Day 36- Yidaki

"Wow, diving with sharks? That sounds pretty exciting."

She yawned. "Sorry, I got back kinda late last night after my skydiving trip."

After I'd finished my breakfast, the thought did cross my mind to go and swim with a shark myself. A sign at the hostle reception saying from $450 quickly put an end to that idea. Plus, I still had a lot of unanswered questions about Australia.

I found some answers in the museums of Adelaide. At the aboriginal cultures exhibit I realised how wrong I had been to suggest there are only two cultures in a continent with over 300 indigenous languages. At Yidaki I listened to the sounds of an instrument you probably know as a didgeridoo, and tried to understand its spiritual meaning to some of those aboriginal people. At the migration museum, I learned about what happened when the white people came.

I could only conclude that there is no 'good' way to invade a place and take the land away from those who have been living there for thousands of years, but there may be ways that are less bad than others (it was quite generous, at the time, of the colonists not to enslave the locals). It was comforting, at least, that the museum seemed honest, and that there was a visible theme of 'reconciliation' around the city.

At Reconciliation Plaza the Australian flag flew next to the aboriginal one. Maybe one day all Australians will fly the same flag?

Comments at the migration museum. It will be interesting to see how the story in New Zealand compares.