Understanding Australia

'Speaking from the heart' is one of the books I brought back from Australia; it was one of the very few books of writing (or is it speaking) by native Australians, also known as 'Aaaabos' to Sir Les Patterson. (For those not in the know, the latter is not a nice way of speaking about the native Australian population).

It's a collection of stories describing their lives, by various members of the different communities. There are many different communities and they cannot be treated as the same; they have different languages and different cultural understandings of things. The stories are often fairly horrific, particularly in terms of the White Australia policy of the first half of the 20th century, when the Native Welfare Board was trying to breed out blackness - the board had to approve every marriage involving native Australians, and woe betide them if someone wanted to marry a blacker person (though by definition often one of the parties of the marriage would be blacker). A chap called Mr Neville, the head of the Native Welfare Board, was particularly feared and loathed. Children would be taken from the families and put into missions, often orphanages where they would be brought up in institutional life and encouraged to forget everything about their birth families. There also seems to be a concept of mission which seems to be a very large area of land, managed by some church folk, where native Australians of all ages would live. Although native Australians were able to join the army, they were not always able to participate in the lives of the other soldiers, for example when they would go out and the 'blackfellas' would not be served alcohol.

The spirituality of the native Australians comes through very strongly, as does their connectedness to the land (especially through the 'taproot' which we gardeners know is the strongest kind of root, though here the meaning is conceptual) and its nature, and their very strong sense of family, which does not only include those connected by blood. Hence it's even more atrocious to have the children removed. Interestingly one of the narrators talks about the British children who were in the orphanages at the same time (for a while the UK exported its post-war orphans to Australia and Canada).

Now, having been in Oz just at the time of the child abuse scandal, what surprised me most of all was the talk in the book of families living in four-bedroomed houses, having highly polished floors etc (though not all of them in the book). All the media images at the time (June this year) of native Australians showed rag-tag people sitting near nothing more than benders suggesting that these are their homes. Native Australians were almost invisible, and the few I saw in Adelaide, apart from one smart schoolboy, were always very much at the margin of things. This representation is totally different from that in the book, where most narrators are community leaders and some are academics. Many of them have non-native Australian ancestors, eg white Australians, English or Asians, and perhaps that gave their families a different experience to draw upon and a different outlook. In some way I would have liked to hear more about the downtrodden members of the community and their experiences of life - this is perhaps my greatest criticism of the book. Incidentally you wonder how much the alleged difficulties in childrearing is due to the institutional upbringing of so many native Australians.

Interestingly, at our viola congress reception in Adelaide Town Hall, there were a character whose namebadge said 'Uncle.....'. I asked him what it meant but just at that time the speeches started. 'Uncle...' seems to be the title of an elder of the community. He bade us welcome in another language which we did not understand. He was also white as the driven snow. So the White Australia policy has worked?

Final thoughts on Oz

...even though everything looks very modern, it's a bit old-fashioned - food and drink venues close very early, people wait at traffic lights even when there are no cars....

...not everything works, much like in the UK. Due to high winds yesterday a train got stuck as a result of a power failure on Sydney Harbour bridge (which I was trying to cross at the time) - the ensuing traffic chaos had to be seen to be believed! People would have walked across but it was far too cold and windy to do so.

...people are very friendly.

Words in Oz

'how are you' = 'hi'

'see ya' = 'bye'

'brekkie' = 'breakfast'

'hottie' = 'hot drink'

whitefella = white person

blackfella = black person (or aborigine)

Long black

short black

flat white (all kinds of coffee)



...signing off from Oz

Sydney Opera House

'Tis not only an opera house, but a whole entertainments complex. It has a concert hall and a theatre in addition to the opera auditorium. It's designed all the way through, from the outside shells to the rather amazing wash basins in the toilets - which are not wash basins, but a kind of long shelf with the occasional wave down towards the back, where the water drains away - somewhere. I wonder what the urinals are like?

The bones of the opera house are huge exposed concrete beams which go from the ground right along and up the building. Much of the inside is exposed concrete, as was fashionable at the time. The concert hall has more wood than the opera auditorium - there is talk of poor acoustics, but they seemed all right to me. Especially since even in row U of the opera auditorium I could hear and see very clearly - the rows of seats rise steeply, so even at the back you can see (thank you, Mr Architect). The concert hall is huge - it must take thousands!

In the interval it was possible to go out on the balcony overlooking the harbour and the harbour bridge. Is that romantic or what? It's a brilliant location for an opera house, though quite a long hike from the centre. Because of that by the time I arrived for the opera no food was left in the bistro...and after the opera finished, by 10.45, everything in the town was closed. So dinner was a breadroll before the show, and an ice lolly afterwards (even the hotel bar had closed at 11).

Figaro, figaro, Fiiiiiiiiigaaaaro!

Rossini knew what he was doing when he wrote the signature aria for Figaro right at the beginning of his opera 'The Barber of Seville'. Figaro firmly plants himself in the minds of the audience as a wheeler, dealer and fixer!

Surprisingly, it was the first time I had seen the opera. It was also the first time I saw anything at the Sydney Opera House. It was brilliant!

Set in a 1930s health spa, it involved not only the singing protagonists, but also a number of silent characters, including a retired colonel, two injured bullfighters, a mad painter, and a lovely little elderly factotum who shuffled about in that memorable way of the parking attendant in 'Mon Oncle'. I had not realised the story was so involved (having only seen the play in the Russian Drama Theatre in Vilnius, in Russian), with Count Almaviva disguising himself as all sorts of characters.

From the start it was clear that Figaro (the wonderful Jose Carbo) had everything in control, and although he did not have that many singing parts after the first aria, he sorted out everything, and for everyone. The surreal and rather psychedelic set contributed to a general air of wackiness (in the blurb the production is, justifiably, described as a mixture of Antonio Gaudi and the Marx Brothers). There were lots of lovely little, and very funny, details - and the singing and musicianship were just grand, full of joy and enthusiasm. I wish the Vienna Staatsoper produced shows like this!

Oh, Dame Edna!

Thursday night, at Her Majesty's Theatre (where else?) in Adelaide - an audience consisting entirely of white Australians, of very varying ages - did that very ancient couple in the row in front of me know what they were letting themselves in for?

The show started with Dame Edna, her pianist and the Edna-tones (her backing group, dancers, scene shifters) bursting into song - it's Dame Edna's 50th anniversary of being on stage! Followed by a film clip which allowed her/him to change into the ghastly Les Patterson character, spitting and dribbling (how does he do that? - it was very dangerous in the front row) and with a huge penis tucked into his left trouser leg. His jokes were outrageous, and the audience was in uproar - especially the front row.... This was followed by Sandy Stone, a character I did not know, who did a very interesting, and quite quiet, monologue about old people's homes - it seems the situation in Australia is much like that in other parts of the world.

Only after the interval did Dame Edna return, and she certainly was back with a vengeance. She's by far the best character of them all! Flounced all over the stage, sang, danced (aged 73), and then began to pick on the audience. I watched in appalled fear from the fourth row! First she picked on some women, the last of which was a stand-up comic from Honolulu with an unusual name - causing some consternation! Then she arranged a wedding of two people who had been shown to be very compatible by some 'research'. Hmmmm. She picked some interesting ones there!

One was a very small, very old lady, who when asked about her marital status, said she was a widow. How long? 6 months - ouch! The other one was a young guy, who said he was not single. When asked about the lucky girl, his male partner jubilantly popped up in the audience. Much crossing of eyes and curling of lips ensued! She got them married, and then decided to phone the young guy's mother. He only went 'oh my god, oh my god' - and we did not know what exactly might be the problem...When the mum answered, Dame Edna told her that she had some news which the mother might have been dreaming of for a very long time.....The mother was totally flummoxed, and eventually hung up. Even Dame Edna realised that she might have gone a step too far!

It was a brilliant, brilliant show! Did not understand all since it was more Aussie than on UK TV, but everyone had a fantastic time! Definitely worth the ticket price!

My lips are burning!

So, on to Adelaide, with Virgin Blue airlines, who seem to have cornered a large chunk of the Oz airline market. They charge for the food, as well as for the in-flight entertainment - you can swipe your credit card for that. No thanks, Mr Branson!

The cheap end of the viola congress accommodation is in the former Nurses Home of the Royal Adelaide Hospital. At 17.50 AUD (half that in pounds) need I say that it is basic? But the bedding is clean, the towels are nice, and the rooms are warm. Not sure where to get breakfast on site, other than checking yourself in as a patient, but there are plenty of cafes around. We share our 11th floor with a bunch of boys here for a rugby tournament, who shower heavily in the afternoons and leave the floor awash. Oh yes, and the bathrooms and toilets are shared for all - it's great when you are sitting on the loo whilst a guy is shaving at the nearby washhandbasin. Kind of puts you (me) off a bit!

Adelaide seems quite small, though it has plenty of suburbs. It's very low rise, and the main part of the city consists of two squares, with gridlike streets, set in a green belt - beyond it the 'burbs. It has several theatres, though, a concert hall, a university and so on what with being the capital of South Australia, population 2 million. Does not take very long to walk across the town centre, or even both bits of it, certainly not the three hours for the walking tour described in a brochure.

Running in the Botanic gardens (there are lots of them in Oz, no?) is a slightly eery experience when you find a bunch of green, red and blue parrots flying alongs side you! I run in shorts and t-shirts, and the people I meet are dressed in winter jackets, hats, and scarves. Do they think that because it's winter they have to dress warm?

Food is interesting; there are lots of lovely breakfast cafes all of whom offer huge portions, so if you want more than one type of thing you end up paying a lot and leaving half. Not ideal, but the stuff is delicious! Though porridge with honey and poached pears is not quite the Scottish way. During the day it's been mainly Asian food, vietnamese. japanese, thai - no wonder my lips are burning!

Went to the beach this morning at Glenelg - don't ask me what ocean I dipped my feet into! I was the only one, though, by very far - everyone else was very well wrapped up, and in no danger of going anywhere near the water! If I had had my cozzy with me, I would have gone in, just for the experience!

Yesterday failed to overcome my resistance to enter bookshops (trying to keep this for my last day in Sydney) and took a closer look - only to find mainly British, American and international books. I asked about Aussie authors - she found five that might have fitted my interests (based on the other books I had in my hand). Hmmm, they must do better than that? One of the two Aussie books I bought is set in the US....

Had planned for some culture tonight, with the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra's Sibelius concert, when I spotted, on this morning's local paper, the face of Dame Edna Everage, opening in Adelaide tonight! There's no contest! Tomorrow the congress will start....

In the news

A paper I read on the planes, can't remember which one, but it was in English, provided an assessment by the Austrian chancellor of T Blair's time in office (I wonder if he's awake now - 04 am - on his departure day) stating that he thought that Blair had 'moved Britain to the left'. Right....

What's in the papers in Oz? The property pages have an advertisement for a house for sale for 2.5 million Aussie dollars (1.25 million GBP). Here they also sometimes show the price when the house was last traded - 5,250 AUD in 1952 - advertised as 'for decades in the same family' - that's a lot of time in Australia. May not always be a recommendation, though, especially when it goes on to say that it has 'good bones' - structurally sound, but not much else?

The Jocks and Canucks are coming. This is about TV channels (or programming) which are being taken over by Scottish and Canadian media. Imagine if the British papers said 'the Pakis and Chinkies are coming'.... more 0n racism below...

Morris Iemma, apparently the new premier of the state of New South Wales, has been in office for 100 days. What were his achievements, he was asked? The media were told that he had made 160 decisions, some of major importance. Including providing stab-proof vests for police dogs'.

But the main story, which I had also spotted in the Guardian at the end of last week, is the response of the Aussie premier Howard to a report on child sex abuse in the aboriginal communities. The report was provided a year ago. Aparently child sex abuse is rampant in these communities. There was a story of a young man, a rapist, who at the age of six had witnessed his father shooting his mother, and being told to clean her brains off the floor....as someone said - do we have the experts to prevent someone like that from raping?

So now Howard, a year before his re-election, is sending in the troops to deal with this, describing it as 'our Katrina' [a catastrophe on the same level as the American hurricane]. People whose children are at risk will have their state benefits cut so they don't spend money on drink and other inessentials, some people (or settlements?) may be banned from buying alcohol for 6 months, all aborigine children will undergo compulsory medical examinations, and the federal police will take over what is a duty delegated to the state [who should be providing their own police]. The troops have to come in because there are not enough doctors to examine the children, so they use army doctors as well. Like they know how to deal with child sexual abuse. A lot of people are very upset about it, and the aboriginal communities, naturally, are up in arms about it. A doctor argued that these examinations are in themselves a form of abuse.

Putting this in perspective, it's worth noting that the aborigines have only been allowed to buy alcohol since 1964, and to vote since 1967. Do these Aussies think Aborigines are human? You hardly ever see any at all - I have seen three people who might be of Aborigine origin; one was a hotel receptionist, another begging in the street, and the third one was a very fine-looking tall school boy in a very smart uniform. But generally they are totally invisible - and of course the hospital I am staying in has separate accommodation for aborigines.

So comments about 'Canucks' and 'Jocks' are quite mild, really....Australia has a loooong journey to travel!

Going to Oz

Can't believe that I spent 2 1/2 nights in a plane seat on the way to Oz. Only with a 10 hour stop over in Frankfurt (with far too much time for shopping...), and other stops in Dubai and Bangkok. About a 48 hour journey, although I'm not sure how much of that time was spent in the air.

Some UK air force people were on the flight from Tbilisi to Frankfurt. One of them had great difficulty opening the toilet door. Makes you feel all warm inside, to be protected by people with such technical know how!

The Dubai airport duty-free is awesome - I had heard about it before, and everything they say about it is true. It was packed with people, most shopping as if it was going out of fashion. Did not really have much time to go around for a good look, but would not have wanted to buy what they have anyway.

In Bangkok we had 20 minutes to get out of the plane with all our belongings, belt around the airport, including going through security, and then return to the same plane and the same seat (for cleaning, I assume). It probably did us good, before the next leg of the flight (8 hours 21 minutes, they told us). The poor folks who were going on to Auckland had to do the same thing again in Sydney!

On the flight to Dubai found myself sitting next to a Rwandan lady who now lives in Canada. One does not ask about personal effects of the genocide. I think she was doing some sort of business in Kenya and Rwanda, but she was also involved in some fund that supports something or other in Rwanda.

Then on the flight to Sydney I was next to a lady from Jordan who now lives in Australia. Except she is of Armenian extraction; her grandparents had fled to Jordan, and when she grew up she had 5 languages including Turkish, spoken by her grandmother. She is thinking of getting her Armenian citizenship though she has not been there - but this is possible under Armenian law. She had also spent some time in Edinburgh, where her husband had been a student.

Interesting neighbours, no?

Accommodation for Aboriginals?

Off to Australia later this month for the INTERNATIONAL VIOLA CONGRESS (Yeah!!!). Being a cheapie, I will be staying at the Royal Adelaide Hospital. I have some little doubts about that because in Scotland, if you combine 'royal' and 'hospital' a lot of the time you get a psychiatric institution (though there might be a Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley which definitely is not).

Having fankled up my booking for the accommodation and the flights, I thought I'd try and change the booking, and found the hospital accommodation website. Apparently it has many accommodation options for patients (who don't need to stay in an expensive bed) and relatives, the former nurses home being one of them. That'll be like the cheap hotel I stayed in just before the Minneapolis viola congress a few years ago, where you'd see people shuffling along in bandages...For 17 Oz dollars, what can you expect.

But anyway, so there are lots of accommodation options - and at the bottom there is a list of accommodation options for Aboriginals.

Excuse me?

Aboriginals have separate accommodation? These places all seem to be hostels (though I suppose my 17 Oz dollar bed won't be much better either). But why is there separate accommodation? One hears that Australia does not have a wonderful history in dealing with its native population, but I just hope there is a good logical explanation for such apartheid.