I got a question about the local people here.
Well, there are two sorts, the immigrants and the aborigines.
The immigrants look like ordinary europeans, and are quite easy to talk to. On a superficial level, that is.
They often ask you "Hi! How are you?". In the shops this is a routine.
The response to "Thank you!" here is "No worries" or "No worries, mate!". You can use mate both for women and men.
The cities here look like ordinary european cities. They come in three sizes, really huge city (1 million and above), normal cities (5000-20000) and "did I just pass the village?" size (up to 100). Seems to be no other sizes, for some strange reason.
There are also the aborigines, the people who lived here long before the europeans found it. One of the reasons for me to visit Australia was to meet this people.
My first encounter with the aborigines was at the Alice Springs airport. I was on the mens room, and just before leaving, an aboriginal cleaning lady put her cleaning wagon in the door opening, effectively blocking the way out. I tried to make her aware of this, but she just stood looking at me. I had two bags with me, and it was with great effort that I managed to pass her cleaning wagon. She just looked strangely at me.
My second encounter was at the same airport. My plane was awfully delayed (2,5 hours). In the waiting room was an aboriginal man, about 30 years old, with a backpack. He lay on the floor, using his backpack as a pillow. Fair enough. I started talking to him. He told me he was on his way to Darwin (I was on my way to Uluru). He was not very talkative, but not unfriendly. He told me there was a small botanic garden just outside the airport. He didn't seem to want to socialize. I asked him to look after my hand luggage, which he agreed to do. I got out and looked at the garden, which was really tiny, about 50 x 50 meters. But well worth a visit. I got back in, got my hand luggage back, but got the impression that he wanted to be left alone. I somehow felt he was angry with me, but couldn't understand why.
My third and fourth encounters were at the Uluru tours, two aboriginal guides. At the tours the guides told aboriginal stories in their own language, which then was translated by an interpreter. It felt a little silly, because obviously these aborigines knew English, but pretended not to. It felt like this was to give a more "genuine" feeling of meeting the true aborigines. They didn't feel very connected to the audience, and spoke only to the interpreter. At one moment one of the guides was alone, so I tried to ask here some questions, but she didn't seem very interested. I could sense she didn't care much about us tourists, other than the money we could provide.
The next time was at the checkin counter at the apartment hotel in Darwin, where I was staying. An aboriginal couple was talking to the receptionist. I tried to break the ice by asking "Are you also travelling around?", but just got an angry look, after which they ignored me.
My last encounter was in Kuranda the other day, when going by the information centre. An elderly aboriginal woman suddenly grabbed my arm, said "Hello darling", and demanded to know where I was from. I didn't like her approach, but told her I was Swedish. I think she was drunk. (I heard other people say they were often drunk, but didn't believe it until now). I politely asked her where she was from, just to make conversation. She declared in a harsh voice that she was one of the aborigines. I got a bad feeling about her, so I told her I was busy, removed my hand from hers (which she was still grabbing) and walked away.
I must admit that I now have a very negative feeling towards the aborigines. I had thought that if I just showed them respect, they would be easy to talk to. Instead I just got an unwelcome and discomfortable feeling.
I have partially got an explaination for their behaviour. Obviously the Australian authorities have abducted many of their children, to give them "better homes". If these is true, then I definitely understand why they are angry with other Australians, and me too, since I look like them.
What I can see in them is that they have lost their identity. I have not seen one single aborigine who has had a proud look and body posture. I feel sorry for them...
