Video 1. Our trip in Australia is sponsored by the Australian Tourist Commission. They provide us some help for the transports and the discovery of nature and local cultures.

As soon as we arrived, we met Claire, who works for the Northern Territory Tourist Commission. She provides us the authorizations to cross and to film some parks and towns.

Some places are sacred indeed for Aborigines  and it's forbidden to film or to enter in with no specific authorization.

Video 2. Yesterday in Darwin was shown the preview of an Aboriginal movie 'Yolngu Boy' the first Aboriginal production since 25 years !

The film tells the story about 3 guys sniffing petrol. The actors, the crew and some Australian VIP are in the city.

We are lucky: some of the actors are staying in the same hotel where we are. Maya and Vale want to meet them immediately. When we come in their room, the strong smell of beer is omnipresent. 

In the room, some children play with sugar cubes, women are sat on the floor, while men remain silent. It's total confusion, and we feel ill at ease. Only two of them can speak English, but it's very hard to communicate. Sometimes, someone comes in the room, gives us a black look and then leaves. Is it our camera ?

In the end, we finally learn only two things: 4 years were necessary to make the movie, and they live in Gove, an eastern peninsula of Darwin, at 3 days-drive from here.

" After 2 months of virtual travel, I finally touched reality!"

Choum, a French from Paris, father of a little Marine, met us after a 48 hours-travel from France. His plane was 24 hours late !

18,8 millions people live in Australia, of whom 350 000 Aborigines. This native people, strange and fascinating, has been living here for at least 5000 years. Known for his spirituality and its art, this people is today endangered.

At the time of the European settlement, there were more than 250 languages, and more than 700 dialects, coming from a mother-tongue declined when the Aborigines spread on the territory. 30 different languages are still spoken by them.

At the end of the last century, many Aboriginal communities were semi nomadic. But since the white people's arrival, they slowly began to  lose their social parameters and their identity. Their life expectancy is less than 20 years than the whites and half of them are out of work.

But the perceived simplicity of these people hides in fact a sophisticated spirituality and cultural life. The Aborigines believe in Dreamtime, the creation of Time, when the Earth was born, its laws and inhabitants.

Every person is believed to have two souls, one mortal, the other immortal. When someone dies, the soul goes back to live in the sacred places of the ancestors, as the body fades into oblivion.

Through millenniums, they learned to communicate with the spirits from beyond. Their mind may seem poor, but in fact, it's free, opened to the communication with the ancestors. The links between material and spiritual are the totems. We all have one, such as tree, snake, fish, place, etc...

The traditions are orally transmitted, with myths and legends, songs and prayers.

The Car@van will leave towards the heart of the Red Continent...