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Life in Nothern Territory
Entry 44 of 46 | show all | print this entry |
Got up at 5.30 this morning to catch the bus to Alice for the day, with return in the evening. I'm waiting and waiting and waiting...The bus shows up an hour late because of a flat tire outside of Tennant Creek. Just my luck of course...
I'm now working at Red Sand Art Gallery in Ti Tree in Anmatjere council. It's a small place. The gallery on one side and the Roadhouse on the other side...more or less!
2 1/2 hours north of Alice on the Stuart Highway that leads up to Darwin. So it's a lot of traffic, plenty of tourists and we got touristbuses stopping by for Coffey and lunch and to buy art and souvenirs. They stop by twice or even three times a day. The Red Sand also have a cafe and a convenient store apart from the gallery. There's some beautiful art here, one of the best galleries I think!
We have a lot of locals coming in to shop for groceries. About 90 % of a population of 1400 in Ti Tree is Aborigines. They live in communities around Ti Tree, there's probably 50 people living in the center of Ti Tree. And we actually are the very center of Australia, or as close as you can get. The actual center is about 20 k's east, but there's an aboriginal community living there, no one is allowed to go there except them. The Roadhouse pub advertises with being 'the most central pub in Australia'! (And yes, there's a pub!!!)
Some of the Aborigines out here are very educated and speak very good english. I had a very polite and well spoken 'blackfella' visiting ones. He usually stops by from time to time to look at the art. He and his wife also paints a bit. He told me alot about the paintings, and he wanted to know what I thought about them. It was very interesting! After he left I found out that he has the longest police record in the council...Don't know what for, and better not knowing!!! But quite extraordinary how you can be fooled by someones appearance.
I also had a 'blackfella' coming in from the far bush. He came in to town because of a relative who died in hart attack. He didn't speak any english at all, so it was a bit of a guessing game knowing what he wanted. In the morning the day before, I heard some howling while eating my breakfast outside. I thought it was dogs, but it turned out to be the Aborigines doing their 'sorry business' over the deceased one. It went on the whole day and no Abo came in the shop that day. No white man really knows whats going on then, 'cause you can't ask about such business. You are not allowed to speak about the dead, and if someone in the community has the same name as the dead, they have to change their name.
Once in a while they come in buying playing cards and asking for loose money (loose change). Then you know it's pay day and poker night!!! But it's not all fun, there is a lot of drinking and fighting.
We heard about a real fight going about 10 k's west of us and it was really terrible. You wouldn't want to go in there to try to stop them. The different communities hates each other, so there's often fights going on. It's not safe to walk alone in Alice after dark and there's some communities that even the police won't go in to.
I think there is a lot of domestic abuse also. Some men have no respect for their women, and their kids gets threaded pretty rough too. I can see it sometimes when they come in to the shop and I also hear them fighting next door.
They have a cooperative cattlestation outside of Ti Tree, and the idea behind it is very good. It's just that the communities go and kill cattle whenever they need food. And sometimes they kill good breeders. So it's hard for those who try to run the cattlestation as good as possible. The word cooperative doesn't exists.
There's a lot of issues with the Abo's. They get a lot of money from the government, but doesn't know how to use it. They drive around in flash cars and they are given good houses, but they trash it after a short while. There's a lot of conflicts between the white ones, as it seems like all effort to help doesn't affect. It's put out very nicely in the media, but it's a lot going on behind the scenes that you don't see until you live in the middle of it.
While you have been celebrating midsummer, we have been celebrating midwinter! And it has been some really cold mornings here. We even had frost one morning!
There has also been some celebrations on 1st July, apparently it's Territory Day and the only day you can buy fireworks. NT is the only state where you can buy fireworks at all.
There's been some Swedes and Norwegians visiting the gallery by the way! Nice to speak your own language again, all though a bit confusing!
Now I'm starting to get hungry, so I'm gonna find something to eat and go windowshopping for a while before a bus takes me back to Ti Tree!
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