Matt Down Under

Since last Thursday, I have been staying and working in one of the most remote and most exclusive places you could possibly be in Australia: in Numbulwar, a small Aboriginal community on the Gulf of Carpentaria at the East coast of Arnhem Land.

It all happened very quickly. About a week ago I was still in Darwin and browsing some websites to look for a room or shared accommodation, since hostels in Darwin are very expensive and I wanted to stay there at least for a couple of weeks or so. In a forum I stumbled across an ad from someone at ALPA, the Arnhem Land Progress Aboriginal Corporation, a benevolent Aboriginal-owned organisation that operates community stores in Arnhem Land. They were looking for a backpacker or traveller interested in spending at least 4 weeks in a remote community to work in a supermarket-like store.

I had a feeling this could be a unique chance to get to visit a community and find answers to a lot of open questions that I still had even after several weeks in the outback and learning a lot about Aboriginal culture. I replied to the ad and last Monday I met with the HR manager for a quick chat in a café in Darwin. Later that day he offered me the job and I accepted.

The following day he sent through flight details and tickets. Numbulwar can only be reached by boat or light airplane, so on Thursday morning I had to take a taxi to the airport. Instead of the large Darwin airport however, I went to Vincent Aviation which is operating from a small airfield nearby, and a small airplane (30 or 40 seats) brought me to Groote Eylandt, from where I took an even smaller 4-seater for the last part of the trip.

My job is the Duty Manager of the general store in Numbulwar. The two store managers are Western people but all the other staff are Aboriginal. Much of my responsibility surrounds the take-away section where I will work with staff to ensure things are running smoothly. The rest of my work is typical supermarket operation like stock management, topping up shelves and fridges, customer service, money handling and being store manager in charge when the normal managers have a day off (like on weekends).

The first few days have been really interesting. When I arrived on Thursday, I was given a car, a bundle of keys and then they showed me my accommodation, a nice house 50m from the beach. Coconut palms in the backyard, flat-screen with pay-tv, large kitchen and at the moment I have the whole house all for myself (may have to share it occasionally though).

So far I spent a great deal of my time after work just cleaning the house, the previous residents obviously didn’t clean very often or maybe my standards are just a lot higher. But I really like it here, I’ve got everything I need, even Telstra coverage (that’s why I’m still able to blog). I’m not very impressed by all the asbestos warnings covering the walls, but I guess as long as I don’t demolish anything it should be alright (hopefully?). However my private ALPA house definitely is of higher standard than the government housing provided to my Aboriginal neighbours, where large families often share a very basic old house. Housing is definitely a big issue, but I might write more details in another post.

I’ve got heaps of impressions during the first few days, mostly positive but also a few things that concern me a bit. I’m starting to get a much better understanding of the intervention and what the results and consequences are. My view of Aborigines has also changed a lot, there is just such a difference between those who live in cities like Alice Springs or Darwin and the ones who live in communities like Numbulwar. I was told those in the cities are often people who were excluded from their clan or community permanently, and then they may end up living miserable lives on the street. Since most people and in particular tourists only ever visit the cities, their impression of Aborigines is therefore often the one of the drunk, homeless one. Here in the community alcohol is prohibited, and many people are quite easy to approach. Especially the kids — you smile at them, and they will return the brightest smile you can think of.

One of the things that are not so positive is the fact that I’m selling heaps of cigarettes, tobacco and unhealthy food every day. Unfortunately most people seem to smoke and few seem to be aware of the consequences for their health, not to mention spending $25 per pack of smokes. I’m also sure we’ll get an award from Coca-Cola pretty soon for being such a good customer — it’s probably our best-selling product next to cigarettes.

It is also interesting to live in a place where fresh produce and things like milk are only available when the fortnightly barge arrived, and then they either sell out quickly or only have a shelf life of a few days, because the ship already needs five days to get here. It’s amazing what we take for granted every day, sometimes it’s good to remind ourselves that there are other Australians who only get access to fresh food every two weeks.

I’m sure there will be lots to write over the next few weeks. Having worked through the weekend, I now have two days off and I’m looking forward to grabbing my camera and just wandering around and exploring the surroundings. However I was told I always need to ask locals first if it’s safe to go somewhere. Not only are there crocodiles and buffaloes around (I saw fresh buffalo tracks on the beach in front of my house), some areas are also restricted to locals because they are ceremonial places for example.