Catholic Diocese of Broome

It’s interesting how we often select words to our advantage when putting forward an argument for a particular position we oppose or support. For instance, tourists coming to the Kimberley by bus, caravan or plane are no longer referred to as tourists rather they are visitors. Broome now has a Visitors Centre on the edge of town not a tourist bureau. Aboriginal people travelling to Broome from the Pilbara, the desert communities, along the Fitzroy and from Halls Creek used to be called visitors when they came to town but now they are referred to as itinerants. Itinerants it would seem, according to news reports, are not welcome in Broome. Visitors are. You can come to Broome as a visitor with your caravan as part of your itinerary on the great voyage around Australia but if you come from the communities in the Kimberley you are merely an itinerant. You would make certain sections of the commercial world happy, it appears, only if you go away again as soon as possible. Itinerants sit on Male Oval and shout in the streets near to where tourists are feted. Some tourists shout in the street too, outside the Divers Tavern, the Mercure Inn and the Bangalow Bar but that’s okay because they are tourists not itinerants.

The sooner we begin to see itinerants as visitors, who are to be regarded as people, the better it will be for all. Broome delights in its commercial capacity to offer something attractive to visitors on tour. It does not seek to dehumanise visitors but to treat them with respect. This same hospitality needs to be extended to those visitors who are not tourists but countrymen seeking something of the facilities offered that do not exist in their own isolated and depleted settlements. Visitors or itinerants? What we call them says a lot about ourselves and will determine how we regard them and what we say about them. Some people they say love tourists for their money. That’s what Broome’s largest industry is all about, they say. Countrymen from about the Kimberley perhaps don’t have enough money. Is that why we can’t love them, don’t want them?

Having due regard for all people who visit our town is a useful place to begin to discuss issues that worry us and cause real or imagined problems for us. Avoiding prejudicial words such as ‘itinerant’ is also a useful beginning.

As we approach Christmas we remember that Mary and Joseph came to Bethlehem as visitors. They too had nowhere to lay their heads but were offered humble hospitality and stayed where they could. Jesus was born an impoverished visitor in a stable that rated no star save the one above. This humble beginning for the Lord who encourages us to love everyone including our enemies is worthy of deep consideration in the context of Broome’s alleged visitor problem. Hopefully there is still room in our lives to create a view of Broome that is moral and all-embracing.