The Meeting of Two Cultures in Walkabout

The Walkabout is a book which outlines the meeting of two kinds of cultures and civilizations which takes place in the Australian Wilderness. The book shows how the Australian Natives, the Aboriginals, go through a walkabout to prove the rite of passage from childhood to adulthood. Walkabout also shows how the meeting of the two cultures interrupted the Aboriginal boy’s progress in his walkabout leading to a tragic ending. From seeing the Bush boy’s walkabout, it makes me think why I can’t have a type of passage which would represent the passage from childhood to adulthood. One kind of idea I could use as a type of walkabout would be to go camping away from a city and try to survive by you for at least two weeks. Clearly the Walkabout is a perfect example of the rite of passage and that it should be used as an example to see if a person has taken the journey into adulthood.

The Bush boy’s walkabout is to live alone for up to six months alone in the wilderness. He does this as a rite of passage following the way his people have done it for thousands of years. Walkabouts are for Aboriginal males around the age of fourteen. After completion of the process which can take anywhere from two weeks to six months, you are considered a man. The walkabout is very important to the Aboriginal’s culturally because it signifies if a male has taken the journey to manhood. The walkabout is unique only to Australia and lets a young person connect and discover the land of his ancestors.

In the Walkabout, Mary and Peter disrupt the Aboriginal boy’s progress in his walkabout in many different ways. The first disturbance is just how the bush boy came across Mary and Peter. The Bush boy’s walkabout is meant to be that the he cannot be dis...

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...s tests how smart I can be by myself when no one is there to think for me.

From this Walkabout, I will have learned many things when it comes to an end. First, I would learn how to live alone and that I do have the capability to do it. Second, it shows how brave I could be and that I’m not afraid to be and think by myself. These two qualities are ways to prove the rite of passage and that it shows that the bridge from childhood to adulthood is crossed.

Learning about the Australian walkabouts really teaches us about learning and being more self-reliant. Walkabouts aren’t just for the rite of passage but for exploring and discovering things you didn’t know. My Walkabout teaches me many things, but I also learned of the Australian culture. Clearly, a walkabout is something the world should use as an example to show the bridge between childhood and adulthood.