So, I decided to put my money where my mouth is, and take up this challenge to Escape Adulthood.
Task number one: Different World – Spend at least 15 minutes immersing yourself in a field you know nothing about.
So, I went to the Adelaide Museum, and spent the lions share of my 3 hours in the Australian Aborginal section, learning about Aboriginal customs – the info about their way off resolving conflicts really factinated me. Now, I have to point out there are hundreds of tribal and language groups in Aboriginal Australia (something I just learned), so this might not a blanket cultural norm across all groups. In some groups when there was a conflict, the two groups would come together, and they’d take turns singing songs to each other about the conflict and their feelings. They could even hurl insults in song – and the other party could not interrupt or object. They had to wait patiently for their turn to be able to have their say. I thought that was an interesting way to resolve a conflict. It would be nice if rules like that were in place these days (exept maybe the insults). I also learned that when the white man arrived here, they considered Australia to be ‘terra nullis’, or empty, with no population. They thought the Aborigines only inhabited a tiny portion of the land. But language and tribal maps of Australia show that more of Australia was populated by the Aborigines back then than is currenlty populated today. They knew how to live off the land, even in the most desolate and remote places. It was fun, and I learnt alot. It’s interesting how my public school education really didn’t include any of this, and I think that it even perpetuated the idea that Austalia was ‘terra nullis’ until just 218 years ago.
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