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Bruce Chatwin is not only the author of this book but also one of the main characters. He always pursued his passion for world travelling and this book is about his journey in Australia.
Bruce meets Arkady, an Australian citizen (his parents came from Russia), who works together with Aboriginals trying to prevent the government from destroying their sacred places. Together they travel around Alice Springs. Bruce meets some Aboriginals, who give him heaps of information about Australian culture, the way Aboriginals used to trade, the Dreamtime (a time when their ancestors created everything and named it; the Aboriginals learnt this through an oral tradition of stories and songs), their languages (more than 200) and songlines. Bruce gets to know stories and songs for different places while travelling through the outback with Arkady and some Australian aborigines.
But he does not only learn about Australian culture, he also gets to know that racism against Aboriginals is in Australia a common thing. On their trip they have to wait for a tank of gasoline much longer, only because there are blacks in the car. In a hotel, where he wants to buy some drinks "coons" are not allowed.
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