(617) Aborigines and business

A friend I met recently is a missionary translator who spent twenty years in a small island north of Australia. She lived in the hilly village, together with her fellow translator from Canada learnt the local language. They form a suitable set of written symbols to represent the never before written language. Through the years they worked on an English-local language dictionary. They started literacy classes for adults. They printed reading primers for children and set up indigenous kindergartens. It took eighteen years for a team to translate the New Testament into the local language. Last but the most important of all, they teach the economically backward villagers how to market their native agricultural products and handicrafts.

My husband went to visit this village and was surprised that the native stall holder held onto his own set of prices for the handicrafts. After all, he was buying a few souvenirs for family members and he was not about to bargain to slash the prices down. However, another visitor from a neighboring country felt differently. He wanted to purchase some bead decorative items. One item costs seven dollars, he asked how much would seven cost, the stall owner said forty two dollars. He asked for the number to be rounded to forty. After some persuading, the deal was struck and money exchanged hands.

Now we compare the above mentioned stall owner to one in my country. My uncle loves durian, a most smelly fruit that grow in the jungle as well as plantations. He stopped in some small village and bought durians from a local aborigine man who roamed far and wide in the jungle to collect the fruits. One heap of durian costs fifteen dollars. He asked what about two heaps, the answer is thirty dollars. My uncle asked his sons to pick up all three heaps and put in his trunk. He opened his wallet and gave a fifty dollar bill to the native, expecting him to give him five dollar change. Surprisingly the stall holder gave him two ten dollar bills. My uncle was taken aback and asked if he was sure. When the business owner answered in the affirmative, my uncle walked back to the car commenting on how a calculator and some teaching of simple mathematics lessons would alleviate the plight of these aborigines who are subsisting on the land.

Most well meaning people would not cheat the aborigine people. But it takes a really special person to choose to live among them to help them catch up with our increasingly complicated world.