"Ah, man this is really difficult to do" says Terry Coulthard as he places his cut finger on the fretboard of his guitar. The pain races through his nerves and a wince appears on his face. He battles on gamely though and finishes the song. A group of 8 of us are sitting around the campfire listening to Terry as he sings some of his people's stories. The pride is obvious in his voice as he relates the creation stories of his people.
We were at Iga Warta, a small community set up in the Northern Flinders Ranges of South Australia by the Adnyamathanha Aboriginal group. Enterprising brothers Cliff and Terry Coulthard have been inviting visitors on to their land to learn more about their local culture. It's a way of helping keep a threatened tradition alive and for them to make a living out of the land they were born into. Paul Kelly and Joel Edgerton are some of the celebrities who have visited this charming place. It was refreshing to see first hand a positive situation, in amongst a negative environment.
Aboriginal groups around Australia are in for a hard time at the moment. A damning report entitled 'little children are sacred' released last month paints a gloomy picture of Indigenous life in remote communities. Alcoholism is rife, job opportunities are scarce, life expectancy is low and child abuse is common. Prime Minister John Howard is using the report to 'get tough' on Aboriginal communities by withholding benefits and drafting in more police, just in time for elections later this year.
Iga Warta was in stark contrast to the portrait of a people beaten down by decades of displacement and loss of hope and meaning. Here was local people coming together to make something valuable from their land.
After a night sleeping around the campfire in our swags, another local, Sharpy took us out for a drive to the Ochre pits. He showed us the different colours of ochre and how, when mixed with water, they paint onto your skin. He told us of old ceremonies where boys would go out for years at a time in to the bush to be taught the laws of the group. They don't manage to do that these days as a vast open face coal mine has ripped through their sacred sites to provide low grade fuel for the Port Augusta power station.
We left the community with an insight into a different life and a song written by Terry's little cousin "Oh my Walla' which would be sung all the way to Uluru.
We were at Iga Warta, a small community set up in the Northern Flinders Ranges of South Australia by the Adnyamathanha Aboriginal group. Enterprising brothers Cliff and Terry Coulthard have been inviting visitors on to their land to learn more about their local culture. It's a way of helping keep a threatened tradition alive and for them to make a living out of the land they were born into. Paul Kelly and Joel Edgerton are some of the celebrities who have visited this charming place. It was refreshing to see first hand a positive situation, in amongst a negative environment.
Aboriginal groups around Australia are in for a hard time at the moment. A damning report entitled 'little children are sacred' released last month paints a gloomy picture of Indigenous life in remote communities. Alcoholism is rife, job opportunities are scarce, life expectancy is low and child abuse is common. Prime Minister John Howard is using the report to 'get tough' on Aboriginal communities by withholding benefits and drafting in more police, just in time for elections later this year.
Iga Warta was in stark contrast to the portrait of a people beaten down by decades of displacement and loss of hope and meaning. Here was local people coming together to make something valuable from their land.
After a night sleeping around the campfire in our swags, another local, Sharpy took us out for a drive to the Ochre pits. He showed us the different colours of ochre and how, when mixed with water, they paint onto your skin. He told us of old ceremonies where boys would go out for years at a time in to the bush to be taught the laws of the group. They don't manage to do that these days as a vast open face coal mine has ripped through their sacred sites to provide low grade fuel for the Port Augusta power station.We left the community with an insight into a different life and a song written by Terry's little cousin "Oh my Walla' which would be sung all the way to Uluru.
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