Aboriginal Activism

Jane, one of the members of the family I'm currently staying with here in Sydney, spent a part of her life growing up in South Africa where her parents worked as anti-Apartheid activists. Eventually, they actually left for England because of the pervasive racism and attitudes towards the black Africans there.

Jane has interestingly followed the activist footsteps of her South African parents and now works as a sort of psychologist among the Aboriginal community--particularly with Aboriginal parents, who are trying to break the patterns of abuse, trauma, and hopelessness as they raise their own Aboriginal children. She actually told me this morning over breakfast that she strongly believes that Australia is experiencing it's very own apartheid...Sad thing is, no one seems to want to recognize, name, or define it as such. Until people do, she said to me, there's not much even she can do to ameliorate the situation and the tension that exists between Aboriginals and white Australians.

Another interesting fact: Jane's son (Julia's brother) Dave is actually up in Darwin. He's been inducted into an Aboriginal tribe there and has been working with their elders for a similar change...

...another activist! I'm surrounded :). I'll be curious to hear more about their work in the upcoming months.