Gone on a Walkabout.

The film "Australia" featuring Hugh Jackman and Nicole Kidman gives us a look at Aboriginal culture and the clashing of Aboriginal people with European settlers in Australia. The film focuses on the internal conflict of a man who is half Aboriginal and half "whitefella." After Nicole Kidman's husband is murdered and his estate left in her hands she puts together a team of misfit individuals under the lead of the cattle drover, played by Jackman, to drive her cows to auction across the desert. Throughout the trip they are fighting disaster as a competitor cattle baron attempts to stampede the herd. This group includes a young boy who's mother died keeping him hidden from the authorities to avoid his being taken to a Christian mission. Half white children are taken so the "savage" could be eventually bred out of them and their culture replaced. Sadly this practice did not end until the 1970's, though the Australian government has issued a formal apology for irreparable damage that was done.

It was a good movie, but it got me interested in Australian tribal culture. There's a warning at the begining of the film saying that the movie may contain images and voices of dead Aborigine. I searched the internet a little and discovered that while Aborigine don't say the name of the dead, they also must not show pictures of them. Proper respect for the dead says that you must wait a certain period of time before displaying a photo as the soul may be kept bound to it otherwise. The warning is an attempt for the whitefella to comply with this culture's tradition as there have been problems in past films not warning Aborigine that a deceased member was in it.

The term walkabout is used alot in the film and is described as a certain rite of passage into manhood. I wanted to know more about it but there's conflicting literature as to it's true purpose. All are agreed that a walkabout is a period of time in which you leave normal life and explore the wild, living only with the bare necessities for survival. Some say it's a time for you to get back to the root of life by getting away from everyday activity and work. Later on in the past century there started to rise an idea that there was a spiritual quest to it, a search almost where a man who is in conflict with himself will wander until he "meets" his other self. He will converse with his other self and eventually reach a resolution where the two are joined and become whole. He is then able to return from walkabout.

It's a neat culture and worth looking into, and they definitely had the right idea about getting away from everybody every now and then for a little walkabout in the wild.