Matt Down Under

When I came to Numbulwar, I was hoping to get a better understanding of Aboriginal culture and lifestyle, and of the conditions of living for Aboriginal people in remote communities in Australia. Now, two months later, I still find it difficult to come to a conclusion — there were so many impressions, and so many different aspects and opinions that I have seen and heard. No doubt that Aborigines are heavily disadvantaged in Australia, but on the other hand I found it fascinating that I never heard anybody complaining.

Here is a list of things that I found remarkable over the last two months, to give an impression on what it’s like to live in Numbulwar.

Housing

Most locals seem to live in houses that were built and provided by the government. Often very large families live together in one house. I’ve seen all kinds of different houses, old and new ones, large and small ones. I don’t know what the conditions for provision of housing are — possibly free of charge. But what I found interesting is, that almost all these houses are on ‘pre-paid power’ which means people need to buy so-called power cards that come in $10, $20 or $50. Sometimes people ran out of power when the shop was already closed and then they rocked up at my house late at night and asked if I had any.

Some families also have houses or shacks in so-called ‘outstations’, which is like a second home somewhere in the bush. Apparently the government funded these outstations until recently to re-locate people from towns back to their traditional land.

Royalties

Many families seem to have connections or land rights on nearby Groote Eylandt which features a large manganese mine. Every couple of months the mining company pays royalties to the locals, who are usually eagerly awaiting the payments. The fascinating thing that happens then is that people are going to storm the store and buy everything that is not nailed to the walls. Sometimes people seem to buy just because they can. From what I was told the concept of saving money does not exist for many Aborigines — when they have money they spend it as quickly as possible.

Empty houses

When reading the previous point, one would guess that with these buying excesses, houses must be full of furniture and household items. I was surprised when I had the chance to visit one local at home and take a look inside their house. It was empty. It looked as if the residents had just moved out and taken everything with them. Apparently that’s quite common, some don’t even have beds or mattresses — they sleep on the floor. One of our staff members in the shop has nothing but a tent set up inside his room. He sleeps in the tent. Many also have only one set of clothing.

Interesting to know is that in Aboriginal culture, possessions are almost meaningless, based on what I was told. If you own something, and a relative asks you for it, you give it to them. That’s the reason for example, why some locals came to the shop every couple of weeks to buy a new mobile phone. Because they had given theirs away.

Food

In the shop we were selling certain food that was specially designed for Aborigines, such as bread that is particularly rich in fibre and iron — something that Aborigines apparently are in greater need of than white people.

People also loved any kind of chicken products. I asked the question why we had to import 100% of our food supplies from Darwin and why nobody ever started growing food or chicken in the community itself. Apparently one of the issues is a simple lack of ambition or skills. Most of these projects would require some Western person to start it, just to get things up and running.

80% unemployment

I was told only 20% of people in Numbulwar have a job. I don’t know if that includes white people, but in a community with 700 residents and only 2 shops, plus one school, a medical centre and some council, administration and construction facilities it is no surprise really. Especially not since all these facilities seem to be led by white people and you’ll hardly find Aborigines in leading positions.

In the shop in Numbulwar, our staff sometimes showed up half an hour or even an hour late. I think this is partially due to cultural reasons, but it may also be because a job often is only a few bucks on top of the welfare payments they will get anyway, so there’s no pressure to have a job and keep it.

Education and schools

One of the reasons for unemployment also is a lack of education and qualification. Some of our staff were lacking even basic skills in literacy and numeracy. I often helped our cash register staff counting the money in their tills at the end of the day. This lack of essential education is of course a big road block on the way to getting a job, therefore I believe it is absolutely necessary to make sure that the younger generations get the education they need to have a better perspective in their life later, so that at some point in the future they don’t have to rely on welfare anymore.

Unfortunately, I heard from a few teachers in the Numbulwar school (usually Western women) that school attendance among kids is less than great. Sometimes they show up, sometimes they don’t, and there’s nothing the teachers can do.

Bore water

Water supply in Numbulwar is bore water. When I first arrived the tap water in my house sometimes was quite brown and I was recommended not to drink it. All the houses are equipped with water filters though, and after we replaced ours with a new one, it improved, but it was still not great for drinking.

Rubbish dump

Waste management in Numbulwar works like this: rubbish is driven to the rubbish dump, then you pile it up nicely where there is space. Then you set it on fire. Then you go home. Imagine the look on my face.

Rubbish everywhere

I always thought that Aborigines have a special connection to nature and its preservation. Somewhere over the course of history this must have gone lost as it is surprising how much rubbish there is on the streets of Numbulwar. Most people just drop their rubbish anywhere.

To be fair there are almost no public rubbish bins around and no recycling facilities at all, but when I see old car batteries dumped at the beach there is only one word for it: disgraceful. Improving waste management and recycling would be one of my main priorities if I would run the place.

Photographing people

Common opinion among white people is that Aborigines don’t want to be photographed. I was surprised that sometimes people even asked me to photograph them when they saw me with my camera. It is always good to ask people first if it is okay to take pictures. Often enough it is, and I was even allowed to photograph in certain private situations such as on funeral ceremonies. However I was not allowed to photograph when I was hanging out with locals prior to a funeral. Men were assembling and making music with didgeridoos and clap sticks before the ceremony started. I was allowed to watch it and they allowed me to record audio with my iPhone, but sadly no photos.

Gambling

In a town with only two stores, both of which accept EFTPOS, BasicsCard and, in case of our store, even ALPA’s food card, one must wonder why our two ATMs still often ran out of cash. Where do people spend all this cash then? The simple reason: gambling. It’s one of the biggest problems in Numbulwar apparently. 

Too many dogs

There were plenty of dogs in Numbulwar, it was a real nuisance, not only because most of them were flea-infested. Some families had five or more dogs that were living with them and following them whenever they went fishing or walking to the shop. Some were quite protective and showed aggression towards any stranger.

With a car you need to drive extra carefully as many dogs often lay on the streets and don’t immediately walk away when a car arrives. The result is, that quite often dogs get hit by cars.

Sadly the locals don’t care much when there is a dog that can only walk on its front legs due to broken hip or spine from a car collision. During my time in Numbulwar it happened twice that injured dogs dragged themselves on their front legs to my house and we then had to call the police to have them taken down because no one else would. What then happens is the police guy will show up NT-style with a loaded rifle and give the dog a nice clean head shot (unless the dog runs away, then it may take a couple of shots — I watched it) before either taking the carcass with them or leaving it in the swamp.

Another annoying thing about the dogs was that they sometimes kept barking the whole night through because buffaloes often come out of the bush in the evening and wander around town in search for food. I once woke up in the morning and found a massive horned buffalo standing right in front of my house. Pretty cool stuff.

Alcohol and pornography ban

What many city-based Australians don’t know is that there is a total ban on alcohol and porn in Aboriginal areas in the Northern Territory. From what I heard this was introduced with the intervention and it is very controversial. On the one hand it is clearly racist — why should some Australians be denied the rights that others have? On the other hand however I see the reports from people who have witnessed many years in communities and who emphasise that this ban improved the health and general situation of children in a big way.

Funny side note: we didn’t publicly sell yeast in the store, as the locals tend to use it to brew grog. We were only selling it to ‘trustworthy’ people we knew.

But think about this: when someone gets drunk and behaves inappropriately in an Aboriginal community, it is called ‘breaking the law’. When someone in Darwin gets drunk and behaves inappropriately (something I saw far too often over the last days), then it’s called ‘Aussie lifestyle’. I don’t think that’s ok.