Two days a go a lady we know came around asking to use our home computer so she could use internet banking to transfer some money. Easy request I thought, so sure come on in.
Before I continue let me fill you in on a little background to this story. Firstly asking for ‘help’, often called humbug, is common in many indigenous communities. Yolngu culture is rooted heavily in the idea that the well being of the community is more important than the individual and when you look back on days gone by, where small family groups lived off the land, this was implemented practically by sharing whatever was hunted and gathered by each individual with all. In today’s society this idea of sharing everything still exists, in fact the generosity of nearly all Yolngu kids we have come across, from even the earliest ages, still continues to amaze me.
Kids waiting at the fence at Jack’s birthday party – they were not dissapointed as everyone shared!!
Can you see your child when invited to a party, of which there are next to none of normally, and having a spread of food laid in front of them having the immediate reaction to run to the fence to share their portions with those who had not been invited?
Or perhaps your child has just been given a toy or a special prize but sees another child crying (our child in this case) and so walks over and immediately hands over said toy or prize?
If you answer yes then perhaps we need to talk about how I can instill this type of generosity in my kids. Don’t get me wrong I am sure there is still the normal squabbles among yolngu kids and definitely their value of possessions is different but on the whole what we see is an awful lot of generosity when it comes to sharing. Anyway I digress.
So whilst these are the positive aspects of humbug there is also a flip side. Whereby it used to be applied across small groups where everyone generally had to work to survive, today after years of welfare dependency, for some, humbug has become a means to graft a living. With this in mind Balanda (non-indigenous) are often the targets of humbug, everything from food, to tobacco, to powercards (our means of getting electricity), lifts in the car and now on this day our internet.
On the whole, in an attempt to not perpetuate the welfare mentality that exists for some, our answer is generally a round-about ‘No’ to humbug requests that do not involve a mutual effort. So whilst we do not give out money we have helped people do things like collect firewood (used be nearly everyone for heating and cooking) and on this day we chose to share our internet, as with only one banking outlet in town, an atm which is often broken, and very few people having access to computers, let alone internet at home,it is hard for people to access their money.
However what I thought would be a 5 minute activity resulted in an almost hour long ordeal which opened my eyes to the barriers faced by Yolngu in what for us is a simple every day activity.
It began when our friend locked herself out of her account due to difficulty in understanding where and how to enter her details and pressing enter one too many times. (Scott will attest to the fact that I do this regularly and I supposedly have english as a first language!!)
Once this had happened we found the number to call and after listening to a complex list of options she got through to an operator. After talking for 5 minutes she passed the phone to me asking for my help in explaining. Once I was on the phone I was quickly informed that the operator was not allowed to talk through a third party or even have one on the phone, i.e. using speaker phone, for fraud reasons. So understanding her dilemma but frustrated at the situation I asked her to speak really slowly explaining that english was not a first language for the client, and handed the phone back.
Finally our friend was able to get her account reset and she logged back in only to be confronted by the next obstacle – ‘please enter your email account…..’
Do you have an email account? No.
Another call to the bank and we ascertained that you have to have an email account or you can no longer access internet banking, hmmmmm…
Quick trip to hotmail later, and a quick explanation of what an email account is, and what she can use it for and we were finally into her bank account, only to have to try and navigate a web site which had changed completely from the last time she had used it just a few days ago with complex terms like share market and interest rates and – well you get the picture…
Something which is so integral to our way of life – accessing our money – is actually incredibly difficult for the majority of people in our little community and often leaves them feeling confused, embarrassed and overwhelmingly demoralized.
Can you imagine navigating banking in a second language? What about using a computer and navigating the internet in a second language (remembering this now requires you to read this language) with little practise with technology?
What is the answer? Short answer is educational outcomes, in particular in regards to English speaking and literacy, must be improved in our community so that people can more easily and with less embarrassment engage with a dominant culture which is not disappearing any time soon. But what does this look like – I have no idea.
It is so complex, it fills me with frustration and breaks my heart all in one, but I pray that even in a little way we can be a part of empowering some people to more easily walk through life and into a better future. Cliche, I know, but hey until a few days ago I had never thought about just how hard simple things can be for my neighbours and friends.
Post Script – The lady who came to get access to her online account speaks english quite well, is literate and has a job. So if this task is difficult for her imagine what it is like for those with lesser skills.
Walmsley Family Ramblings 