The Aboriginal people who inhabited Australia some 50,000 years before the British discovered Australia are said to be the oldest most continuously kept culture on the planet.
Up until the recent 1970’s many of these groups had no rights or healthcare within the government. Instead, they were pushed to reservations, some stolen from their families and sent to internment camp prisons in the name of saving them from themselves. During our tour of the Sydney Opera House, the tour guide held a moment of silence for the Aboriginal people who once inhabited that land and paid respect to them through this gesture. I found this step to honor those who came before, very positive and uplifting. While the invasion of Australia can never be reversed, it seemed as if many Australians were making strides to bridge relations with their Aboriginal neighbors and working towards harmony in both life as well as healthcare accessibility.
Through these small gestures and tidbits of information, I feel as though I have only touched the surface of the Australian way of life. I know there is much more to explore and I am grateful for the opportunity to learn and grow from both the indigenous and non-indigenous people of Australia thus far.