Because I was in Australia, which is quite similar to the United States, I did not have too many experiences with cultural confrontation. The most significant cultural experience I had was when my program spent five days camping in the bush with Aboriginal leaders. We learned how to many things such as make jewelry from bark, throw boomerangs and spears, and we even tried kangaroo meat. This entire experience was extremely. During this camping trip, we spent nights listening to the elder, Uncle Russel tell dream stories about Aboriginal culture and his past. He would tell us these stories around a dark camp fire and it was okay to fall asleep and it wasn’t a sign of disrespect. These stories would go on for about an hour to an hour and a half and they were not very direct so it was hard to tell what he was trying to say sometimes. Many of these stories explained why the stars were where they are, or how animals got their colors and their backstories. It was such a cool experience because it gave another perspective on the environment through a spiritual lens. For me, I often wondered if these stories are what they truly believe in, or if it is just tradition to tell these stories. They hold so much value and these stories are just surface level information because there is so much knowledge in the aboriginal community that is sacred and is only held by select people. Thinking about withholding information raised concern for me because in our culture that is usually frowned upon.
This entire camping trip was extremely special because the elders and even many other Australians would tell us that we were getting to experience what many Australians would never be able to experience. I think that other Australians would really enjoy this type of experience. The aboriginal people are more recognized in Australia than Native Americans are in the United States. By experiencing something like we did, they may gain an even greater appreciation for aboriginal teaching methods and values. There is also a disconnect between first nation people and white people because many times the aboriginal people feel that the colonizers do not deserve to hold the knowledge of their people because of how they stole and changed the landscape. This can create a barrier between the two groups which is unfortunate.
I really hope that the United States will one day hold a much higher recognition of Native Americans because we are also colonizers who stole the land and completely changed it. Reparations are important and I am very grateful to have had an experience with the aboriginals because it showed me a different set of values compared to the western traditional values. I will never forget this camping trip because I learned so much and from an environmental perspective, it showed me how to build a relationship with the environment in which we are caretakers of the land instead of using its resources unsustainably.