Darwin is on my Mind

Last Friday was our last day in Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia, a city named after the famous scientist Charles Darwin. I toured the city and surrounding area for a total of 10 days, in which time I learned of its economy, its people, its challenges, its aspirations, and roots of its identity. 

As an outsider visiting Darwin I entered the city eager to learn about the make-up of the city and reasons why the current social and cultural threads exists. Community building, whether physical or relationship-based, is a small sociological experiment, with results tested by the never-ceasing tide of change. In this short blog post I don't have room to give a Tocqueville-esque description of Darwin. Nevertheless, I wanted to share some community threads that stood out to me. 

1. Darwin's present is shaped by its history in war and military service: None of us on this GSE trip knew of Darwin's involvement in World War II. The same Japanese fighter team which bombed Pearl Harbor in Hawaii bombed Darwin approximately three months later. Other parts of the Northern Territory were also heavily raided during WWII. There is a Royal Australian Air Force base in Darwin, and as in the U.S. many young men and women from small towns join the service. My host summed it up for me in our conversation about ANZAC day. He said, "We remember because it was terrible; we remember because it's shaped how we live; we remember because we don't want to forget and have history repeat itself."

2. Frontier Territory: Darwin is a mid-sized city, with a population near 135,000. Yet leave the small metro area's boundaries and you arrive to one of the frontiers of Australia. Small towns stand far and few between. The Northern Territory is large, roughly the size of the upper Midwest, but with only a total of 240,000 people. I sense a "live and let live" attitude and a tenacity to live off the land and what's available to people in a state so far away from Australia's densely populated commercial centers. 

3. A diverse, well traveled, well-educated population: Maybe it had to do with who I was staying with, or the members of the Rotary Club, but it seemed many people in Darwin had traveled to other countries. This travel to nearby Singapore, Bali, Dili, New Zealand, Thailand, Europe, and the U.S. gives many Darwin residents a glimpse into how other people live. When it comes to the U.S., the influence of U.S. pop culture - movies, music, trends - is also evident. What left the biggest impression on me was the diversity of the residents of Darwin. I sat in a shopping center waiting to be picked up for our next stop and saw a parade of nationalities walk by - each presumably adding to the cultural fabric of Darwin. 

4. Socializing is part of life balance: I admit it. I am a workaholic. My personal identity is wrapped up in my vocation. Being a person of few words, I tend to express my beliefs and principles through actions - work, volunteer work and the like. Also, I tend to socialize with fellow workaholics. So I found it both a bit challenging and refreshing to spend a considerable amount of time socializing with our hosts and other people in Darwin. 

5. Healthy skepticism of what government can do for the people: On face value, Australia sounds as if it has more government regulation and involvement in people's lives than the U.S. government in Americans' lives. Even so many people of Darwin shared with me their skepticism of what government can do for the people. It shouldn't surprise me, yet this belief rang out to my American-trained ears.

6. Everyone knows everyone: This is true in small towns and cities alike. In Minnesota, with its population nearing 6 million, most circles are still small. In Darwin, the Territory's capital city with 135,000 inhabitants, it's not unlikely that you will run into your elected officials at the grocery store or your pastor at the cliffs. Additionally, like in other small cities, people participate in numerous activities and serve in multiple community roles; hence, why everyone seems to know everyone. I hope Darwin keeps this everyone-knows-everyone thread for a long time to come. 

7. The Forgotten City: In many ways, Darwin appears to be a forgotten city. None of us on this trip knew about Darwin and its bombing during World War II. Darwin is also closer to the capitals of 5 other nations to the north (in southeast Asia) than to its own capital (Canberra) in southern Australia. And, as one teenage son of my hosts' told me, even when AC/DC announced a tour of Australia's capital cities, Darwin was absent on that list of capitals. This sense of a forgotten city has not held Darwin back, instead, the city boasts its own unique regional culture, forged over time and by the aboriginal and multicultural residents who have made Darwin their home. 

Darwin is not immune to persistent and emerging social and economic forces. The local economy appears to be stagnating. Social and economic disparities for the aboriginal population would lead me to believe the large aboriginal population in the Darwin area is underemployed - leading to underutilized human capital. But even with these and other external forces Darwin has risen from the ruins of World War II and Hurricane Tracy to become a vibrant mid-sized city. All indications are Darwin will continue to find ways to be a thriving community in Australia's Top End.