Bush Life

Through our time in Central Australia we have learned an immense amount about the Aboriginal culture. We have learned how the Aboriginals or Anangu as they call themselves survived solely off the land. The Anangu used the natural land as their sole source of food, shelter, medicine, tools etc. This was incredible to learn about because it was absolutely fascinating how the Anangu managed to learn about their land and the plants and animals on it, and in addition to that, how their knowledge was passed down through the generations.

However, with the arrival of the European settlers, also came many non-native plants and animals, which reeked havoc on the Anangu way of life. These introduced species caused other, native plant and animal species to die off in exponential rates. With the arrival of the European settlers also came logging, which caused huge areas of land to be wiped of vegetation, causing irreparable damage. The Anangu, though they wanted to maintain their lifestyle, began to have to adjust to the European lifestyle because their effects on Australian wildlife and plant life made it literally impossible for the Anangu to live solely off the land as they had previously done. Though it was sad to learn about this I feel like I’m a better person for having learned it.

Mariah