Day 1 I used to roll my eyes when kids sat next to me
How filled was this day! So many emotions in such a short frame of time! We left Sydney
evening, to the airport once aboard my first thought was hoping not to have a mum with her yelling and crying kid next to me.
I had this negative thoughts just because our flight to Melbourne it was filled with crying and yelling kids and it was so hard to get some sleep. What happened next completely changed my mind and point of view. Sue and Milly her 9 months old daughter sat right next to me. As soon as she did she probably noticed my expression ( which wasn't intentional at all) and she asked me sorry in such sweet way that has made me feel like an horrible monster without soul. In this way I shared my time with them two cuddling the babe when her mom Sue needed to pick something from her bag and talking to her mum who drove me through an Australia I did not expect to be so cold and terrible.
She asked me questions about my own country, Italy and then she gave me certain shocking history and not facts: She told how it is to be a white Australian in a country that has been stolen from people that now lives at the margins of the society: Aboriginal community. How the English had arrived 200 years ago and declared the country as uninhabited and how later on had found out about the aboriginals doing an amendment to the law and "letting them live here".
After this the next decades had been horrible for them, how few years ago the prime minister publicly apologises for how they conduct their life, they are poor on the streets, totally ostracised from the society. I was shocked by everything she told me, I kept asking questions about the actions of the government and State towards them and she told me the one of the biggest mistake in helping them was giving them money. Because they would wrongly use them, instead it would have helped have them in integration's programs, where they could have learnt a profession or how to live with the Australian population. It was very interesting to know the point of view of Australian resident, especially hers. She concluded her explain with something a Aboriginal artist told her during a lecture at her university: "do you know what's like being an Aboriginal among white people ? Well, take the things you love, put them in car. Take your friends, your family, your loved ones, put them in a car and pull the car down a cliff. This is what means being Aboriginal", she must had been very shocked when first she listened to this, because she told me with sadness from her heart, as if she were there to hear those words again.
In exactly the right moment she finished Milly awaked and started to cry and yelling and I just couldn't take my eyes off from Sue trying to put her asleep again, she was so soft, but at the same time worried she could make bother the other passengers. She was singing a lullaby that was the sweetest and bent or Molly was like trying to hypnotised her. I've seen a mother travelling by herself with so many bags taking care of her young child and going to meet her husband working in Darwin. All by herself.
At the end of trip she gave me a little pastry saying to me thank you and that was the only thing she could give to me. I was moved I accepted even though I didn't wanted anything from her. It was a pleasure for me. I helped her one last time and we exited the airplane, ready to come across the real Australia: Darwin.
I had this negative thoughts just because our flight to Melbourne it was filled with crying and yelling kids and it was so hard to get some sleep. What happened next completely changed my mind and point of view. Sue and Milly her 9 months old daughter sat right next to me. As soon as she did she probably noticed my expression ( which wasn't intentional at all) and she asked me sorry in such sweet way that has made me feel like an horrible monster without soul. In this way I shared my time with them two cuddling the babe when her mom Sue needed to pick something from her bag and talking to her mum who drove me through an Australia I did not expect to be so cold and terrible.
She asked me questions about my own country, Italy and then she gave me certain shocking history and not facts: She told how it is to be a white Australian in a country that has been stolen from people that now lives at the margins of the society: Aboriginal community. How the English had arrived 200 years ago and declared the country as uninhabited and how later on had found out about the aboriginals doing an amendment to the law and "letting them live here".
After this the next decades had been horrible for them, how few years ago the prime minister publicly apologises for how they conduct their life, they are poor on the streets, totally ostracised from the society. I was shocked by everything she told me, I kept asking questions about the actions of the government and State towards them and she told me the one of the biggest mistake in helping them was giving them money. Because they would wrongly use them, instead it would have helped have them in integration's programs, where they could have learnt a profession or how to live with the Australian population. It was very interesting to know the point of view of Australian resident, especially hers. She concluded her explain with something a Aboriginal artist told her during a lecture at her university: "do you know what's like being an Aboriginal among white people ? Well, take the things you love, put them in car. Take your friends, your family, your loved ones, put them in a car and pull the car down a cliff. This is what means being Aboriginal", she must had been very shocked when first she listened to this, because she told me with sadness from her heart, as if she were there to hear those words again.
In exactly the right moment she finished Milly awaked and started to cry and yelling and I just couldn't take my eyes off from Sue trying to put her asleep again, she was so soft, but at the same time worried she could make bother the other passengers. She was singing a lullaby that was the sweetest and bent or Molly was like trying to hypnotised her. I've seen a mother travelling by herself with so many bags taking care of her young child and going to meet her husband working in Darwin. All by herself.
At the end of trip she gave me a little pastry saying to me thank you and that was the only thing she could give to me. I was moved I accepted even though I didn't wanted anything from her. It was a pleasure for me. I helped her one last time and we exited the airplane, ready to come across the real Australia: Darwin.
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