A town divided

When we told people that we were planning to visit Alice Springs, we got some interesting reactions from people who'd already been there. In fact, 'interesting' was probably the most common adjective used, and it clearly wasn't meant in a positive way. We managed to figure out that the 'interesting' mostly involved the local indigenous people, but not much more than that. We therefore weren't really sure what to expect, but we visited with an open mind nonetheless. We didn't spend a lot of time in Alice, as it was just a stopover for our trip to Uluru, but overall we liked it. It's not too big, although it is fairly sprawling. It has a nice little town centre, with lots of shops selling art and other interesting bits. We ate some of the nicest food that we've eaten during the whole Australia trip in Alice Springs. Oh, and they even had free WiFi in the town centre! But I can understand why people had negative reactions; at no time did I ever feel unsafe, but I did sometimes feel a little uncomfortable. And this discomfort was related to the local Aboriginals - not to the people themselves, but to the stark sense of separation that can be seen in the town. Having now visited a few cities in Australia, I honestly can't remember seeing any Aboriginal people in Sydney, Melbourne or Perth. That said, the main cities are multicultural melting pots, where Asian people now outnumber Caucasians, and you'd be hard pushed to register anyone's ethnicity or background. But in Queensland, we saw lots of indigenous people. You wouldn't particularly notice unless you were specifically looking (which I was, after Alice), as they are, as you'd rightly expect, integrated along with everyone else. Not so in Alice Springs. There, the segregation is stark and shocking. We couldn't fail to notice the Aboriginals, because they were always grouped together, and were never with anyone of a different ethnicity. They often took up whole areas of parkland, where there would be maybe 20 indigenous people all sitting together. As outsiders to the area, we felt uncomfortable with the situation - was the segregation by choice or not? Do the Aboriginal people prefer to stick together or are they shunned by the rest of the town? Or do they, in fact, shun the rest of the town? We felt like it would be an intrusion to go and sit in the same areas - but was this in our heads or not? Would we have been made to feel unwelcome or even asked to leave? Or would they have been pleased not to be ignored? Or would they (most likely) not have given two hoots what we did or where we went?! Coming from a country where integration is key and we are taught that race and colour are irrelevant (as is the case elsewhere in Australia), we found the segregation frankly disturbing. Anyone who knows any history will know how the white men basically stole Australia from the Aborigines a couple of hundred years ago. And anyone who watched the recent John Bishop's Australia will also know that some of the atrocities that happened to the Aboriginal people were frighteningly recent. Yet what we couldn't figure out was whether these atrocities are continuing in Alice Springs, through the segregation, or whether this segregation is actually the Aboriginal people maintaining their right not to mix and conform to the 'white' way of life. Similarly, it was impossible not to notice from their dress that poverty is an issue for the indigenous people. But, again, is this a terrible situation where they are discriminated against when it comes to jobs and therefore struggle financially? Or is it a lifestyle choice, where money is largely irrelevant to the Aboriginal way of life? In the other areas of Australia that we visited, the Aboriginal people seem to be very much integrated and living a 'Western' life. But perhaps this is actually the sadder situation, where their culture has been forgotten, or at least inhibited? I very much hope that the segregation in Alice is down to the choice of the local Aboriginals to retain their culture and way of life. And, if that's the case, then it's well worth the discomfort of a few British tourists!