Even though I didn’t expect it, the stay at Warburton fulfilled many of my desires for doing this ride. I’m glad it materialized. When serendipitous events fall together, I am happy for my bike ride.
Hannah and Alex were my warmshowers hosts in Warburton, a small community in the middle of the desert, somewhere between the Great Victoria Desert to the south and the Gibson Desert to the north. The fact that there is even a warmshowers host in the middle of nowhere is a miracle in itself (who would want to be a host in a place no one bikes to?), and I was very fortunate to have met them. (They admit that I am the first warmshowers request here in the middle of the desert on the Great Central Road.)
Even though the name is English, Warburton is an indigenous community of the Ngaanyatjarra people. It was originally a missionary outpost, started by the United Aborigines Mission, but was ceded to the Ngaanyatjarra people in 1973, and now has about 400 people, a little over 80% of them being indigenous.
Hannah and Alex, anthropologists by training, currently work with the Ngaanyatjarra, being coordinators between the government authorities and the local Ngaanyatjarra people to provide them ways to use their indigenous culturally based skills in maintaining the land and culture. Several days with Hannah and Alex was an educationally rich experience, as they served as the intermediary to the ways of the Ngaanyatjarra– their ethos, their language, their culture. They gave me books to read, such as the one on the right. Alex also briefly introduced me to one of the key figures in their community, Mr. B., an elder person who still holds much of the knowledge of the culture. While driving through town, Alex would at times interpret for me what I was seeing (“see the guy with the red hair? That means…. ). And Hannah and Alex led me to the art center in town (Tjulyuru Regional Gallery), where the contemporary paintings and art of the indigenous people were housed, a place that tries to maintain the spirit of the aboriginal people. If it weren’t for guides like them, I never would have been able to be immersed, even for just a few days, in the spirit of the Ngaanyatjarra people.
And as luck would have it, some of the indigenous men from all over Australia were gathered in Warburton that week for the culturally specific rites of “man-business.” No outsider, and not even the women of of the indigenous communities, is privy to these affairs. But one could see that there were tents in and outside of the town as the men had arrived in town for the purpose of the “man-business.” In the midst of a community, one can see them trying to live out their culture with practices that, in these modern times where a dominant culture is all around, may not last that much longer.
My stay in Warburton was an educationally rich experience, fulfilling my desire to at least understand even just a tiny bit of the indigenous culture here in Australia. It was all due to meeting Alex and Hannah. I consider myself very lucky to have met them.