Rudy Owens' Blog

I watched the 2008 old-fashion movie epic Australia last night, a film surprisingly about historic racism Down Under. The film evoked part of my imagination that Australia always filled ever since I read Bruce Chatwin’s travelogue called Songlines. That book profiled the aboriginal concept of Dreamtime. To the subsistence based first Australians, the landscape has special meaning, revealed in songs, transmitted over generations, creating a powerful bond between the people and their land. While living six years in Alaska, I encountered a similar perspective learning about Native Alaskans’ subsistence culture, in which they conceived of their harsh land through cycles of hunting and fishing, a cyclical view and distinctly non-linear.

I only saw a sliver of Australia, from Sydney to Brisbane. It would the equivalent of driving from Los Angeles to San Francisco. There is so much more to see. One day I hope to see more.