THE GLOBAL AFRICAN COMMUNITY
T R A V E L N O T E S
RUNOKO RASHIDI IN THE KULIN NATION (VICTORIA AUSTRALIA) Greetings African Family,
This is my second day in the Kulin Nation or what the Western world knows as Victoria, Australia. And I am right in the middle of the capital, the busy and hectic city called Melbourne. Melbourne is Australia's second largest city after Sydney and I find it very similar to Amsterdam and some of the other cities that I recently visited in Europe. That is to say it is very beguiling. I am staying in a very nice and pretty expensive hotel in the heart of the city center and right next to China Town. It reminds me of London and Manhattan and Paris and Beijing all rolled into one. There are shops and restaurants and trams everywhere. But there are no Aboriginals to be seen. And so I most go and seek them out.
The sisters and brothers here are known are Koori. Most of us seem to think that the entire Aboriginal population of Australia are called Koori but the term only applies to those in Victoria and New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital. We should not forget that Australia, in addition to being this big modern country, is also a continent into itself. My point is that I am learning not to generalize so much and that the sisters and brothers here in various parts of Australia might be as different as a Nigerian is to a Kenyan or an Ethiopian to a South African or a Senegalese to a Somali. Yes, we are all African but there distinct differences to be considered as well. Such is the case with Aboriginal Australians.
Now in my message a couple of days ago from Perth on the Indian Ocean in Western Australia I pointed out that I was going to visit the statue of the great Black resistance leader Yagan and then go do some research at the Noongar Cultural and Language Center. Well life doesn't alway follow a simple path, does it? When I checked on the best way to find the Yagan statue, located on Heirison Island on the Swan River, no one could (or would) tell me how to find it. Some said that they had never heard of it although it is mentioned in both the official tours guides. Others told me that they had heard of it but did not know how to get there. And then when I persisted I was finally told that "they" had been able to find out where it was but that I had to go a long way to find a boat but that it was far away and that I had to get a ferry and then another boat and then another ferry and then charter another boat and find a captain who would take me there. And then they smiled at me as if I was crazy to want to go there in the first place and suggested that I go to this "really nice tourist island instead." So that was that.
And then I went looking, walking this time, for the Noongar Cultural and Language Center right in the heart of East Perth. This time I had the name, the address and phone number of the place. But when I called there was no answer. And in spite of my searching I found that the address did not exist, even though it too was in the official tourist guide. And a few people in the area had heard of the place but, once again, no one could tell me exactly where it might be. I found all of this very depressing. And I began to wonder about the epigraph reproduced in Chancellor Williams' marvelous Destruction of Black Civilization where he asks "What became of the Black people of Sumer? the traveler asked the old man. For the records say that the people of Sumer were Black. What happened to the Black people of Sumer? Ah, the old man sighed. They lost their history so they died." And I was moved to the point of tears. And I wondered if this was the future of African people? Will future generations say that there once lived a great and mighty people, an African people, who lost their history and died?
Indeed, travel gives one a lot to think about and ponder over.
In love of Africa,
Runoko Rashidi
Copyright © 1998 Runoko Rashidi. All rights reserved.
Posted/Revised: September 5, 2004
Webpage design: Kenneth Ritchards