Where else in the world can you take a 13-day tour that transports you back more than 60,000 years to explore our astonishing indigenous culture?
We’re sitting on the white sands of one of Australia’s most glorious beaches, gazing out at the turquoise waters of the Arafura Sea, when a group of First Nations women elders approach.
Another told the ancient legend of asking a black crow if they can share his waterhole when suddenly, from the casuarina tree above our heads, a real black crow screeches and flutters out, making us all jump.At the top end of the Top End, Arnhem Land is a unique region of Australia that’s nearly all Aboriginal freehold land, stretching from the Gulf of Carpentaria in the east to Kakadu National Park in the west.
But that’s far from the only first. Arnhem Land was the site of one of the first guerilla warfare movements in Australia after white settlers tried to kill indigenous locals to take over their land; the home of the first Aboriginal artists to win international recognition; and the location of the first land rights action and resultant legislation.
“This is going to be one of the biggest adventures of your lives,” our guide-driver Greg Patterson assures us, once we’re all sitting in the rugged 26-seater all-weather Mercedes-Benz vehicle. It’s not always going to be comfortable, he says; sometimes it’ll involve long days of driving over incredibly uneven sand roads, through rivers, up banks and down creeks. There won’t be any shops, only a caravan-type toilet in the back of the bus, or the bush outside to relieve ourselves.
And at odd intervals all along the Central Arnhem road, in between sightings of wallaroo, scrub bulls and wild buffalo wandering through the forests on either side, there are small “mosaic” burns of the undergrowth being undertaken by local rangers, according to the time-honoured conventions of caring carefully for country.
Undoubtedly, their knowledge of how to survive and thrive in a place that’s so inhospitable to newcomers stood them in good stead.Frankie demonstrates local know-how: how pandanus leaves are stripped for the women to weave with; which trees’ leaves can be used to treat illnesses; and which are a perfect substitute for sandpaper. Then he hunkers down and paints a selection of ochres onto his arm until the striking image of a water monitor miraculously appears. It’s fair to say, we’re blown away.
And, deliciously, the pesky green ants that leap on you and bite when you brush past trees are harvested to make lemony desserts, to soothe sore throats when there’s too much singing in ceremonies and, most fabulously of all, turned into citrus-tanged gin. The region’s also known as one of the most linguistically diverse areas in the world, with 12 different language groups in the area, and most people speaking at least four, usually five, languages, and understanding more.
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