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Port of Call |
LAST UPDATE July 12, 2005
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| site design imagesparkle.com |
| January 16, 2005 |
Sydney, Australia |
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| The famous view of Sydney painted by Hidetoshi Ishikawa |
In the early sunrise moments of a sleepy Sunday in Sydney, Peace Boat made its way to shore, cruising under the famous Sydney Harbour bridge and pulled in to Darling Harbour for a two day break in the city. While Sydney offers a combination of dazzling, showcase attractions, long, white sand beaches and a refined array of exquisite restaurants a group of 30 Peace Boat participants chose to shun the average tourist trail and headed for Mount Druitt. Mount Druitt is in the Western Sydney area and is home to “The Shed”, a place for counselling and support for Aboriginal men, striving to live in urban, European Australia. |
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| Uncle Greg with CCs Kana Hattori and Ryo Kawabata |
The day started off with a visit to “The Shed”, a partnership programme between the University of West Sydney and the Holy Family Community Centre in Mount Druitt, which offers non-judgemental and supportive listening to suicidal Aboriginal people. Gregory Stewart, coordinator of “The Shed” explained that the counselling service deals with the depression, alcoholism, drug addiction, unemployment, uneducation and poverty which stem from socio-economic disparities between the indigenous and non-indigenous people of Australia. Living in an urban community, with no immediate connection to nature is not the traditional way for an Aborigine. Not only this, racial discrimination leads to depressive, suicidal tendencies as “uncle Wez” explained with stories of his youth. As recently as 50 years ago there were segregated swimming pools, black and white zones in the schools and punishment, such as walking round a tree with legs tied with a ball and chain, for speaking in one of the 200 indigenous, tribal languages. |
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| An Aborginal design |
Celebrating their indigenous culture is also part of the process of dealing with identity and self-worth. In Aboriginal culture ‘dreamtime’, storytelling, artwork, didgeridoo playing, animals and sacred land make up the core of strong spiritual beliefs. ‘Dreamtime’ represents the beginning of the world from a spiritual perspective, in which Aboriginal ancestors rose from below the earth to form various parts of nature including animal species, bodies of water and the sky. In the Aboriginal belief system humans are equal to nature and have often transformed themselves into rocks or rivers, where they remain spiritually alive. In the tradition of storytelling “dreamtime” tales and other stories of the land are narrated or acted out in dance form or through artwork. The didgeridoo, while being a famous wind instrument world wide, is also a sacred musical tool, which is used at important times and ceremonies such as sunsets, circumcisions and funerals. |
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| The smoking ceremony |
While on their one-day excursion, Peace Boat participants were exposed to some aspects of this culture with the carving of traditional weapons, performances and a traditional “smoking ceremony”. A smoking ceremony is the burning of old ash and eucalyptus to purify a place and the people in it. After indulging in traditional “bush tucker” (local food), and an intense question and answer session with the people from “The Shed”, Peace Boat participants arrived back at the port to take part an event held in honour of the victims of the Tsunami. |
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16th January was cited as the Australian national day of mourning for the victims of the Tsunami. Peace Boat, in collaboration with eight of their Australian partnership NGOs organized a peace event in memory of those lost in the Tsunami, and those struggling to rebuild their lives. This included a display of cultural performances, a press conference, promotional NGO booths, a slide show and a minute of silence to think about those in suffering from this unexpected devastation.
Counterpartners involved in this event were:
- Chilout (Children out of Detention)
- Edmund Rice Center
- Surfrider Foundation
- Ocean Watch
- UNSW Shed Foundation
- Sydney University, Peace and Conflict Studies
- International Institute for Peace through Travel
- Sydney Peace Foundation and the Southerlandshire Council Beach Regeneration Programme
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