Not quite what you want to hear about yet...

Well, even though the news is quite stale at this point, I have to say at least a few words about our visit to Healesville Sanctuary because I’m required to for our Engaging Australian culture class and also because I was just having an interesting conversation with Thryn about some of the things that I could say about it, so I thought I’d stop conversing and start writing.

Well, it’s interesting to reflect on how I feel about the experience after my break travels, because I’ve really changed the way I think about it a lot. I think initially I enjoyed the experience, in spite of the incredibly cold and drizzly weather. I liked the chance to have a close encounter with these animals that so represent the native Australian fauna. But when I think about the experience as a whole, I think it represents more about Australia than perhaps it ought to. I think the image that stands out most starkly in my mind are the languid eyes of the browbeaten kangaroos, lying around in their pens submissively allowing tourists to pat them while their pictures is taken. Or there was the Tasmanian Devil who paced manically around his cage, running laps with restless abandon. I think the kangaroos were the worst, they were so lackadaisical and their eyes said that they were heartsick. Oddly enough, it made me think of the way that Aborigines were portrayed in Greater Nowheres and Tracks, lying browbeaten and drunk in the middle of a dusty road or an old, dry creek bed. I think there is a common link between the two images, something about taking things that lived here for centuries free and on their own terms caging them, taming them, putting them on display so that everyone could ogle these “primitive” and exotic creatures. And now, well now they lie around in the hot sun and maybe just wait to die because they’ve been institutionalized and all their spirit is gone and tourists can come and pat them on the head and take their picture.

The other funny thing is the way that the staff of Healesville viewed their project. They seemed to be really defensive about the fact that it was NOT a zoo and the animals could either come to the keepers or not come of their own volition. Well, how does the bird show, where birds of prey are flown around a stadium after bits of meat. And why aren’t the koalas allowed to go up in the tops of the trees where they would live in the wild. They have to kept at eye level so the tourist can snap their pictures. I sympathize with their plight, because they have to balance the goals of educating the public with the goals of taking care of the animals, but they seem to be quite ready to defend their position as an advocate for the animals, rather than their wardens.