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Outside of Melbourne

In many ways Melbourne is similar to Columbus. Melbourne is a growing city filled with markets, parks, restaurants, businesses, and skyscrapers. The cab driver that picked us up from the airport when we arrived estimated that 1,000 people come here every week to live. The people of Melbourne are growingly diverse and overall a friendly lot.

Two weekends ago, most of the group got the opportunity to go visit Sydney. It was an incredible time but a vastly different experience than Melbourne. There are many parts of Sydney that are old and others that are very modern. The area around the Opera House contains a heap of gourmet restaurants and has a historic background. The people of Sydney resemble that of New Yorkers: rushed and annoyed with outsiders. While everyone, including the people of Sydney, asks what a bunch of Americans are doing in Australia, one man of Sydney captured this when he told us that we should not tell our friends and family how awesome Australia is because it would ruin it if more American tourists come. The other side of Sydney is home to Bondi Beach and many other surf beaches. Bondi has many colorful mosaic benches and vibrant marine murals.

This current weekend we visited the Australian Bush and the Great Ocean Road. While we have never seen the pacific coast highway, many references reveal similarities. The coastline is home to many small towns and tight-knit communities. People of Australia are seeing a huge rise in prices in the land in these communities as compared to previous years. The interesting part of the Great Ocean Road is that on one side of the road you have these gorgeous and massive views of ocean and on the other side it feels like the dairy heartland. Dairy cows get to enjoy a sea breeze every morning. On this trip we got to see so many animals in their natural environment and the efforts of the state of Victoria to preserve the wildlife.

 

Ashle Casey & Sarah Leonard

Our First Week in Melbourne

The first week of being in Melbourne, Australia was an amazing experience! After a LONG journey of traveling by air, we finally made it. Once we all got together and finally got taxis, we were brought to our apartment complex. At first, we were joking about how people were driving on the “wrong” side of the road, but then we eventually would get used to it. Upon getting to our apartment complex, we all got roommates, leaving us to be the only ones in a double in a different building. We didn’t get our apartment right away and had to wait until after the city tour to get settled. Even though we were all tired, we met with our tour guide, Katie, and we couldn’t wait to get started on the tour of the city.

We received myki cards and got on a tram for the first time. Katie took us around the city and we got to see many places like the market, a jail facility, a museum, and an arcade (shopping mall). Katie gave a good overview explanation of the history of Melbourne and how the city came to be what it is today. Katie was very pleasant, and we were super excited to see her again for our field trip to Phillip Island later that week.

On Monday, May 7th, we went to the Melbourne Museum and it was a really cool establishment! It was also Leo’s birthday so we celebrated it as much as we could. The next day, we had our first visit to an agency called VACCA (Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency). We were greeted by one of the Aboriginal social workers and she explained that in every meeting, they acknowledge the land that we stand on. The social worker then talked about the Aboriginal history, culture, traditions, and place in society. A feeling of sadness and anger took over the whole room while she was explaining how the Aboriginal people were killed, stripped away from their identity and seen as the lowest class possible by the white conquers. This was a very informative agency visit and we all learned a lot about the Aboriginal people in Australia.

The next day we all went to the Old Melbourne Gaol, and we got to see the jail cells which had information about several convicts and just the history of how the jail was run. We also got the chance to “experience” being arrested and see both the male and female sections of the jail; we all had a great experience. After we all dispersed, a group of us went to the Royal Arcade where we looked around in the shops and got a feeling of the shopping experience here in Melbourne.

Thursday was a free day so we all decided to make our way down to Sea Life (the aquarium). It was really cool to see all the sea animals and take lots of pictures of them while all hanging out together. That Friday, we all met with Katie to go on our adventure to Phillip Island! The views were absolutely beautiful! We got to see both koalas, wallabies, and penguins up close in their natural habitats, and that was an amazing and memorable experience!

These events have been such an impact to each one of us. Not only did we learn about Australia’s culture but also about how their social work system works and how it influences people’s lifestyle.

~ Ashley White and Leobeliz Perdomo Blanco

Week 1

Our first week here was amazing. On our first day, we did a walking tour of Melbourne, and on the following days we visited the Melbourne museum and the Old Melbourne Gaol (gaol=jail) to learn about Australian history, particularly related to the Aboriginal people who originally lived on this land long before European colonists. The people here are really friendly and the coffee is delicious. There are coffee shops everywhere, and almost none of them are Starbucks. The city’s architecture is a fascinating mix of older colonial designs and modern new construction.

After getting a feel for the city and its history over the first few days, we visited VACCA (the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency) for a cultural awareness training. Before the training, we knew very little about the history and culture of Australia’s Aboriginal people. As we learned about this population’s history, uncanny similarities to our treatment of Native Americans in the United States became apparent. Like in the United States, European colonists in Australia attempted to eradicate the Aboriginal people by taking away every aspect of their culture, from their language and art to their land. Additionally, Aboriginal children were taken from their parents and put into out-of-home care so they could be raised with European customs and culture, preventing Aboriginal parents from passing on their culture to the next generation. This generation of individuals who were taken out of their homes is known as the Stolen Generation.

Today, efforts are being made to acknowledge the Aboriginal people as the original owners and inhabitants of the land. Many public gatherings begin with acknowledgements and many agencies, museums, and other public settings have acknowledgement plaques on display to recognize the original owners of the land. Despite these efforts, Aboriginal individuals still face a host of negative effects from years of violence. Child welfare with Aboriginal individuals is a particularly difficult field because these individuals have, with good reason, a level of distrust of service providers, and this is accompanied by a disruption of family structure stemming from the Stolen Generation. This means that child welfare needs are high in this population, but high levels of cultural competence are necessary in order to ethically and effectively work with these individuals. It was fascinating to learn how VACCA works to train practitioners to be culturally competent and to provide child welfare services to Aboriginal children and families.

Until next time,

Sarah Leonard and Ashley Casey

The Aboriginal Population

Melbourne has been an incredible journey so far! It is very exciting to get to explore and learn about a whole new city and continent, especially with almost everyone from our group having never been here before. Our first week here in Melbourne had a main focus on its history and culture, specifically that of the Aboriginal population.

On Monday, May 7, we went to the Melbourne Museum where we were able to walk through an entire exhibit on the Aboriginal experience. As we looked at unique artifacts, watched videos of personal stories, and read real documents, I was able to connect with this population on a much deeper level. In addition, I better understand how the Aboriginal people of Australia had such a similar experience to that of the Native Americans in the United States. The exhibit truly exemplified the struggles, encounters, and prejudices that Aboriginal people have faced throughout history, beginning when Europeans came to Australia and took over the continent. The original landowners were often killed, separated from their families, and stripped of every bit of culture that formed their identity.

The next day, we had the opportunity to visit VACCA, the Victorian Aboriginal Child Care Agency. At this agency visit, our group went through a workshop that helped us to further understand the rich history and culture of the Aborginals that we had began to learn about the previous day at the museum. During this training, we were given a lot of detail about what life was like for these people before European colonization – full of family, tradition, belief systems, initiations, connection to the land, etc. So much of their way of living was taken from them when the Europeans arrived. We also talked about the Stolen Generation which were the children who were taken away from their families just within the last century. Although this history may seem so long ago, it is much more recent than many of us realize. At this visit, we were able to participate in simulations to get a better feel to what the Aboriginal people have experienced.

            

Aboriginal Flag                         Torres Strait Islander Flag

So what does this mean for me and you? Here are key takeaways moving forward:
1) Ask. Listen. Clarify. Not every Aboriginal, Native American, or other original landowner has had the same history or experience. Seek to understand and avoid making assumptions.
2) Aboriginals and Native Americans, along with other populations, still experience prejudice today. Racism is not just a part of our history – it is still an issue and is extremely relevant.
3) Do your best to learn the true history of our own country. What really happened and what is still happening?

This trip so far in Melbourne has been incredible and I cannot wait to learn more!

-Megan Caldwell

Melbourne VS Columbus

When it comes to the city of Melbourne, the city does a good job acknowledging the Aboriginal population. In Columbus, we are aware that the city was built on the Native American lands, but we don’t do a good job with acknowledgment of the Native Americans. In Australia, the acknowledgement is a statement before any group meeting on a land that was once an Aboriginal homeland. The acknowledgment states the tribe that traditionally owned the land (if it is known, due to the displacement and erasure of their people and history).  Additionally, outside the buildings of organizations on traditionally owned Aboriginal land, there is a placard that also acknowledges the Aboriginal tribe. In Columbus we don’t acknowledge the original owners of the land that we built on. Melbourne seems to have more respect for the population that was here before colonization occurred.

Another difference that we have noticed is that Melbourne focuses on reducing human created harm to nature. There is not a lot of litter laying on the ground and people in the city will even pick up trash if they see it laying on the ground. Melbourne also has the Growing Green Environmental Sustainability Plan which focuses on being greener and providing more trees in the city. Additionally, they also work on reducing pollution with cars by encouraging public transportation, biking, and other alternatives to driving cars (even skate boarding!). In Columbus the city seems to be covered in litter and people are more likely to just walk past the trash than to pick it up and put it in the trash can. Columbus also doesn’t provide trams for public transportation and the cars used in the city has sky rocketed in the past few years. Pollution and lack of respect for nature seems to be more common in Columbus over Melbourne.

Another prominent difference between Melbourne and Columbus is the use of alcohol and tobacco.  With alcohol, heavy drinking is prevented with ad campaigns stating ‘If you drink and then drive, you’re a bloody idiot’ and signs in every restaurant stating the fees of drinking under age.  Alcohol content is also lower in most Australian drinks, making it harder to hit the legal limit quickly.  The blood alcohol concentration limit in America is .08, while Australia’s is .05.  Drinking is taken much more seriously.  Additionally, Australians take smoking cigarettes much more seriously as well.  On every package of cigarettes, there is a cover stating ‘smoking kills’, ‘smoking causes emphysema’, ‘smoking causes cancer’, etc.  The tax on cigarettes causes the total price to be $20-30 per package.  A box of cigarettes in Columbus rings up to about $7 per package.  Maybe this tax is what keeps the streets of Melbourne clean and the air fresh.

 

Mary Tillman and MK Crimmel

Hello world!

Welcome to the blog for the Education Abroad program Child Welfare and Children’s Mental Health in Australia.  In this blog, participants and leaders of the program will write about some of the visits, experiences, and sights in Melbourne, Australia, and what we are learning.