Thursday 27th October

Conclusion

Throughout my life I have always been blessed to live a culturally rich life that has been enhanced and influenced by many different influences. I have always been of the strong belief that ignorance breads misunderstanding and is the key ingredient that breads fear, which in turn breads racism and discrimination. Although I consider myself as open-minded, sadly I have not been as proactive in my own education in relation to Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander cultures and history. This course in Indigenous Art, Culture and Design has opened my eyes to a whole world of information I was ignorant to and helped me to think more critically about my responses and more actively research our great countries history. If we stop and think about basic human nature, generally as human beings we are all afraid of the unknown and I did not truly appreciate how little I knew about our Indigenous culture and that to some extent I had some preconceived ideas of Aboriginal people. I had no idea of the diversity of the various Aboriginal societies across Australia and how they vary greatly, yet still share similar social structures and have systems in place that govern life and influence their experience and clarify their place in the universe. The more I have come to understand about Aboriginal culture the greater my understanding of the community spirit that governs its people and the deeper my realization of how deeply their art is rooted in not only Indigenous history, but everyday contemporary Aboriginal life.

Undeniably it is important to know where we are going and have direction for the future, not only as individuals, but also society as a whole. However, I have learnt it is no less important to know where we have been and from where we have come. Therefore gaining a greater knowledge and understanding of our cultural heritage, our history, is imperative in order to understand our success and failures as a nation, so as not to make the same mistakes in the future. In conclusion, education fosters understanding which inturn supports a true understanding that if we can embrace the belief in change and evolution, let go of our mistakes and the emotional issues of our past, then there is light at the end of the tunnel. In my opinion, it is as much about letting go of our painful history, but without forgetting the important lessons we have learned so that as a society and a cultural whole we can triumph and overcome adversity in order to move forward together in a better direction for a brighter tomorrow.