BendiGO! Part 2 (The Curriculum)

Well, this Monash trip is not meant to be all fun and games, lest people get the wrong impression.

As we learnt during Monash’s pre-departure briefing, there'll be several projects we have to do there. Or at least, as one of my friends said pointedly, that’s what we would had learnt had we paid attention to the pre-departure briefing. I, for one, didn't get the memo because I was too busy googling my own pre-departure briefing during the lecture.

"76? That's surprisingly many" - My friend from Bendigo. This does not seem to bode well at all.

A couple of weeks later, when we reached the Monash campus in Bendigo, we were encouraged by Graham (our program coordinator) to explore Bendigo in our downtime during weekdays and in the weekend. Still, a few days later, as I sat behind Graham on a bus to a farm, I don’t think he was quite expecting me to quiz him about his favourite wineries and for local cheese recommendations. My friend seated beside me may have begun to have second thoughts about her choice of travelling companion. Graham was a good sport though, and offered the names of a couple of wineries operated by close friends of his, as well as a few restaurants. 

The trip to the dairy farm was meant to see the heavy machinery used by the farms and how they can be injurious. As someone who has never been to a farm (or paid much attention in class in primary school,,, drat!), I never had much luck telling the difference between the farm animals. Still, a cow should be easy to identify, and I was excited for this activity. As we walk down the path into the farm, I was surprised to see a brand I recognised.

This is the brand that makes the yogurt I love in Australia, and also the cream I use in Singapore. 

I did learn loads from the trip, and it is always interesting to see how much work goes into producing the dairy products that I have grown to know and love. The cows are loaded into a carousel and suction hoses are attached to their udders and milked. Feed is piled onto the inner centre of the carousel to encourage the cows to enter the carousel. The routine happens twice a day.

I would have taken more notes, but I was busy seeing the farm workers go about their daily business and how the machineries move. I might or might not also have been slightly preoccupied with trying to spot which cow around me is going to defecate so I can run away.

I'm glad we had the foresight to buy water-proof boots at Kmart for this, especially when I returned back to my accommodation to find a suspiciously brown stain on my footwear. Those things splatter everywhere.

Moooo... [Original image here]

Another memorable lesson from my rural attachment was a discussion on the history of the Aboriginals in Australia. Monash has always stressed the importance of not forgetting the 'Stolen Generation', but I never fully appreciated how its effects permeate even until today.

The Indigenous population of Australia are separated into many different tribes, and lived off the land for centuries before Australia's colonisation by Britain. As per all hunter-gatherer lifestyle, their food sources were sustained via a delicate balance: deers migrate through this area at this particular period of the year, fishes appear at this part of the waters at this time of the year.

A hand-drawn book detailing the Constellations as per the Boorong Tribe tradition. 

This delicate balance was shifted when European immigrants came over, who brought with them cattle and agriculture. The combination of large animals and the alteration of the natural landscape changed the migration patterns of the local animals. When the starving Aboriginals hunted the cattle in the farms, they were caught and imprisoned.

To keep a long story short, this chain of events reached a climax when the Australian government decided that the greater rates of poverty, illiteracy and ill-health of the Aboriginals were due to their culture and social environment. A plan was devised to take away Aboriginal children from their family and have them raised in a 'modern' environment by the state instead. Hence, the 'Stolen Generations' (1909-1970s).

This lesson was poignant especially because it shows how even the best of intentions can go horribly awry. It was a calamity, which, even a hundred years down the road, some parts of Australia are still trying to come to terms with.

It was easy for the settlers to dismiss the Aboriginal population as lazy cattle thieves and to send them into prison. It was easy for the government to blame all the problems that the Aboriginals have on their culture and poverty (and take a generation of Aboriginal children away from their family under gunpoint to 'give them a better future.') It is also just as easy today to look at what the Australian government did and dismiss them as foolish. But listening both sides, I can see the purported logic on why they acted the way they did. If I were brought up in the same situation as them, with the same thinking, and life experience, I'm not sure whether I'll think, or do things any differently.

In a similar vein, in our lives, perhaps it's always easier to dismiss other people being a**holes or lazy or proud or hateful (or assume their parents are cousins?) than to put ourselves in their shoes. As the Aboriginal elder leading the class said: if I'm in their shoes, it becomes easier to forgive. To forgive forever may be a stretch, but right now for an instant, forgive. And when you feel yourself feeling lighter, that's when you realise that you forgive not for other people, but for yourself.

And perhaps that's a lesson we could all do well to pay heed to.

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More information about the astrological signs of the Boorong can be found here.    

Check out the first post about the trip to Bendigo here!
Check out some of my Bendigo curriculum (Part 2) here!
Check out Part 3 about our trips to Old Green Bean here
Check out Part 4 about our food trail here
Check out Part 5 about our trip to the Farmers' Market in Bendigo here!
Check out Part 6 about our trip to Mandurang Valley Winery
Check out the last part, Part 7 about Bendigo's other attractions