The Magic Pill Page #3

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and in the last

13 or so generations,

since this thing called

the industrial revolution,

this has just gone down

a slippery slope.

[Richard Trudgen] You are

the oldest culture on earth,

is Yolngu culture.

Forty-thousand years.

So anybody that

has a go at us,

don't talk to us

unless you've got

40,000 years of research.

Yeah?

The American

scientific expedition that came

to Arnhem Land in 1948

showed that Yolngu people

were extremely robust.

No chronic disease, great teeth,

well-built, muscular.

I remember the Yolngu

in the '70s-- rippled muscles.

They were like supermen.

I came back in '83

to see a population

that was decimated.

This chronic disease tsunami

that is now wiping

across the Yolngu population.

[people chattering]

[Kama Trudgen]

Funerals are just this

constant part of life here,

where you finish one,

and then the next one arrives

and then the next one arrives

and you can kind of get

a funeral fatigue.

-6.3.

-6.3. [speaks Yolngu Matha]

[Kama]

And all of life is needing to be

reorganized around that.

There are definitely still

people are alive today

who, as they were growing up,

were living

a traditional lifestyle.

We're running out

of those people.

Everybody died.

My friends have all gone.

Even my best friends.

They're not with me anymore.

-[Robert] Life's not supposed

to be like that.

-No. No.

[Robert]

Yuranydjil, can you

tell me, in your own words,

why, why are you here

at this retreat?

-Boy, I can't talk

when I'm walking.

-Okay, fair enough.

Maybe down on the beach

when I'm sitting down, I will.

I think my body,

maybe weren't built

to do some walks,

or...I don't know.

I remember

when I was a little girl

I used to come

with my grandfather.

We'd be walking

along this beach.

And every night he'd,

he'd share stories.

He would tell me,

"This is the way to go.

"This is what you eat.

"Don't eat this.

"This is nice,

but this is bad.

"Don't touch this.

Don't eat this.

It's not even food.

It's "nhangining."

"Nhangining"

meaning "non-edible."

Even those red and black beads,

they're pretty to make

a good necklace,

but it's not good to eat.

It's "nhangining."

[chattering]

[Kama]

So much has been done

to Yolngu people

to send the message

that they are inferior

and that whatever is going on

in the dominant culture

is more powerful and superior.

And that definitely applies

to people's perception of food.

[Tim]

This one's got caffeine.

[Kama]

Coca-Cola is something that's

frequently drunk for breakfast.

It's something frequently given

to really small children

for breakfast.

A lot of people

look in on that,

and they think, "Wow.

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