Tribal Warrior Boat Ride

Today was the first whole class that involved each of the four classes. This was a brand new experience for me do to the fact we have only had with our 7, and this involved all 32 students with different views on text. Each teacher gave their views about the Indiginous people and how they were treated and compared to the rest of the Australian population today. I was astounded to see all the number of comparisons and see exactly how the Indiginous people do not compare well with the rest of Australia. Dr. Hogan was able to show me in a new light how different this race still is today. Dr. Brown provided a lot of interesting comparisons of the Indiginous people to the movie Avatar, which after he stated the movie I was floored at how great the comparison was. All the blue people in Avatar wanted to do was care for and be one with the land and their families, just as the Indiginous people did. But as for both the white people or sky people came and took everything sacred away. The white people came and took away everthing the Indiginous people valued and wanted to train them to be white.

After a bite to eat, we all headed back to the harbour at Cirrcular Quay to get on the boat. The boat was not exactly what I had invisioned, but it worked to set the mood of the trip. I sat on the top deck and viewed the Port Jackson Harbour from a new perspective. Allen and Les, the two speakers, provided a tod of information just on the way to Clark Island a true aboriginal landmark. As we made our way to the island on the boat Les began explaining what buildings were and how they would be said in his aboriginal languages. This truely impressed me becasue I can speak one main language, English, and small parts of other languages. Les stated that there were 600 different aboriginal languages, but about 800 different dialects in these languages. As the boat approached and landed on the island, Allen took us aroudn and explained what differetn views and areas meant. But to me the most interesting and benefical part was coming back around and seeing Les dressed in his aboriginal white paint and dress. I was not expecting to see anything like this. As I walked in closer he began talking about what the paint was made of and what each colour represented. White represented the water, yellow the sun/sky, and read was the earth. I was touched when he began singing and dancing from his aboriginal ancesters; he explained in English what was happening in the song, whiched helped to understand the songs better.