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Nigeria: Priest Finds African Parallels With Australian Aborigines

6 November 2007 - Wilcanna - Though surrounded by Western civilization, especially popularity of the nuclear family, the indigenous peoples of Australia still treasure their extended family system and matriarchal culture, a Nigerian priest found out.

Fr Ralph Madu, communications director at the Catholic Secretariat of Nigeria, reports that many traits of aboriginal culture still thrive, though the number of indigenous Australians has dropped by half since the start of European occupation in late 18th century.

Fr Madu (with seven other journalists from India, Germany, Brazil, Poland, Mexico, Italy, and Philippines) is on a 10-day media visit to Australia in preparation for the World Youth Day 2008.

"We do not only cherish our extended family system and our matriarchal family lineage but we also cook traditional foods in traditional ways", Murray Butcher, who teaches the traditional language, Barkindji, told the priest.

The extended family system keeps the aborigines close in an environment where there are limited jobs and many live on government support. Butcher and a few others like him are making concerted efforts to revive the near-extinct Barkindji language and culture by teaching the younger generation.

Butcher regretted that most indigenous parents had not yet embraced education of their children because they felt it was of little use. Thus despite government efforts, few youths have received an education.

Another setback for young people, he said, was culture shock. Given that youths from the community are not very exposed to other cultures, they find it difficult to adjust to unfamiliar cultures and bigger societies even in their own country.

Many of the about 700 aboriginal people living in Wilcannia, one of the towns with high population of Australian indigenes, are Barkindji. Australia today has an estimated 460,000 indigenous people, compared to 750,000 at the start of European settlement in 1788.

Source: Catholic Information Service for Africa (Nairobi)

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