Welccome back from Melbourne...

Yarra River in Melbourne CBD

 It's neat to be back home from Melbourne with a pile of paperwork to be done and also final presentations for my Indigenous Research class this weekend which I'm really looking forward to as a tutor/lecturer/teacher in this field.

I must say that it was really interesting in visiting Melbourne this time and to see the changes since I last visited some 20+ years ago. It is definitely a Metropolitan city but didn't see a lot of the indigenous peoples in the CBD which was a similar observation during my short time in Oahu, Hawaii a couple of years ago and in many Metropolitan cities I've visited over the years.

The CBD Central Business District, more often than not, is a visual display of the perceived economic prosperity of a country and if the Indigenous people feature in that space then they play a visible role in the decision making sector of that society but if they are not visible then other dominate cultures are in those places of control and decision making.

I compare it to Samoa CBD, an independent nation, now with influence from China and that is visible in the CBD. I also observe this in NZ with a smaller Maori (indigenous peoples on NZ) presence in the CBD. Often tourists will flock to those centres to spend $ on entertainment, food, accomodation etc. and businesses will fall or thrive in those spaces.

It was definitely neat to take my family away to experience other cultural spaces and cities but also neat to be home...