Okay...I had to read this book for school. But WOW! It took me
about a week to read it (probably would have taken less time
but..well..with four kids I'm lucky to get any reading time in at
all!!)
This is one of the best books I've ever read. I actually finished
reading it in December but I haven't had time to write an actual
review until now. (Seriously!)
This is sort of like a memoir. The author was living and working in
Australia. She was a holistic physician who focused on natural
healing. One day while she was out and about, she saw two young
Australian Aboriginal boys huffing from aerosal spray cans. Like
others who witnessed the young men, she didn't try to intervene.
Then she found out later the young men died of overdosing. She
decided to do something proactive.
She decided to create a foundation where she helped build a useful
skill (like building and creating goods) to help build a sense of
pride. That way they'd be able to support themselves and also learn
how to market the products they created! What an awesome thing! The
problem was, these Aboriginal young people were half white and half
Aboriginal--stuck in the middle between two very different worlds
and not really fitting into either. And when the Aboriginal tribe
heard of her work, they summond her to them.
Now the book actually starts off with her standing in front of a
hotel, dressed to the nines, waiting for her ride. She believed her
ride would be a limo and her journey would be a short trip to some
sort of ceremony in her honor for the work she'd done. She was
wrong. A man showed up in an open jeep and drove her four hours
into the Australian desert.
She met the tribe who represented the other half of the young
people she'd been working with and they took her on a several month
long "walkabout" to learn more about their life, culture, beliefs
and how very different they are from what people believed. It
wasn't just that they lived off the land, respected all living
things and only took what they needed--giving back where they
could--they taught the author there was alot more to life that what
we allow ourselves to see.
Needless to say by the end of her journey, she was a changed woman
and the tribe accepted her less a "mutant" as they believed all the
rest of us to be but more a person to be celebrated.
An absolute MUST READ for anyone who feels there should be more to
life than what's going on around them as well as who questions why
we're all here!