Megan Online

Beautiful Barcelona

2011-08-31T18:52:00.015+09:30

I have to start writing my blog again: facebook just isn't enough for all the thoughts, images and experience that travelling inspires.

I really enjoyed my brief stay in Kuala Lumpur on the way over, the sights sounds and smells of Asia always feel like home – but four days ago, when I left there, feels like an eternity away so I am going to journal my travels as they happen before it all disappears into the next chapter.

SO here I am now in beautiful Barcelona, a place so full of history and ARCHITECTURE! There must be some massive quarries here, because the city is huge. Yes, this must be a very rocky place: all the thousands of buildings are built from local stone - huge cathedrals, medieval palaces, government buildings, unbelievable ancient roman walls - all made from stone. Incredibly beautiful city, Gaudi is but a part of it... the more I see, the more I understand the influences on his work.. There are high rise apartments everywhere: right up to the beach, fronting the cathedrals, along medieval lanes ...not a bungalow to be seen. It's fantastic the way that history merges with the present everywhere – cafes and squares full of people (mostly tourists!) where Roman chariots once rolled by, people drinking coffee where Franco's bombs once killed children. These buildings are so old, wherever the rendering is worn you can see patched and repatched stonework that has survived for centuries. One corner of a building was worn and scraped, most likely by chariots repeatedly driven at speed. It all combines to give a sense of enduring culture that is very powerful

I have had the amazing good fortune to be staying with my beautiful generous couchsurfing host, Elena, who loves her city and loves sharing it. Ever since I made contact with her I have felt at home here. She is so welcoming and friendly and so keen to show me her beautiful city. It might be better if the neighbours weren't so noisy at night (it's an apartment building with a big ventilation well in the centre that everyone's bedroom windows open onto, so it's a bit like sleeping with 50 people!), but I am coping well and really enjoying it despite feeling a little jetlagged...

It is also extremely HOT! I have been catching the metro everywhere and the winds that blow down the metro stairs from above are really welcome. Shops are airconditioned but houses not - all these highrise flats everywhere, with little tiny balconies. This district is called Gracia, was once a village but now part of Barcelona city. Gaudi's PArc Nuell is just up the hill, a short walk to fantasy. I love it - imaginative architecture that uses rockwork to create beautiful organic spaces. And the famed gingerbread house buildings with rounded corners and fantastic shapes and mosaics are just lovely. I can't really afford to go inside but am enjoying the outsides - I keep thinking of Gaudi as an exterior (rather than interior) decorator – although I know they will be equally beautiful and exotic within.

Elena has taken me to see the old walled original town, with parts of the original Roman wall intact and even more parts that have been incorporated into mediaeval buildings - narrow cobbled winding streets full of magic, fascinating little shops and tourists! And buskers, there is entertainment everywhere. Opera in the .street and even a drunk interrupting to make it feel like home...

Yesterday I went to the market and just now finished off the glorious fresh figs and strawberries I bought there - the stalls are fantastic, they take so much trouble to make their displays absolute works of art - you can't just pick the fruit you want because it would interrupt their creations! There was every delectable imaginable and I brought home salmon to cook for our dinner, which Elena appreciated. She is so lovely and so keen to practise her English because she is going to England for a months holiday soon. It is amazing to feel so welcomed by a stranger - we get on really well and I feel absolutely at home here. It is a climb up 5 flights of stairs to her flat, great exercise too! Her block of flats is on the corner of Carrer Providencia and Carrer Alegre de Dalt - providence and happiness in the village of Grace, very apt!

Many of the museums in Barca are free Sundays after 3 pm - Elena says most of the good Picassos are all over the world, but I went to the Picasso museum anyway and didn't regret it, nor even the 45 minute queue in the muggy heat. The museum covers his whole life and works, fascinating to see how his skills developed and changed from a very young age.

It was a museum sort of day – I peeked at the pre-Columbian South American museum, so validating of their culture – modern art has so much in common with Indigenous art in capturing essence. And then Elena and I went back in time to the Museum of History – unbelievable! The basement of the building has been excavated and we walked among the layers of history there – from Roman through to Gothic and Medieval – such a brilliant way to experience history. My inner archaeologist was in bliss! And my feet were verging on being in blisters, we walked so far on my last day, all over the beautiful old city.

Now I am in Granada and the next chapter begins! Nearly missed my plane, arrived after check-in, but an angel heard me and the plane was delayed three hours – magical country, this .I don't know if it's from all the praying done here, but there are certainly angels.

The Late Late News

2011-06-05T05:51:00.004+09:30

It’s been a long, long time since I wrote here on this blog…eighteen months or more, even this post that I started in Bali three months ago is very late getting put up here. Fortunately Blogger, com waits patiently...

So many things have happened… a trip to Fiji for two months which deserves a whole book, but which will instead get barely a few words because it was so long ago now and so many other events have crowded it from my mind. Or maybe not – when I let my mind drift back there, the colours and sounds and above all, the people, are so vivid and real that I hardly need the photos that are hopefully safely ensconced on my external hard drive to bring them to you.

Everyone should go to Fiji – it has all the seductive elements of the south sea paradise we all long for! The sparkling seas that link over 300 islands, the smiling people and their lilting harmonies, the tropical fruits in abundance…But don’t go just after a cyclone like I did! Flattened coconut palms, absence of fresh fruit and veg, people suffering (but quietly, patiently, gently) the effects of having their gardens and livelihoods destroyed. It was major – I was so glad to be able to take some money collected from my generous friends and to be able to put it in the hands of people who really needed it. We met such amazingly lovely people! Brendan/Mook spent hours recording and editing the music of the little male bands who sing in exquisite harmonies, as well as one little nine-year-old angel who sang gospel and a church choir that brought tears to my eyes. All of these recordings we took to Suva where we spent 3 weeks trying to find a way to get them reliably and cheaply produced for sale. Despite some promising leads, nothing eventuated and we returned home to set up a “Fiji Aid” website to sell a compilation to raise funds for cyclone vicitims. That didn’t elicit much interest either, so now I am funding the church choir CD myself in an attempt to make something eventuate from the trip and to help the people of Kioa make some money for themselves.

Kioa! What a place, what a people! Kioa is a small island in Fiji bought by Polynesian people from Tuvalu after WW2, using US money they had earned during the war. Thinking ahead to the time when their small coral atolls could become overcrowded, a small contingent set off to populate a distant hilly islet in the midst of the Fijian cannibal culture. Unsurprisingly, they maintained their distance from the cannibals and kept their own culture strong and vibrant. We travelled by open boat to an idyllic scene, with handhewn canoes on the beach and stunningly beautiful Polynesian men and women dancing enthusiastically in their community hall, dressed and decorated in traditional style and thoroughly enjoying themselves. Magic! And such a gift to be there!

Though equally religious, despite the overwhelming presence of the Methodist church (bells to wake up at 5 and then again for evening prayers, church three times a week!) Kioa is far more egalitarian than the rest of Fiji. Men and women both serve on the local council and share decision-making – although the men, as ever, were the only musicians to play their local and traditional songs for us. We were there for Easter and were treated to an unreserved display of rant from the pulpit, interspersed with the most beautiful choir music I have ever heard. After the service, the choir assembled to do it all again for a recording.

I went back to Kioa by myself for a week and stayed with a new friend, Luisa and her family. Luisa took me to Savusavu to meet her mum Anna, a great lady who had been out at the height of the cyclone securing her boats - she is also the grand-daughter of a Samoan princess who came to Fiji with her English lover after her father chased him away from Samoa, bearing her first child on a small islet near Taveuni. Later, Brendan and I both went back to Savusavu to stay with Anna for a few days - she offered us space to build a house - what a dream that would be...

Well, that was a bit of the Fiji story! Photos yet to come…

New Beginnings...

2009-11-17T21:22:00.032+09:30

Well, it is hard for me to fully realise it, but uni is over. That little monkey that's been sitting on my shoulder saying 'you should be studying, you should be studying' for most of the last 21 months or so is starting to slip off her perch ...and I am beginning to realise what it is to be fully alive again! I have only had a few days so far, so it really hasn't sunk in...

At any rate, I do know now that there is time to write a long overdue post here. So here it is: a brief look at my life, love and other lessons over the past few months:

I have spent a lot of that time down at Byron with Mookie, riding bikes, walking on the beach, being domestic, loving and sharing our lives and thoughts - love at our age is precious and beautiful. However, despite all we have in common, we have had different life paths and now have different commitments to families and places so it seems we will continue to spend time apart - but who knows what will happen next? Life is an adventure, after all...

Mookie is a musician and I have loved to be around lots of music once again - learning new songs and even becoming the proud new owner of a tenor ukulele called Mahalia. She sings tender little tunes even under my inexpert hands and it is sweet to have an opportunity to learn a stringed instrument. Although my brain doesn't seem to hold information the way it used to, it's gotta be good to keep trying. Mookie is pretty encouraging of my efforts and now uni has finished I can become a bit more focussed on music. I also plan to anthologise his songs over the next few months, he is a great songwriter and has written hundreds of them. And I need a few little projects to keep me busy ... I don't know what is around the next corner and the habit of writing and organising has gotten pretty strong over the last year.

There is a remote chance that Mookie may get funding to continue the recording of traditional Fijian music that he began this year and if I could use my degree to research that also - that could be fantastic!

I bought Sunshine - a little yellow campervan - on impulse a few weeks ago, not sure if I will keep it but we may use it for a few months of getaway times. We took her to Woody Head folk gathering for her maiden voyage and she did well, despite rain and not very good music. Mook amused himself taking some great photos and we coped well. The van is in incredibly good condition and I should be able to resell it if I decide to but it uses a lot more fuel than my serendipitous little red wagon and it seems the cost of gas conversion has risen astronomically since the government rebate was introduced...

Meantime, back at the ranch there are the usual myriad tasks ...here is Ben making the new classy staircase to the loft. I have been fixing up the house with the intention of being able to share it with another person who can be here when I am away. The place is lovely and peaceful as ever and I have been lucky enough to have a friendly young couple, Ash and Nicola, with a gorgeous cheeky 2 year-old daughter as neighbours - they are renting the little house and the builders have almost finished adding on a bedroom for them. Tuntable has been blessed with an influx of young families, great people who really want to be here - there is a renaissance happening, it is so heartening to see little troupes of blonde toddlers playing in the creek and hanging around the Centre with their parents all sharing them. Just like the old days.

There have been lots of funerals - and Doug and Biko's wedding, which Lisa came up and stayed for, was wonderful. Their vows were especially touching - the celebrant asked if they might hurt each other - to which they answered that they may - and then affirmed that it would never be their intention to do so. It was great to see their big kids up there smiling and Zelly read a beautiful poem she had written, before we all feasted and partied in true Tuntable style.

The cafe continues - Mookie helped me with the cooking a couple of times which just made it so much easier and more enjoyable for me and he also played music, which is his forte wherever he goes. We have another one this Friday and I hope it will be a success and not too exhausting for me. Getting too old to do everything (maybe!).

The Bundjalung people held the first corroboree for over 70 years at the Nimbin showground recently - a beautiful peaceful event, hopefully the first of many. Some amazing dancing and excellent music from Chris and Marcelle and others - they just carried on carrying on for hours, it was brilliant.

And Tara's tutus in the Nimbin Fashion Show last weekend were brilliant too! What a girl!

Ok. I've made a start. If exciting things happen, I'll post more often now ...

Our new causeway across Pixie's Creek...

Tara in full fashion-warrior paint and Lindsay...

and some of the locals...

Travel Tales

2009-07-04T14:18:00.014+09:30

Ihave been back on the North Coast for a fortnight since my latest adventures, so better put up some photos before they are out of date...

The long dusty road to the 18th Laura Aboriginal Dance Festival led to the most blissful, peaceful, warm and creative festival I know. Not as glamorous as the Dreaming fest - but way, way more real and beautiful. It’s hard to pick the photos that will show it best, so just imagine a relaxed crowd of many colours sitting in the shade of tall trees around a circular danceground, where an endless procession of enthusiastic dancers from 2 to 90 years old radiate their love of family and culture. It’s just so good! Camping down along the river means you can take a swim or catch up with your old hippie mates anytime ….here's Bobbin, Bernie and Jingles...

And here's Kelli with some of her little blackrobats...

And then there’s Cairns. Camping at Kathleen’s was quite a different experience – a little white unit two streets back from the beach: we can see the sea in all its everchanging glory. Swimming every morning: 50m freestyle then 50m backstroke, then a gentle little lie in the sun and maybe a little yoga, a stroll along the beach or a bike ride – I could take up this lifestyle with ease! It's certainly not doing Kath any harm...

We had a day of playing mermaids, mermatrons and merhags - lots of fun and laughter.

We also went on a mission with Dee to Josephine Falls, south of Babinda. Well actually, we went on a mission to Majuba Ck – 5 barefoot through the rainforest to a clear mountain stream paradise, where they played river nymphs and frolicked and swam – while I lay on a rock and blissed out. The rainforest is so powerfully calming, there is nothing quite like it. We also laughed an inordinate amount, and walked quite a few more k’s and swam in a few more blessed mountain streams. And though my muscles were sore, my knee wasn’t - so I reckon after 15 months, it’s finally healed enough for me to bushwalk again. So I trekked up to the top of the Falls the other day with wwoofer Clare - and tinwhistled and shouted for joy - no pain!

While I was up north I took a long bus rise down to Ingham to visit Alice - and helped her put up this fence around her garden...

After I came home I also got to visit some friends from Papunya who were at the Sunshine Coast for a few weeks - a real treat to be with some desert folk again.

Some time at Byron rounded off my little holiday and acclimatised me to rain and cold...Veda's 60th birthday at Coorabell Hall with hula dancers and some great music

...and now I'm back at Tuntable to do some building…and uni has started. Back to the grind. But the peach tree is in bloom and people are friendly, though most of them didn't seem to notice my absence...thank goodness for my family people, they keep track of me.

Today I walked up to Jesse's site and took some photos which cannot do justice to the stunning sense of peace and space up there - such a big open sky feeling after the narrowness of the valley. And I saw a pretty little golden whistler and a host of other birds partying busily on this sunshiny day. And my knee still didn't hurt!

Flood Story in Pictures

2009-05-24T18:43:00.014+09:30

Ah well - at least we are on the paradise side of the chasm...meeting today to work out a few issues of supply and transport for the 200 folk here ...People have been out talking and walking for the last three days - obviously just what we needed to revitalise the old place! Unfortunately, I was too busy wringing out 20 buckets worth of sopping towels from the seepage through my back wall when the flood was at its peak - so there's no photos of the truly amazing flood then! (well, actually it was pitch dark then anyway - and you can imagine how Murray and Joel felt when they drove up in the dark to the huge chasm that was once a bridge on the only road in :o)You will also just have to imagine the soundtrack of a raging torrent that felt like it was shaking my house, while the rain belted down on the roof and the drains roared all around me - and me out the back with my headtorch, wellies and raincoat wielding all sorts of implements to clear the drain and give all those myriad springs that just spring up somewhere to go...I evacuated to Tara's last night and managed to get 2,000 words of my assignment done - YAHOO! Solar power very low and the rain has just kept falling, though much gentler now. The beauty of a big flood is that the sun always seems to come out the day after and it is just such a lovely sparkling day that you see in these pics - lets hope we get a few more ...sunny days, I mean - not floods!

There is a movement happening to save our chasm, it has been a boon for community spirit - here's Bill, Terry, Dave and Ben working together to extract the tree, complete with roots, that was stuck under the centre bridge. But it looks like we will not have the chasm for much longer, the council are working hard too...and a concrete culvert should last better than the gal one...

WEDNESDAY May 27th: Mick managed to get out to catch his plane to Melbourne - by 4WD via the south end ford, so the creek has gone down a lot. But its been amazing to see so many people out and about, the chasm is a regular hub of activity as people commute and chat and look at the hole and what's happening to it! The shop is open every day and people are gathering and talking and walking all over the place. We need a few little warungs set up for tea and cakes...and a review of our present transport dependencies.

A hired minibus is taking workers to Lismore and to Nimbin, although lots of people are relying on the use of friends' cars each side of the chasm.
And the SES made a landing in the little paddock opposite the centre bus stop (twice!) and brought us some great fresh vegies, groceries and even soymilk and tofu! Not really necessary, but much appreciated - we have raised some good donations for them, and it raised the energy too.

Sadly, the fun may be over soon although lets hope the good feelings last a while - and spark up some discussion about how better to live and travel here.

LAST POST FOR THE CHASM Friday May 29th: Well, that's it folks - the chasm is no more, the bridge is rebuilt and open today (friday afternoon) and we are all back to a different sort of isolation now everyone can escape the valley at will - it's a bit sad really, for some of us....it was certainly fun while it lasted...

A New Year, Another Blog...

2009-02-15T17:52:00.008+09:30

It must be a time for a blog…

We do live in paradise here, despite global warming, and it feels so far from those people suffering in the fires down south.It’s been hot but not too hot, except for one stinker of a day. Rain cools us down any time the mercury begins to climb too high and while the humidity has been over 90% for weeks, it’s a small price to pay. Steve and Sunny and Damon and Leila came up from Sydney for a few short busy days over the hottest time…
Here is the pied piper and kids at New Year – another great folk music camp down at Woody Head, where else do we still sing Auld Lang Syne holding hands and welcoming the new year? I love it – and snorkelling, swimming and beachwalks as well as music, music, music make it pretty close to heaven. I am all packed and ready for the next one at the end of this month.
We are starting up regular sessions and a café at the Tuntable shop, great times had by all – though cooking and serving 20-30 people left me too tired to play much music.
There has been a rash of big birthdays - starting with Tuntable's 35th in December - here's Katie and the kids with all the candles ...My beautiful youngest niece, Eva, turned 18 in great style – here she is with her mum. One day Eva may look older than Deb!

And Brian Childs, my boyfriend from all those long years ago when I was 16 - 19, turned 60 in even greater style last weekend. (This means we have known each other for 40 years!) He had a combined celebration at Bellingen with his youngest daughter, Ali and her older daughter Mwanampemba – and it rocked! It was so good to see some folk I haven’t connected with for years – particularly Kev, who now has a 2 yr-old daughter and partner and works with Indigenous Community Volunteers in their Qld office – and Silvia, who has not changed at all. Jenni, the same - is doing some groundbreaking work on programs to address racism in schools. Here's Brian, still at the kitchen sink, and Ali...

The wildlife here is so absolutely photogenic - here is a huntsman spider protecting her eggs and a leaf-tailed gecko, my favourite.

My little currawong has grown to be very big and annoying, have been trying to teach it that old avian rock’n’roll hit “Big Birds Don’t Squawk” with varying degrees of success. (The broom sits by the door for when it gets too persistent).

Of course, the garden is rampant in this weather. I turned my back on it to focus on a few renovation tasks and now there are monster weeds threatening me whenever I glance outside…the driveway is awash with huge grass, getting vegies requires excavation skills – well, it’s not quite that bad, but you get the picture. So I’ve been hiding inside so the grass doesn’t get me …painting the kitchen whiter than white with a touch of mediterranean blue and gold...Uni starts in ten days and I'll be studying to become a Master of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development from ANU - this is such an amazing opportunity, I am so grateful to be able to do it and am looking forward to it so much that I am actually quite well-prepared for once!

Wet Days and Wwoofer Whinges...But Life is still Wonderful...

2008-11-28T09:10:00.007+09:30

It's been such a long time since my last blog ...life has felt rather mundane, didn't know if anyone else would want to know about it…an endless series of wet days with millions of leeches and too many wwoofers has been the most recent saga.

Taking in strangers can be a perilous business at times, it’s easy to feel invaded and abused. I have decided to set a few rules about who I take in as wwoofers, having had some very bad experiences recently with some spoilt brats from America and a trouble-making young woman from England – wwoofers ganging up on me in my own home is the last thing I want or need! They can always leave, I don’t have that option. Now I have finally managed to clean up, get the chewing gum off the sheets and had a bit of space to myself, I realise where I went wrong. I should have realised that a teenage couple was likely to bicker constantly…and help themselves to whatever was in the cupboard …(but how could I know that they’d be too scared to venture off the verandah except to visit my neighbour and I’d have them totally in my space all the time?) So there I was, feeling like I had committed myself to looking after someone else’s kids for a month and trying to get them to work to pay for their bed and board. While they were charming and interesting young people, happy to talk for hours on end, they were not suited to working as wwoofers. Everything had to be done over at least twice, although the boy did try to do good work. They ended up appearing to expect me to follow the example of their family and friends in financing their travels by allowing them to stay for free. Because they hadn’t bothered to confirm their arrival, I’d taken on other woofers …so then I was running around trying to supervise three or four jobs at once – nearly went crackers! Next time I just say NO to anyone under 21, no matter how cute they look - and only allow people to stay for a few days until I know how its likely to work out! It’s just too exhausting – and after all that, they left with no notice, snuck off on a whim when the sun finally came out, leaving a very bad feeling (and a kitchen without a sink – yet another unfinished job …and now the bush turkey is having fun breaking my crockery out there in the bathroom where I have to wash the dishes now.) I have to ask myself how I allowed this to happen …and how to avoid a repetition…

Fortunately not all wwoofers leave me feeling so bad, I have had hundreds over the years and most manage to enjoy their stay in this beautiful valley, and to leave pleasant memories and a few less weeds – some have done some amazing work here. Stevie, who stayed with her daughter Tiff while the young Americans were here, has done the most beautiful tiled wall in the bathroom – it is absolutely delightful and I think of her with gratitude every time I see it. And there are countless other people who have stayed and whose memories warm my heart.

As well as looking after teenage humans I have had a teenage bird to care for – a baby currawong whose nest fell down along with the branch it was on. Having done the Wildlife Rescue course recently means I am now allowed to care for wild critters, although I only want to take on birds, because they at least sleep at night. Hannah had an orphan currawong years ago called Wong. He never flew - his feathers never grew properly because we didn’t know they need extra calcium, so this one is Wing – and s/he can fly! It’s been a learning curve and so far Wing has grown well, which makes me proud. S/he spend daytimes up in the trees now, coming back for feeds and then locked up in the cage overnight to stay warm, dry and out of reach of the carpet snake who lives in the roof. The aviary Margaret and I picked up blew down the hill in the last big storm so now I have to figure out how to get it back in place…it weighs a ton… and Ewen, my neighbour, has been a bit grumpy lately so I don’t know if I should ask for his help…maybe I’ll wait till he comes over with his washing…

Tara had some truly professional pieces in the latest Nimbin Fashion Show – I was so proud and smiling so much that I neglected to press the start button on the video camera – but here’s a photo…She is doing so well in everything these days…

There’s been a few big storms lately, quite exciting to watch - but I am glad that Xav is coming to cut down some trees. There has been another death in the family as Brian, Xav’s dad, passed away last week after a long struggle with cancer. I am glad that I am here for Xav at this time and have decided to stay on next year – this means I can spend more time with Murayah and Aidan who are getting to a good age for me to granny - and they are so lovely. I will also keep fixing this place up and do the Masters of Applied Anthropology and Participatory Development by correspondence from ANU – it is probably the only opportunity I will get to do a masters degree and they will give me some credit for the units I have done for the native title stuff I have been studying this year. I hope to be involved in some local native title projects too.

I have decided to resign from the Board, too much petty provincial personality politics, and instead put my energy into organising Bush Dances and café sessions here to bring people together – we had a brilliant café last Friday night after the young woofers left, lots of people turned up, the night was balmy and a small group of musos had a great time playing irish tunes. Stephanie, George, Sophia and Nicolette worked hard cooking and serving and I did a bit of cooking too and the PR – I enjoyed it thoroughly and so did everyone else - it was a great success and we’ll do it again every month.

There was also a huge fundraising gig for Ted Cox, who is about to go off for a bone marrow transplant for leukemia,. At the Hall last weekend hundreds of people raised $14,000 having a lot of fun – an amazing, inspiring effort. Last night was the Nimbin Women's Dinner where I played ukulele and did some incredibly silly things on stage whilst dressed up in dozens of breasts ... but there's no photos yet...it was a lot of fun though...

Our Lisa is now in Tasmania - and we miss her! Still, it's another place to visit when I can afford to ...

Launching into Winter

2008-07-09T19:04:00.009+09:30

I went to Sydney for a week, had a great time, saw lots of people and did lots of knitting and reading on the train ...Lenore and I walked round the Glebe foreshore to see Chez Ritz restored to its original glory...when we lived there in 1972 we paid $5 a week for this glorious mansion, without electricity but with wild graffiti and equally wild company. Blackwattle Bay was a great place to live, I learnt to play the flute on the rocks there while the massive old cargo ships glided by...the photo of me at 19 in the previous post was taken in the loungeroom at Chez Ritz - now known as Bellevue. We named it for the home of Ratso Rizzo in Midnight Cowboy (thanks to David George, our rr look-alike...)

Lenore's book launch was a massive success, Marie Bashir opened it and it all went off perfectly in the old Mosman methodist church which is now a community centre and gallery. Here are Lenore and her brother Leo with the governor and me and Nor and Angie Michaelis whom I haven't seen for years. We had fun reminiscing about the wacky tricks we used to get up to as 13 year-olds - I almost wanted to squeeze her back into being the funky little kid she once was ...we are all so staid now...

Now I am glad to be back home where the sun does indeed shine brighter and warmer and I have my wonderful gourmet woodstove loaded up with bloodwood to get me throught the chilly times. Sydney people don't seem to understand the need for heating.

My new career as Treasurer of the Co-op has just begun. Not that it is much of a position - last time I had anything to do with the treasury it was a massive job - now I share it with someone else who makes all the payments out and I just have to chase up money owing and bank it when it comes in - AND there's a book-keeper. Piece of cake really. So I will have the time and energy perhaps to get some more exciting projects happening. Tuntable shop has almost faded away which means we have lost our community hub ... However, Tribal Meetings are well-attended and the beautiful school had a fantastic winter solstice event and ritual which was so affirming and heartwarming - it is wonderful to know that the school continues so strong and creative after almost 30 years. Here are the little kids class, Ember on recorder.

...and our gorgeous Tara ...

Harvest Home

2008-06-22T09:04:00.009+09:30

It's been a while since I last put up a blog, and I've been feeling stuck and sorry for myself for much of that time. Now my spirits are beginning to rise again and the self-pity is on the wane. As usual, some amazing things have happened ... an old friend and lover from 35 years ago contacted me and that has been quite an email journey backwards and forwards in time reconnecting with our past and present selves... here we are - as we were ...

It is harvest time here, the valley is overflowing with produce - citrus of all kinds, avocadoes, macadamias and pecan nuts, kiwi fruit, bananas - and the vege garden is pumping. It's a job to keep up with it and I have been brewing up chutneys and pickles and marmalades for barter and gifts.

This is Margaret - she is moving into the little house as I write and I am looking forward to her company and energy, she is smart and fun and eccentric enough to enjoy Tuntable (and she is very practical and even has her own brushcutter and ute ...need I say more...)

The winter is finally coming in - weeks of rain seem to have cleared for the moment and the day is crisp and sunny. Here is Melanie, mother of my nieces Nell and Bridie, giving the talk on birdcare at the Wildlife Rescue WIRES course I did last weekend. I look forward to becoming a birdwoman myslef but need to build an aviary first and am working on a chookpen as well.

My knee is a lot better so I can walk when I need to free myself from old ghosts and that is great. Winiata came to stay for a few days and we shared ghost stories and felt much better too! Poverty is forcing me out of the house to do a few massages and that always makes me feel better - and the writing , drawing and ukulele lessons at the comskool every Wednesday have been my spiritual mainstay - I love it. Here is a self-portrait I did last week, I really enjoyed this - it was an illuminating exercise in self-acceptance. It is also a record of my long hair - just had a haircut and now its short, gray and curly. I am off to Sydney this week for Lenore's book launch and given that the governor of NSW Marie Bashir will be there, i thought it time to give the fuzzy-haired old hippie look a miss. Tara says I should wait until it goes white to grow it long again...may not be long.

Our Diana played at the Nimbin pub on Friday night, the beauty of that incredible voice was a bit lost on some of the more inebriated punters (what musicians have to do to make a living, it's bad) but it was great to see her and I even really like some of her new songs!

Next week I will be in Sydney catching up with old friends and attending the book launch. Lenore's grandmother was a poet and this is her autobiography. She was a beautiful soul who lived most of her life flat on her back, having been paralysed by rheumatic fever as a young woman. She wrote under the name of Rickety Kate and was a part of the Sydney literary scene. To us she was Lenore's granny that we used to visit after school, a gentle kind and intelligent woman with the whitest skin I have ever seen. We would play our piano pieces over the phone for her to hear, and pick the mulberries from the huge tree in the backyard that she probably had not seen for many many years. She lived in the one room but her mind travelled far. It's wonderful that Lenore's years of research and hard work are finally bearing fruit and I will be glad to be there.

Some Wonders of my Little World

2008-05-13T20:30:00.009+09:30

Please click on the title above and read the story from the Australian - these are people that I know and stayed with - and I tried so hard to get them a phone out there. There is still so much to be done. Lobby Telstra, lobby the govt.

HERE IN PARADISE = THESE ARE THE LATEST PHOTOS OF JESS'S GREAT WORK: THE DANCE STUDIO NOW HAS A ROOF!

AND HERE IS ONE OF THE OTHER GREAT WONDERS OF TUNTABLE - MAX'S CAVE - DUG BY HAND FROM THE RHYOLITE CLIFF TO MAKE A MAGICAL SACRED SPACE...

THIS LITTLE LEAF-TAIL GECKO, ONE OF THE WONDERS OF MY WORLD

THE NIMBIN MARDI GRASS PARADE ... AND THE AQUARIAN ANNIVERSARY - ITS A WONDER, BUT OLD HIPPIES NEVER CHANGE ...

AND MY LITTLE HOUSE ...AND MY BIG KIDS (AND NIECE)!

Travelling at Home ...Can be Dangerous...

2008-03-16T13:31:00.005+09:30

I went bushwalking up in the hills behind Mullumbimby last Sunday and happily danced up the creek rocks - until! I put my weight on a log which rolled, and the effort of keeping myself from falling in the crevass below wrenched my knee rather painfully. Not enough to keep me from walking then.... ..it was a great bushwalk - climbing up a rainforest creek bed to the most magical cave by a waterfall - some hippies had been up there looking for crystals in the side creeks down below and they have left these big quartz crystals in all the niches and ledges in the cave - just for an extra bit of magic. The waterfall is quite high, just out in the bush on the other side of the mountains here - there must be many more the same as I remember years ago stumbling across one quite by accident ... Anyway it was a lovely day and my knee coped until we got back to the road when it promptly swelled up and refused to work any more . I drove back to Nimbin in excruciating agony and called Hannah and Tara who were just lovely and took me to the hospital where one of the lovely male nurses gave me some wonderful painkillers and some crutches! Even had visitors - Heidi and Aunty Agnes who is parked there in the old people's wing and not very happy about it. And now I am back home in bed and doing my readings for my course in applied anthropology and native title - it's a great opportunity to begin study again. But it has kept me in the slow lane for a while. Been starting to hop around again today, we have a great wwoofa, Kory, who has been doing lots of gardening work.

(thanks to Rog for rainforest photos)

Before the bushwalking I did a 5-day retreat at Bodhi Tree Forest monastery which has been at Tullera for three years now - they do regular retreats and it was very healing and good discipline to encourage me to become more mindful (and meditate more often. Their website is http://www.buddhanet.com.au and it is very worth checking out.

It's been great to be at home and to have Hannah here, always lots of fun and she has been looking after me really well all week. This house does well to have a few people in it, it's been great to have an excellent hotwater system after all these years and its pretty comfortable now. Sunny and Daimon enjoyed it too and it was lovely to spend time with them here.

Peace on the old SouthWestern Front

2008-02-19T07:46:00.010+09:30

Here are some pics of our trip to Strahan where we camped at Ocean Beach (see all the happy campers poring over the archives of their glory days) before heading off on a free cruise down the Gordon River. There was a dozen old blockaders quite ecstatic to be there again and me quite ecstatic to be there for the first time.

Strahan is so beautiful - peaceful old town now depending on the tourist flow for their jobs and the tourists are flowing in.

The Ocean Beach is so wild and beautiful, beyond Hell's Gates is the wild Southern Ocean and while we were blessed with sunshine and mild winds I can imagine how forbidding and cruel the sea could be to those sent here against their will. The isolation and hopelessness of the convicts was embedded in the ruins of Sarah Island which we visited on the cruise - a tiny island in Macquarie Harbour where all the trees were chopped down to make room for 500 people to suffer such extreme cruelty that many preferred the almost certain death of trying to escape. Made to suffer for their poverty, petty thieves and soldiers alike endured and died here. The swans of the harbour (source fo eggs for the local people) also suffered and died as victims fo the soldiers need for even more sport than tormenting convicts. This is our history past and present - the frontier is a cruel place and there was lots that reminded me of Papunya, including the fact that the adminisitrators rarely stayed more than a year or two. I found it a very sombre and depressing place even tho it is now treed and touristed and I found and ate heaps of delicious native red currants.

There are magnificent mountains rising to the sky, salmon farms and lighthouses...

And then the huge still peace of the river as we slowed down to an effortless glide in this mammoth cruise boat built to the specifications of the owners so that it makes no wash. The Morrisons have made their living from the river for generations, love it and wanted to see it preserved so much that they went against their fellow Strahanites in 1983 - and of course now their business has boomed and they wanted to honour the greenies who helped them. As Alice said, they thought we were helping them and we thought they were helping us .

So here is the free Gordon River and the World Heritage Wilderness. We met Sebastien up there with his teensy rubber ducky that he'd just been rafting down the river for fifteen days...

I am now at Bridport staying with my bro Tim and his partner Gaby in a pise house. There is a magnificent view out over the bay and on a clear day you can see Flinders Island. Life is very laidback, they have an excellent vege garden but don't seem to do too much else - Gaby is an artist and Tim is studying and works part of the year but right now it feels like I've joined in on an endless holiday. We're going off camping at Waterhouse today.

I am also on the edge of Kenn-country here. I am visiting some of Kenn’s family, feels strange after so long but good to make contact. I went to Scottsdale yesterday which brought back lots of memories. Took photos of the honour board at the North Eastern Soldiers Memorial Hospital – and remembered how when I came here all those 22 long years ago I suddenly began to understand why Kenn felt so compelled to join the army. There seems to be a new tradition of carving soldiers out of heritage trees that have to be cut down but prior to that there were, and still are, memorials to war everywhere.

Tasmania has progressed in lots of ways since I was last here - and it still has the charm and beauty I remember. It's also much better to be here at this time of year, raiding apple and plum trees and gathering blackberries in the summer sun... here's Penguin meals-on-wheels...

Here's Alice and her daughter Rinchen, bundled up like Babushkas - and there really is a little one inside Rinchen (as there was for me last time I was here!)
I'll be home next Sunday, and so will Hannah - yippeeeeeeeee!!!!!

Tassie Tourist

2008-02-05T19:01:00.000+09:30

Well it is indeed good to be here in Tassie.. the forest festival was fun fine and festive, you can imagine me camped out in a paddock with a bunch of six women enjoying the gentle breeze from the mountains...

went walking up the tiers the second day

and caving near Mole Creek (honeycomb cave) the first day

(These are the waterproof 4WD foot tractors that got me there without a blister...my best ever $5 bargain from the casino st opshop...)

...and relaxed and listened to the music and ate good food the third day.

Here is the brilliant pizza oven that worked night and day to feed the masses bread, pizza and apple crumble, even baked rainbow trout - we are definitely going to build one at Tuntable...
It's kind of chilly but I am acclimatising....and now I am camped in luxury at Lisa's friend Niecy's Tigerhill Cafe near Golden Valley, awaiting the fixing of Lisa's car and waiting for the washing to dry. Then we plan to get to Strahan for a reunion of the old forest-saving no-dams crew, perhaps even go down the river and perhaps even camp...
here are some of the exquisite and minute alpine life-forms we discovered up there close to heaven...
I saw the aurora the other night - all my life I have wanted to and somehow it flashed for a minute or so above the mountians when I went out for my late night pee - big balls of white light travelling backwards and forwards on the southern horizon, very beautiful and awesome.

We are heading off to Strahan for Friday - and hoping that Lisa's lemon car will be fixed by then. It's pissing down rain and everyone is very happy about it here. More news next week... till then, enjoy!

Folk Fests and Floods

2008-01-21T05:48:00.000+09:30

Looks like I am only updating my blog once a month now. And a lot can happen in a month. I've survived Xmas,

travelled to the Sunshine Coast for a New Year reunion with some of the Papunya mob,

went to Underwater World with them (too wet to do anything outside!)

spent a night with Jan and Charlie and met their new grandson, Thomas, and caught up with Sally who is a beautiful young mother now

travelled back down to a mini folk fest at Woody Head,

evacuated from there due to cyclonic rain and had to go round the Monaltrie way because the Wyrallah Road was flooded near the tip,

woke Nichol up in time to move his car away from the rising floodwaters in Wotherspoon St,

and was surprised to see Winiata, up from Canberra again, wading through the floodwaters.

A few cars were drowned but otherwise it was not a major event in Lismore - more like some excitement for the locals out with a camera and a reason for a family boating trip

I am presently engaged in some fast and furious house (and road) renovations with some very willing wwoofers - next post will be about my forthcoming trip to Tasmania (10 more sleeps!)

Rainforest Reunion

2007-10-25T14:58:00.001+09:30

I am now in Lismore studying for the phenomenally boring Cert IV in Workplace Training and Assessment - but most of the last week was spent camping out on Mt Nardi with old campaigners for the rainforest (and a few young), celebrating the victory for rainforest we won 25 years ago.

Lots of photos, from the old Benny 25 years ago, to Winiata who never seems to age...

Jingles as the coffee wallah...

The grannies telling stories of the old days to the kids from Tuntable school (just like the creekbed at Town Bore, only greener)

.

Gummy, Doug and PJ...

people reminiscing and making plans round the fire ...

me and Luna up in the magnificent strangler fig...

Endings and Beginnings

2007-10-25T14:49:00.000+09:30

Here is a photo of the graduation day at Papunya, when four of the Aged Care workers received their hard-won Certificate II in Community Dervices.

It was also my last day and I had to work hard not to cry, people were being so lovely. I am already missing them, despite being glad to see my family and friends back here in Nimbin and Lismore.

"Prayer for Deliverance from Extinguishment"

2007-10-10T07:40:00.000+09:30

"Prayer for Deliverance from Extinguishment"

Our Colonial Overlords… Whom art in Government
Shallow be thy name…
Thy kingdoms done
Thy will shall not be done on earth…
As it is not done… in heaven
What you give us this day is our daily Dread
You treat us like trespassers…
But it is you who trespass against us
Lead us not into extinguishment…
But deliver us from this evil…
For thine is the Government…
The Power Without Glory…
Though never forever... … Amen.

© Alec Donald Wilson 2000
Free to circulate for non-profit, please do, Alec
Image: "Yarrabah community's Anglican members perform at Heathmont…"
Pic by? Source: web

Freefall

2007-10-06T19:19:00.000+09:30

This is what I did last weekend - abseiling at Emily Gap. Fred provided all the gear and some excellent training and I slid down the rockface with the greatest of ease. A long way from the days when heights made me sick with anxiety. In fact, it was a bit too tame for me, not a drop of adrenalin. The company was excellent, and only one person over 5'4" - all vietnamese, filipino and other short people! Fred's son Elliott was a real rocker, scrambling up and sliding down like a pro (and he was the shortest of us all).

This weekend I am recovering from a big week, another big week - training up my replacement, Kate and giving away stuff and packing away stuff and cleaning up stuff - stuff it, I've had it. Been digging the plants out of the garden to go to good homes where they might survive better.

There have been massive willy-willys charging through town regularly, competing with the dust sent up by the bulldozer that's clearing a house site next door to me. Some day I hope to catch a photo of the rubbish spiralling upwards in a kupi-kupi (pitjantjatjara for willy-willy) or walpa (luritja for wind). The dogs all go crazy barking and jumping up at it! It has been very hot but the sky has had rainclouds and a luminous promise for several days. Some rain passed through today. The glorious smell sent me running outside but it was only a few drops - the first for six months. Not enough to make the minkulpa grow, but everyone will be hopeful. Drugs rule the world - though the women were shocked and disbelieving when I said that minkulpa (native tobacco) is a drug. This is bush tomatoes here in the photo...

I am sad to be leaving - everyone knows me now and the kids all shout and wave to me. These days there are kids dunking themselves in makeshift swimming pools all over town. This morning we passed someone sitting on a chair in a half-tank half-full of water under the blazing sun, just keeping their feet cool. Further down the road there's a bunch of people playing cards (gotta get money somehow) under a tree. I feel at home here in so many ways. And there is so much work to be done. I just have to come back some day. I am planning to spend over $2000 to study and get the Cert IV in workplace training and assessment when I get back - it will be very useful out here. First, though, I have to go to the Nightcap action group reunion - 25 years since we had all that fun saving the forest! I have also booked a ticket to Tassie for a week in mid-feb to see my bro Tim and some of the Austin family and go to the Forest Festival at Jackey's Marsh - and remember bushwalking up there on the Tiers and camping overnight (and freezing!) in an idyllic (and freezing!) north-facing cave all those years ago. Then the Franklin was saved and now Gunn's are about to pulp the forests. It goes on and on and the price of freedom stays the same - or is it getting higher? ... perhaps the best thing about the intervention is the politicising of the people that it will encourage. Women for Wik seem about the most spot-on for the news and views for walypalas, I recommend their website (link at left).

Karen and Katie who work with me are coming over to Brisbane at xmas to see Katie's daughter so I will see them then. I hope they don't get too homesick. At least Brisbane will be sweltering hot for them.

Dreaming

2007-09-26T20:52:00.000+09:30

It’s now less than three weeks till I leave and I am surrounded by a chaos of clutter which is all the bits I have accumulated here …sorting through it all. Lots of fun! But maybe not as much as having as little as these old folk do - this tree holds the belongings of three people.

I have had an exhausting but rewarding week. I took the ulkuman (old ladies) camping (intarrki) for four days and nights. The first few we spent at Town Bore outstation, where Ada wants to set up a women’s area – the Town Bore girls and some young girls from Papunya came along for an afternoon to learn the dances which are their heritage. It was a reluctant start for all of them but when they got into it, they really got into it and it was heartening for all of us. Later we recorded some of the songs as we sat by the fire in the creekbed which was our bed too. Magic under a waxing moon. Then we set off for Karrinyarra, another outstation about 65 k north on a road that traverses endless small sandhills (takes a long time to get there!). Karrinyarra people were really friendly and generous, unusual out here – but they are well-situated, with plenty of un-buffel-grassed land around and almost no feral animals. They had beautiful healthy fruit trees growing (I ate some mulberries – heaven!) and didn’t even need to fence them. Even the dogs were healthy and well-behaved and didn’t eat the pet baby kangaroo. The outstation is powered by an impressive array of solar panels set up by Bushlight, where Steve works. They have won awards for their user-friendly and practical systems for remote communities.

Karrinyarra is Bush Onion Dreaming and Emily Napaltjarri there painted and gave me a big picture which I will bring back to hang in Tuntable Hall. At night they sang the songs for that yalka (bush onion) and while the wind stuffed up the recording it was more magic and when I closed my eyes I could hear the pattern of the dreaming painting. I am making CD’s so the young girls can practise the dancing even when the old ladies are not present. We went hunting for the branches to make clapsticks (turrurru)...

Have just returned from a yininti bean hunt and picnic (wilinyi) under the rising full moon – we are making the most of the troopy before I have to take it back on Friday. Lots of kangaroo tails get eaten at these picnics, they are a popular item. It’s been blowing a gale here yesterday, several times my house has been in the path of a willy-willy, or kupi-kupi and I’ve wondered how Dorothy felt …but besser blocks stand firm. These winds could easily blow a tin humpy to the land of Oz. But tonight there is blessed stillness and coolness.

War and Peace

2007-09-20T07:33:00.001+09:30

http://www.clc.org.au/media/publications/fact_sheets/factsheets.asp

This link to the Central Land Council site will show you the broadsheets that are now on display in the Council office here. Please read it. There was a big meeting here yesterday called by the CLC so now everyone knows the reality that is about to get much worse. The most positive thing about the intervention is the degree of politicising and unity that is beginning. There is now a National Aboriginal Association which will go some way to filling the gap caused by the abolition of ATSIC.

We went for another picnic yesterday evening, have been every day since Tuesday and plan to camp tonight. It's lovely, we take food as well as digging sticks and if we don't find any maku (witchetty grubs) or rumiya (goanna), we fill our bellies and sit by the fire and come home pleasantly tired and relaxed at sunset. Natasha who is staying with me wanted to go to her mum's outstation afterwards so we piled a few young people into the troopy and found her family sitting outside and her dad with a guitar in the balmy warm night. We talked for a while about how truly awful these new laws are. I slept badly all night because I feel so bad to be leaving and so powerless to do anything much while I am away - not that I would do much here except keep the women centre going. I just have to hope that the woman who will take my place is competent and humane. And that I can do some activist work from a distance and keep in touch with people here - and return some day.

On Sunday I went mountain-climbing in a frivolous display of insanity - it was 35 degrees, hot even for out here at this time of year. But the company was great, people who work with CSIRO at Desert Knowledge. We talked about the prospects of working to create a camel-meat mustering business out here to harvest some income from all the feral animals (like this beautiful stallion protecting a herd of hundreds). It was heartening to be reminded that there are still good people working to make good things happen. And while there is nothing in the new laws about job creation, the work for the dole schemes may help to inspire and train people to get to work. Linda was talking last night about how when she was young there were huge gardens and orchards at Papunya - and they weren't run by the govt.

I leave you with this image of a daisy growing on the mountain despite no rain for months.

2007-09-14T21:08:00.001+09:30

Call the Federal Government's 'Northern Territory National Emergency Hotline' on 1800 333 995 to express your objections to the Federal action in the NT. You can leave your views with or without providing personal information.

Worldwide Women's Protest Against Federal Action In The Northern Territory

An international women's day of action is planned for Friday, October 19 to protest against the Australian Government's action in Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory.

Women for Wik, a grassroots organisation of Indigenous and non-Indigenous women, has attracted more than 1500 signatures on its website and at least one international sister group since going public on this issue two weeks ago.

A group of women from Australia, Scotland and France, organised a protest at the Australian Consulate in Edinburgh on September 13.

Organiser Kate Worland, said, 'It is vital to raise awareness all over the world about what is going on right now in Australia. We need to stop the implementation of this draconian legislation any way we can.'

Women for Wik, originally formed in 1997 to combat the Howard Government's attempts to extinguish native title, is calling on Australian women around the world will organise similar events on October 19. Action kits are available through the Women for Wik website, www.womenforwik.org.

UN Declaration of Rights for Indigenous Peoples Passed!

Cultural Survival, New York | September 13, 2007

At long last, the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is a reality. It was adopted today by the United Nations General Assembly by a vote of 143 to 4 with 11 abstentions.

The declaration spells out the fundamental rights of indigenous peoples including their right to their traditional lands and resources; their right to give their free, prior, and informed consent before governments take actions that negatively affect them; their right to be free from genocide and forced relocation; and their rights to their languages, cultures and spiritual beliefs. At long last the world's native peoples have a valuable tool for regaining some of the cultural and physical ground they have lost over the past 500 years.

"Today, by adopting the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples we are making further progress to improve the situation of indigenous peoples around the world," stated General Assembly President Haya Al Khalifa. "We are also taking another major step forward towards the promotion and protection of human rights and fundamental freedoms for all."

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon warmly welcomed the adoption, calling it "a triumph for indigenous peoples around the world." He further noted that "this marks a historic moment when UN Member States and indigenous peoples reconciled with their painful histories and resolved to move forward together on the path of human rights, justice and development for all."

Today's happy moment did not come easily. The declaration underwent a longer period of debate and negotiation--25 years all told--than any other international agreement in United Nations history. During those years, hundreds of thousands of indigenous peoples were routed from their homes, massacred in their villages, had their sacred sites defiled, and their lands and resources appropriated. Even with the declaration now adopted, many of these problems will continue unless nations live up to the principals in the document.

Unfortunately, the United States stands to be one of these problem states. It was one of the four countries (along with Canada, New Zealand, and Australia) that voted against the declaration. Its vote sends a message to Native Americans and to the world that once again the United States is not prepared to take action to support human rights, even when those rights benefit American citizens.

The four "no" votes did not dampen the enthusiasm of Indigenous Peoples for today's outcome. As Indigenous Peoples Caucus president and Cultural Survival Program Council member Les Malezer stated in his statement following the vote, "The Declaration gives [Indigenous Peoples] the platform for addressing the continuing abuses of human rights against Indigenous Peoples and for shaping a future where it can be realized that all peoples are truly equal."

About Cultural Survival

Founded in 1972, Cultural Survival promotes the rights, voices, and visions of indigenous peoples worldwide. We work to increase global understanding of indigenous peoples' rights, cultures, and concerns and we partner with indigenous groups to advocate for their rights.

See: Cultural Survival

Words and Sounds

2007-09-13T23:02:00.000+09:30

There's no pictures for this post. It's about sounds. I just want to let you know that the state of emergency has been recognised here for ages - the school bell is an alarm siren that goes off at several prescribed times every school day and can be heard all over Papunya.

Also, talking to Hannah made me aware that not everyone knows that English is a foreign language out here and many people hardly speak it at all. Although most people do, it is with a very strong accent and I am constantly embarrassing myself by asking people to repeat what they say. Lots of the old people speak only a very basic sort of pidgin English. Of course, my command of Luritja is far more elementary and a source of great amusement to everyone. I now usually understand what people are talking about but none of the details and I rarely try to convey anything complex in Luritja as I usually get the same blank look I give people when I don't understand their English...

Hand signs are very much in use here and I have learnt quite a few of them - excellent for communicating from a distance and for generally speeding up communication. Perhaps we could give the government a clear hand signal ...

Dongas and Diversions

2007-09-13T07:10:00.000+09:30

This is a picture of Emily Gap, my first sacred place out here in 1983 when we came there to swim in the deep cool gorge after the rigours of protesting in the hot sun at Pine Gap. I swam across and immediately fell asleep on the sandbank. There were kids of all colours jumping in from high on the cliffs and those fellas, like Ian Cohen, who just had to follow the women out to the protest were camped there. Now it is a dry sandy gorge and has been for many years, like many places out here. I have camped there illegally a few times since to find peace and quiet, but two weeks ago went there to climb the cliff and walk along the ridge with the bushwalkers. From high up there we could see the toxic Pine Gap puffballs in the distance. It is heavily involved in the war on Iraq so I hope everyone is signing the latest petition to get the French to mediate an end to the war there.

The war here continues and this is the accommodation for the invading Centrelink and workforthedole crews - a classic NT donga, providing a tin hothouse with no ventilation but lots of noisy and diesel-guzzling airconditioners. It makes me appreciate my funny little box, which I am now sharing with Natasha, my friend Linda's daughter who is 28 and works in the office and needs some privacy and somewhere safe in town to keep her things so she can get to work...accommodation for local workers is non-existent per se, they have to share the overcrowded besser block monstrosities with their extended families (and dogs, the thing that gets me most is avoiding the puppy shit on the floors...).

Footy is of course the greatest diversion from all these other matters and Papunya was almost totally deserted last weekend while we went in to Alice for the Grand Final - Papunya Eagles vs Yuendumu Magpies. All of Yuendumu was there too, three times as many as us - and they won. All the players have been practising in their bare feet every evening for months on red dust grounds littered with dangerous rubbish so they were pretty well matched. I took the troopy in and our three frailest old fellas and their families and they enjoyed it. Now its back to work, although with the Carer Respite troopy I will be going out bush a lot and hope to have an evening picnic tonight.

I will be back home to stay for a while on 14th October and am feeling quite sad to be leaving so plan to have lots of picnics and bush tucker to give me good memories to bring back. I now have my own digging stick, a small metal crowbar with a flattened end, perfect for digging maku and tjupi. I bought ten from the Centre for Alternative Technology where Steve works. They are doing an excellent job and amazing things that Rainbow Power could do well to emulate.

I will be also pretty busy working to ensure that the workers at Aged Care get proper and decently-paid positions, it looks like it is going to happen , just have to make sure that the funding is sufficient. I am also hoping very much that the work for the dole crews will get the fence finished and the floors of the Women Centre sealed before I leave.

here is the about to be eclipsed moon a few weeks ago and here is the sunrise this morning - both delight me by rising over the Honey-Ant dreaming hill...

Kala! Palya!

Brinkley's Bluff and Beyond

2007-08-25T14:30:00.000+09:30

Sunset on the MacDonnells...and then sunrise...

Last weekend I finally got to do an overnight walk on the Larapinta - to Brinkley's Bluff from Standley Chasm and return. The company was excellent, Rick and Meg from the Bushwalkers club - and the views were stupendous. We camped the night on the bluff and here is the view from my sleeping bag in the morning. Sleeping bags, actually, too cold for just one. The wind reached gale force but I had my gloves and beanie and everything else on and the stars were my lullaby...

Then back to work, a very busy week. There have been hordes of whitefellas swarming around, doctors, nurses, centrelink people, even Sue Gordon, the chairperson of the taskforce - a women's meeting that had umpteen male photographers and cameramen recording it all. I even made it to the Alice Springs News (look for the blonde up the back).
The elders from Mt Liebig danced and presented Sue Gordon with some special totemic items. Sue is an Indigenous woman from WA who was stolen from her family as a child and is now a magistrate. She and Alison were both urging women to bring their children for check-ups and to view the intervention as benign, but there is a lot of mistrust - funny, eh.

Anyway, the doctor and nurses have all left now, they were a good bunch and probably saw half of the kids. The checks are voluntary and very thorough and there is no looking for signs of sexual abuse, so it has been quite helpful to some of the mothers and carers to get a total picture of their child's health. But we still only have a doctor out here for a few days every six weeks.

Aged Care has had a booming business in selling paintings to all the whitefellas and some of the old ladies sold lots of yininti necklaces.

The Centrelink crew have been very busy signing everyone up for work-for-the-dole. They couldn't quarantine the pay of CDEP workers, so CDEP's been abolished. And no-one had any plans for how to fund the hundreds of positions and programs that rely on CDEP labour - including Aged Care. There will be emergency meetings happening, I was assured by all the comfortable bureaucrats, and things are being acted upon 'higher up'. I still have heard nothing so am being pro-active and writing submissions - which have then to be signed and sent by Rod as I am his underling - bureaucracy rules the west these days.

Life goes on here, football is more important than anything else (these boys have been playing since they could walk) and Papunya is deserted this weekend while the whole community is in town supporting the lads in the semi-finals...except me, I am recovering from feeling like s...t all week. Been making ice-cream in my $10 garage sale maker: peach and mango - better than Weiss! And lying around reading and enjoying very much not being at anyone's beck and call.This funny little photo is of the circus driving through town, it really did look like a real circus, not just the centrelink mob or whatever...it's strange times out here!

Camel Kisses

2007-08-16T19:21:00.001+09:30

Who would have thought a camel had such a soft and velvety snout, or could be so friendly and gentle? I have had some anxious thoughts about these critters chasing me down the road on one of my walks, but when it came to the crunch and camel met woman, it was instant attraction and no pursuit. Perhaps it's my new streaked hair, shades of spinifex surely appeal to camels.

We went out at the weekend and had fun collecting witchetty grubs - Helen the hairdresser was at first too horrified to try one toasted on the gas ring at home, but then she loved it! The cross was found along with a five dollar note way out there in the mulga where we went looking ...there are cultural symbols everywhere and here is the Papunya bora ring , a major cultural site...

The fence for the bush tucker garden is going up despite a howling bitter gale. And I hope to be on the Larapinta trail this weekend xxxxxxx

Beauty and the Beast

2007-08-08T19:00:00.000+09:30

Well it's been a while, so it must be time for a blog. The volunteers are here and the beauty salon is up and running, very popular. Some of the women have great skills as hairdressers and are keen to learn, while everyone else is just lining up for a haircut. Dyeing is very popular too. The blokes are working outside making a bough shade shelter while we wait for the fencing materials to arrive.

The mark of the beast (perhaps it is uranium mining) is also upon us. The army has arrived (one truck and three people in gear that looks like 1990's kids fashion wear, I'll post a photo when I have one) and will be here for three weeks, taking over the clinic. Saving the children in that time seems a big ask but then it is a very demanding government we have. If anyone had asked the people here they would have asked for the army to build houses and train builders, as has been done elsewhere. Reducing overcrowding would definitely reduce child abuse (and ill-health).

I have just taken a long weekend to camp at Wigley's waterhole, the expected overnight walk with the bushwalkers club didn't eventuate and I was so exhausted it was a good thing. Instead I hung out with the birds, stargazed and enjoyed the absolute peace and stillness of the massive quiet of the desert at night and the frost patterns on the van window in the morning light. I played my recently araldited guitar by the fire, explored and read two books. I saw so many different kinds of birds, the rarity of water drew a huge variety - cormorants, finches, parrots, thornbills, flycatchers, everyone was there to delight me and heal me. The parrot in the picture is a rarely seen mulga parrot
and my favourite willy wagtail posed for me.

I have been feeling very stressed and torn, knowing that I will be leaving at a time when there is so much turmoil and change here. I am still hoping to find someone good to take over my work as it has all been going so well and it does make a difference to the women here.

This worrying may just be me making mountains out of molehills (I hope so), like the huge piles of rubbish that adorn the landscape all around the Papunya tip. Everyone here has been keeping their yards really clean and clear of rubbish (just so it's plain that they look after their kids and won't be harrassed or lose them) but the effect is somewhat marred by the fact that the CDEP co-ordinator can't get the workers to work to pick up the overflowing bins in the streets...ah Papunya!

I leave you with a quote from Thich Nhat Hanh, my favourite Buddhist poet: " You who are journalists, writers, citizens, you have the right and duty to say to those you have elected that they must practice mindfulness, calm and deep listening, and loving speech. This is a universal thing, taught by all religions..."

Sunset Photos

2007-07-22T16:05:00.000+09:30

I have been walking with Sandy from the clinic. They have lots of extra forms to fill out thanks to little Johnny but still doing the work they always do - no sign of extra help yet. Here is a photo of our shadows as we walked towards that distant mountain where I've gathered bush tobacco - minkulpa.

A very well-spoken grey haired fella called Jeremy Long turned up the other day and said he had worked here in the 60's, taking trips out to the desert to pick up the Pintubi. I took him out to visit old Snowy McDonald who went with him then and is the oldest person here, at 85.

It has been very cold here, frosty nights. No sign of the army or the administrator yet. Will keep you posted.

The Other Invasion

2007-07-10T20:33:00.000+09:30

I have just spent the weekend in the company of the Alice Bushwalkers Group, hiking for miles at Kings Canyon , one of the most beautiful places on earth. So I have been part of the other invasion, tourism, and just to remind me there were helicopters every half-hour or so above the canyon: the war continues. And it took us five hours of evil earth-destroying fuel-guzzling road travel to get there. We walked 22 k along the Giles track on Sunday and avoided the helicopters and saw some of the most spectacular and exhilarating country...walking the dotted line as Lisa calls it, following the markers - but it was so beautiful. And so exhausting, good healthy workout for the body/mind. My broken foot reminded me ligaments taken a long time to heal but all was well after a day or two. ...these pictures are worth a thousand words, apologies to those on dial-up. Click on a picture to see it bigger... This is ancient rock, but the climate is doing the same to my skin... o to be a duck in paradise!

Invasion Day

2007-07-04T16:41:00.000+09:30

Well, it has come and gone, the latest invasion day. Jan is presently writing up her heated response to the meeting that was held to announce/softsoap the bull..t.

I was very heartened to hear the community leaders speak very clearly and well about their opposition to any changes to the permit system and the proposed take-over of the lands by 5 year leases in exchange for investing money in what has been such a shoddy infrastructure for so long. It's hard to imagine that five years could make any difference (does that bring it up to the next election year?)...but anyway that's not the point. We were made to sit down and listen to a lot of public servants waffle on in vague support of the pathetic little plot, all except one were an embarrassment and boring to boot. Wafflemongers selling bureaucratspeak. So it was great when Sid Anderson and Michael Nelson (he designed the mosaic/painting out the front of new Parliament House) spoke so well - and they were the only ones to receive any applause.

I spoke to Sid later and told him I wished I'd had my video camera there so we could send something to ICTV to broadcast and he said that the community leaders in other communities are saying the same things and that they probably don't need any encouragement.

It's blackfella business to say what they want after all. And it's the job of people like us to make sure they are heard and that the response is flexible and open enough to allow the change that people want and not what the government wants. So I encourage you all to write and sign petitions and pray and activate in whatever way you can to support the principle of land rights and the right of self-determination which has been so eroded in the communities out here.

The Little Children are Sacred Report can be accessed by following the link on my list. Please do whatever you can to support the findings of the report rather than the political idiocy that is designed to make all of it irrelevant.

Here are Jan and I on the road to nowhere and enjoying it immensely - she is collecting materials for an artwork and I am just enjoying being in the drivers seat...

Fascists at Work

2007-06-27T20:22:00.000+09:30

Been feeling I should update you on what is happening out here since little Johnny's take-over bid. First thing is, only the white people are taking any notice - everyone else has been living with oppression for so long that they have long ago perfected the art of ignoring it as much as possible. Second thing is that I learnt today that they are sending administrators in to every community, a move that has only ever been made in the past in the case of (extreme) white or council corruption. This is war, and this is fascism at work. Forget about healing abuse, this is just another attempt to cement abuse in the psyche of these gentle people. And I am wanting to go home and feel horrible about abandoning people with all this going on.

And for the beauty of the land that sings so strongly here - another rape by the walypala (whitefella). Last night I camped in the riverbed at Mbunghara with twenty women and a dozen girl children - a camp organised to talk about ways to protect from sexual abuse - meeting and talking with all the young girls in a culturally sensitive partnership of white agencies and local elders. Protective behaviours stuff. A huge vaulted sky full of stars and a bright moon overhead, little fires between the swags in line, old women singing in language, kids shrieking till late just like a Tuntable camp, except that no-one hassles them for it. Kids have so much freedom here. Frost on the swag in the morning and little girls lighting the fires from the embers. Kenn would have loved it, except he would have had to be in a men's camp and he would have loved that. I loved it and wish we could sleep there every night instead of in this prison world of electricity pylons and fences and besser block boxes. I fantasise about sneaking off with my swag into the bush but it is so hard to do anything unseen here and people would not like it.

Knowing myself as well as I do, I don't know how I am managing to cope. But I am, just, despite still crying at inopportune moments and not sleeping well at all. Don't know how long I can keep it up - it is very hard to be working fulltime in this head and heart space. Still I have years of practise behind me and despite my complaints, there are so many lovely people here of all kinds - Sandy the nurse rubbed some liniment into my aching shoulders today and it was lovely to have a healing touch on my skin. And when I look at the suffering all around me, I feel like a spoiled child.

The Sky of Mind, This Sky of Mine

2007-06-25T20:21:00.001+09:30

Just walked out for a few minutes this evening to see all this in half an hour ...

Gardens, Neighbours, Weekends, Views

2007-06-24T18:46:00.000+09:30

It is the weekend, that lovely time when I only have to look after myself and my garden. It makes me feel like I can survive here. God grant me many weekends. Here is a picture of the garden which has grown all by itself with the automatic watering gadget and will soon give me broccoli as well as ongoing pleasure. I would love to have a cat or dog for company but feel morally agonised over the idea of bringing some critter out here just for a short time - though if I could find someone to take it after I leave, it would be great to have someone to pat. Meantime I make do with looking after the garden. And my teddy, Mindfulness Bear.

Been listening to Noel Pearson on the contribution of welfare dependency to addiction and abuse in communities - and I was surprised to realise that I agree with him, despite his somewhat aggro and arrogant delivery. I should be able to relate - if anger is a product of feeling powerless and helpless, I know a bit about that. The whole issue of the govt supporting Kenn in his addictions and self-destruction has grieved me so much for years, I can readily appreciate how it must be for Noel.

More photos: the view from the back verandah and the backyard .

I turned on the tele the other night to see a bizarrely hilarious doco on the brush turkey...and here is a photo of my endless favourite tissue-paper evening sky over the honey ant dreaming hill.

I am thinking about taking up Irish step-dancing. It requires very strong leg muscles, our ancestors must have been a hardy lot of peasants. The first step for me is getting my muscles up to their standard. You can imagine me hopping around the kitchen to my trad irish music in the mornings, getting warm enough to tackle the washing up or get to work. If I keep it up I may get a DVD with the real steps and learn in earnest - it's gotta be the very best thing for my osteoporosis.

Return to Papunya #2

2007-06-18T15:52:00.000+09:30

Here is my Alice Springs family - we had roast duck at Jan and Charlie's when I got back!
Caution: this blog contains a few whinges - not suitable for those seeking uplifting thoughts... I am back in Papunya, my favourite refugee camp in the desert and I feel like I am a refugee but I don't know from what! It is so easy to feel imprisoned here behind my wire fence and in my dark cold little cave. There is an evilly cold wind blowing which makes walking seem far less attractive than usual and the CDEP co-ordinator hassled me for smiling at her this morning (I had only just read in my Buddhism for Mothers book about how it is good to smile often...) However - this negative feeling which descended on me last night when I first walked in the door and burst into tears may also be due to lack of sleep and disorientation. People (other than the CDEP co-ordinator have been very friendly, lots of old ladies have given me hugs and my friend Wendy is here for a few days. So really there is nothing wrong, unless you count the fact that there is almost no food to feed the oldies (supermarket bungle) and there are no workers except me and Willie (sorry business). But that is only to be expected out here and the truth is that it has been running fine without me till the last week. And I am an over-qualified expert in emergency management so the oldies will get fed - and clothed, as there are bags and bags of op-shop goodies for our op-shop. So let's hope my native optimism will rise again and that it's a bit warmer tonight and I get better sleep...

Two Funerals and a Wedding

2007-06-03T19:01:00.001+09:30

These are photos I took 19th April, the morning Ken died. I woke in the dark from a dream that I was about to be tested for something for which I had not time to prepare, and decided to go for a long walk - started off walking in the dark and eventually watched the sunrise over Ulumbarra, this beautiful mountain which is an old man lying down, the same as the Nightcap range in Nimbin. There is also a woman, Anjali, lying head to head with him. I had a lovely peaceful day until my body/mind received the news from Nimbin and went into shock. One day I hope to have such a good acceptance of death and change that it's a bit easier to deal with - and if people keep leaving the way they have been, it will be essential. I have lost so many family and close friends in the last few years.

Ken had a good send-off. He made many friends while sitting in his open-air office/cum saloon bar outside Mark's shop and they all came and lots of our mutual friends from the old days came to the funeral too, which I really appreciated. I was able to remember him again as he was back then in his prime, once his spirit was set free from all the alcohol and smoking he punished his body with for so long. I have a journey towards forgiveness that I am walking still. So I cry a bit still though I am feeling less vulnerable now, which is good as I have to go back to work very soon.

Here is a photo of Ken at peace with life and birth and finally at peace with death. He was only 55 but looked so old, it gave him much kudos as a street psychologist and guru.

There has been a wedding too - Libby and Pete were married on June 2nd and did it in gorgeous Bollywood style, though I'm sure that was all Libby's idea. Lisa Yeates lent me the perfect gear and I had a great night catching up with old friends like Liz Jensen whom I haven't seen for ages, Neil, Mary, lots of people - even danced to the pappadum japarty band for a while.
Here is the reunion of Bridie's birthing crew - and here is Sophia, Bridie's baby. They are living in Cairns now with Andrew, Sophie's dad.

Here we have a photo of Graeme. This is kind of like another funeral photo, Grazza at the end of the rainbow, maybe looking for the pot of gold or maybe trying to be a good Buddhist. He was so pissed off that I didn't put this photo of him up in my last posting that he decided to embark on a new relationship after Kenn's funeral (it's true, that's what he told me!) It didn't seem like such a great photo to me but I guess he meant he was feeling neglected after three years of just friendship and freedom and maybe jealous of all the attention Ken was getting and scared of dying and scared of grief. So he is off on another journey too and it feels like a kind of a death of a friendship and a funeral, though it is probably the best thing for me.

Rainbow Holidays

2007-04-08T13:02:00.000+09:30

Here I am back in Alice again after two weeks adventuring in the wilds of the east coast. The birthday gatherings for Tara's 21st and Sal's 50th were a great opportunity to see all the family and friends I miss so much when I am away ...I wish everyone was a little closer.
It was great to see Kath and go floating down the river (avoiding all the multitude of vessels that threatened to run us over) in the glorious sea...and to laugh with her again!

It was wonderful to go walking with Heather early in the mornings, it's still dark at 5.30 when we climbed the steps to the lighthouse for the sunrise view with all the other dawn tourists, then down for a roll in the rolling sea -

Played a few tunes with Gerry Harris and thought about becoming an ocean swimmer like him in my old age...

It was fun to hang out with Jesse...and it was beautiful to have a last lunch with Tara...

Alice weather has been transformed in my absence - the rain that was bucketing down when I left has cooled the place down and it is absolutely blissful now. Warm days and cool nights, just what I like.
Here are some signs of the times: one from Alice airport and one from the Gold Coast... that's ol' George up there in the ad.

The Wild Garden and the Captive Garden

2007-03-15T20:55:00.000+09:30

Things have been moving very fast this week. Tenille from Charles Darwin Uni has been here working with a group of young women who are all enthusiastic about getting the garden going next to the Women Centre. The blokes have been scraping away all the buffel grass and rubbish with heavy machinery and I better hurry up and get the materials for a fence! There's no time to wait for a grant so it will come from our budget. Meanwhile I comb the net for appropriate sources of funds. Any suggestions are welcome - but they must be OK for the NT.

We are beginning to be able to put away some funds from op-shop sales for projects like this. And today we launched our first raffle - a good raffle once a month will boost the coffers. We have bought a good stack of beads online and there is a small group just starting to get into making jewellery. The old ladies are working hard at burning holes in the yininti beans and making beautiful necklaces.

Last weekend I went with Steve and Sunny to Trephina Gorge, a very special and awe-inspiring place about 80k from Alice and these are some of the photos. The wild places here are so deeply and surprisingly fertile and beautiful.

Yesterday we went out in the troopy to a spot about 30k east of here, where the most beautiful mountains rise from the plain - and where the minkulpa (bush tobacco) grows. I spent much of the day climbing impossibly steep and rocky and prickly slopes and finally came down at dusk with bagful of minkulpa to distribute.

The hillside is a botanists delight, a native garden crammed full of beautiful medicinal and food plants. And up there I feel free (if hot!) and can gaze upon the magnificent ancestor mountains stretching away over the plains. Birds fly close overhead and there are kangaroos somehow managing to bound down the hillside.

Even the grasshoppers are beautiful as they jump up all around. My feet are still sore, thongs aren't made for climbing and rock-hopping, but it was a good day. Today I have been clearing out the van because I think I'll sell it when I get back from NSW. And I set up an automatic watering system so my greens will survive while I am away. And I cleaned the house. Very exciting.

I will be back home next week and look forward to seeing everyone there. I am also looking forward to a rest and some freedom from responsibility - and swimming in the sea! Mmmmmmmmmmmmmm.......................and a little cooler weather will be nice. Though I woke to the sound of light rain today (it only lasted an hour or so) and have not had to have the aircon on all day since. The papers tell me that February was almost 3 degrees hotter than average and the hottest and driest on record...roll on sustainable power out here (quick! get rid of those generators!) A few big settlements now have solar and maybe Papunya will some day soon. Meantime, I await the cooler days - and right now the blessed rain is falling slow and steady!

How to Gut a Goanna

2007-03-07T17:41:00.000+09:30

This is Martha, my friend, showing her grand-daughter (who is my classificatory sister Nungarrayi) how to use sand to keep the gut dry enough to gently work it out of the goanna's arsehole without having to cut it. It's really ingenious, as most traditional things are.

It has been a little cooler for the last two days, very lovely. I even had to put another sheet over me last night! It has been so hot here, 42 most days, the hottest and driest February on record - but maybe it will stay below that from here on.

We went out hunting gathering and swimming on Saturday and came home in the rain! real rain, big fat drops of it splatting on the windscreen - of course its all gone now but it was great to get some of God's own aircon. The power went off in the middle of the night which meant my fan went off which meant I got really hot so I went outside and slept naked in the hammock under the almost full moon (well actually under the verandah roof). That was such a treat because usually there are people still up when I go to sleep and if I want to walk naked I am on show because my house has no curtains. Swimming was incredible too - there is a beautiful creek with water all year round that's about 40k away. I'd never been there before because there was a dead cow in it for ages but it is heaven, absolute heaven - and I'd like to camp there soon. The old van would get bogged in the sandy creek crossing on the way so I will have to take a work vehicle - but we have a troopy for a month so if I can persuade some of the women we can have a group adventure. They won't go anywhere overnight on their own, without men - for fear of male spirits coming and getting them in the night (good ol patriarchy out here too) - so we may have to enlist a few sons and nephews for protection. This week has been very hectic and busy, trying to stay on top of paperwork and still get out and about in the troopy. Tomorrow we head off to Mt Liebig, which is only about 75k but it's reportedly a rough road and I have never been there before. There are also reportedly big Yininti trees on the way and we may score some of the elusive white and yellow beans. I was hoping to check out the Aged Care centre there but the co-ordinator is taking people into Alice for a funeral. And I am taking people to Mt Liebig for a funeral......We are also on an expedition to Alice on Friday - the oldies will shop and g0 to the football and I will hang out and play music with Fred and Elliott ...and just play with Daimon ...after the gang has gone back to Papunya.

All the busyness at work is starting to bear fruit, and there is a small group of young women enrolled to learn gardening with a very enthusiastic young teacher from Charles Darwin Uni - so our bush Tucker garden will be bearing real fruit too. I am trying to raise funds for a fence which is fairly essential to such a project and Steve may come out here next week to draw up a water grant submission so we can have rainwater for drinking and for starting young seedlings. I have sent off applications to Indigenous Community Volunteers (check out the link) for people to help train up hairdressing, art & craft and gardening skills - so if anyone is even remotely interested to come out here for a month or two - definitely check out the link and let me know. It is amazing out here, even if you don't want to learn how to gut a goanna and Nimbin-experienced people would be great.

This is the view of the road where I walk every morning - and this is the view of my arm...but don't let it put you off, the flies disappear when it gets cooler...

Flies, Ants and Making Tracks

2007-03-02T19:30:00.000+09:30

Well - this week has been much better - a prolonged weekend in Alice (a blowout on the highway on the way back to Papunya meant I had to return to Alice to get a new tyre)...and then a very welcoming homecoming from the workers. Maybe they thought I wouldn't be back, or maybe they were just glad to see all the bags and bags and bags of second-hand clothes I brought back from St Vinnies. Yes, I finally have my own op-shop! We have been doing a thriving trade all week. We also tried selling sandwiches and cold drinks to the card-players on cheque day but didn't do so well.

Anyway, let's stick to the topic: Flies, Ants and ... I know everyone knows all about how bad the flies are here, but I think it is time to be more graphic and to show some of the ways we deal with them. I don't do much actually except wait for winter when they will all be gone (though I rival the Brave Little Tailor with my new improved flyswatting skills) but many people walk around with mini-mossie-nets obscuring their view. Including Jan and Charlie...We went for a trip to Wigley's waterhole, the hang-out of bogans and water desperadoes like me. Steve and Sunny don't liek it because there are too many beer-cans, but for me , it's wet and I can swim in it - and there was a kangaroo and a glorious sunset to make up for the howling gale that made a barbeque impossible. And there were plenty of flies too.OK - that's flies. Then there's ants. Ants are everywhere. Big ants, small ants, biting ants, honey-ants, ants everywhere. I regret very much setting my little mingari free instead of keeping her as my own ant-eater.

She would have been in heaven just sitting by my front door. I am actually surrounded by ants even as I write - the trail winds up the wall by my computer and then meanders along and right around the room to the sink, the bin and the compost bucket...

this is not a good place for Buddhists or other people who will not step on ants. Just about every track is already occupied by long and busy processions...

Some people are happy and look beautiful despite flies...and it has been lovely to spend time with them. Damon is talking more every day and calls me granma, it's sort of a generic term, but I guess I am a sort of generic granma.

Tomorrow we will be making tracks early in the morning, following Toyota dreaming towards Haasts Bluff in the troopy we have for a month from the Carer Respite Centre. It is too hot to have any expeditions other than early morn or late afternoon ...I do all my walking at 6.30 a.m these days, and get some great track photos.

I might write some more in a few days. Thanks to all who visit here and particularly those who have written and rung to keep me from sliding off the edge of the world.

A Long Week

2007-02-16T16:51:00.000+09:30

The sunrise today was beautiful and I walked about 6k's in the beautiful cool...but it's been a long week. I'd love to go home, but home is such a long way away. So I am here, still here at Papunya/Warumpi...wishing it was a long weekend and I could at least go into Alice. I have been cross and grumpy, it is hard for me to deal with the fallout from a century of invasion politics as well as the usual personality blah you get with anyone. My main problem is (of course) my own personality blah that means I find it really annoying to have people constantly ask me for directions when they are quite competent and have done it heaps of times already - this is part of the black/white syndrome that does not sit well with my little idiosyncracies, particularly when I am working on something else. The other thing which has been hard to deal with is the silent treatment from some workers who don't like being told what to do even though they have asked! It's a bit much....and the ongoing sulks over having to keep the car only for work business is just too much drama for me. So today when everyone decided to leave early (like about half an hour after they started work) to go and play cards (one way to try and get back some of what you lost yesterday) and left me with everything to do by myself (including moving the freezer) I just wanted to go home too. But I did what had to be done and then I left early. I helped Maringka and Charlie move back home from their open-air camp which the old women have been reluctant to leave....I washed half a dozen putrid blankets and delivered cans of irish stew, juice and a peach instead of the sandwiches the workers couldn't be bothered to make because there was no ham...What happened to the ham? Maybe what happened to the powdered milk, just disappeared. Petty theft can be extremely annoying too, when the truck only brings supplies every fortnight. And on top of this the relief storekeeper was in my ear yesterday about how she is glad to be leaving because the people are so slack and they dont clean up their rubbish and they're all stuck in victim consciousness and I stuck up for them! I regret not suggesting that the shop clean up the rubbish seeing as that's where it all comes from...
And it is hard seeing all the garbage that is left by this beautiful swimming hole at Ulumbarra.

I wish I could go swimming there now - the old van lumbered out there with a big load of kids and women last weekend, but the road is a rocky creekbed with gigantic sump-crackers every two metres and swimming there will have to be a rare pleasure.
There were a million tadpoles, everything grabs any chance to breed whenever there is water - I reckon it would be a noisy place to sleep. Which is a pity because it is absolutely beautiful - like a wild and free version of the Desert Park with the most stunning 360 degree view....no way for a camera to capture it but I wish you could see it with me...

This week we went hunting for yininti beans again, in the wonderful troopy brought by Sarah the nutritionist who's young and keen...picture us winding our way through this beautiful country, guided by faint wheelmarks that might once have been a track through the buffel grass, stopping occasionally to check out the yininti trees (looking for the elusive white and yellow beans), and to try and eat watermelon without eating flies too...

we came upon these ruins which may have been built by Bill Mollison in the early '70's - the most serene and glorious place near a creek which may have even flowed before the drought began. If anyone sees Bill can they please ask him if he ever had a camp at Ulumbarra.

I am starting to get a kind of cabin fever from being forced inside by the heat...it doesn't help that I am online for hours every day trying to find a new laptop so I can spend even more time online...I would really appreciate phone calls 8956 4959 because I do miss you all and feel quite isolated here at times. Am missing social life and choir and playing music and stuff like that. I may even try and get a lift into alice for one night tho as Steve and Sunny are planning to go camping at the Ross River, it will depend on whether Fred is OK for me to stay. Sometimes the best company here for me is the old ladies - the ones that aren't bossy and annoying are just great and I wish I spoke better Luritja so I could communicate more with them. Love you all, ring me if you can xxxxxx

Full of Beans

2007-02-08T00:05:00.000+09:30

On Monday we went hunting for yininti beans - the bright red seeds of the batwing coral tree, which the women make into necklaces and mats. The older and mostly single women have all been camped out together in the heat and the wind and the rain, having a great time together and cooking for the young boys going through initiation. They descend on the aged care centre like a flock of noisy messy parrots, and spend a lot of time there sleeping in the blessed cool of the aircon. There's an ageless quality to them all despite their arthritis and their trachoma and they seem often like a bunch of teenagers (or old hippies).

They sort of go through fads and phases: one week it's painting, the next it's getting yininti beans. The rarer trees have orange, yellow, white or purple beans so there's a quest to find them....and off we went in the intrepid serendipity van, lurching over an ancient track to the creek near Blackwater outstation .....

(the grass in the picture is the dreaded omnipresent buffel, which has burst up everywhere since the rain, it's too high and is probably full of big brown snakes although it looks so pretty)

Fortunately the tyres stayed full of air and we made it back again, happy and loaded up with tins and bags, full of beans.

A Trip to Alice

2007-02-01T03:37:00.001+09:30

A Trip to Alice, originally uploaded by wrap_nimbin.
On the way to Alice we saw camels...lots of camels...and trucks, lots of trucks
...and green green grass, feral buffel grass for all the feral animals.

I am getting so much good feedback about this blog that I feel I have to put something up so you don't find just the same old stuff you've already seen...so here are some photos of my recent expedition to Alice Springs. From which I am now recovering - shopping, shopping, shopping - totally exhausted! We came back with dozens of garbage bags full of second-hand clothes for the masses which are now piled on my back verandah till Friday when they will be released to the general chaos which prevails when cheap clothes arrive.

We went swimming at Alice Springs - the waterhole near the Telegraph Station for which the town is named - as close to paradise as it gets - beautiful warm water swimming with the kids, lazy lying on the grass - bliss! It would have been best to stay there all weekend, but we had to go shopping...

Today, back at work - there were five old ladies painting away - the beginnings of the Papunya Renaissance...For more pics, check out my photo gallery...! I'm off to sleep xxxxxxxx

BlogFreak! TotalGeek!

2007-01-21T19:16:00.001+09:30

Yup, it's happened - I have morphed into a desert geek. Too many hours alone in my cubbyhouse and only my computer to keep me company, and I've changed. Now I not only have a blog, I have a photosite, I can email stuff straight to my blog and I have a groovy plug-in called performancing that enables me to upload just about anything I find while I'm surfing .... and if my family wants to put the odd post up on my blog, they can - just gotta ask me to invite you and then you can write up whatever and whenever you want (it can come up different colours and stuff so we don't all get confused).

It's the year of the blog! xxxxxxxxxxxx Meg

Hot Rocks and Wet Socks!

2007-01-21T18:31:00.001+09:30

Back to the steam engine - only it's the earth that makes the steam, and water used is recycled back into the system - take a look! Hassle Howard to get off the nuclear poison wagon and get real...

http://hotrock.anu.edu.au/

weekend at home in papunya

2007-01-20T12:11:00.001+09:30

weekend at home in papunya, originally uploaded by wrap_nimbin.

This is the view from my front door, there is an abundance of fences and wire structures to obstruct just about every view. Today being the weekend means I got to sleep in and ignore the little yellow honeyeaters that chirrup loudly outside my window, though the fly was hard to ignore and finally got me up. The birds are great company though and because there are a few trees, only little but good enough, they are always here. One good thing about this house. There is also a great view beyond all the mesh of the fences and it is somehow very quiet at night - I can't hear all the dogs barking and kids shrieking all around the back of this place because of the design of the house. Bloody great! I get to sleep! Which is better than any other house I have had out here. The noisiest neighbors are the young folk who have come to do holiday programs with the kids but they are fun and they won't be here long. The bad things about this house are the aircon that doesn't work and the dark kitchen. But it's OK.

Weekends are a good time to ring me! I have a very groovy new phone bought from gotalk which gives me 25 cent untimed national calls so I might ring you first. i still get a bit lonely at times but have adjusted a lot from when i first arrived out here nearly a year ago. Now I have to start saving money, all that stuffing around from mr nasty and waiting to get back here means that I have not really made any money yet
although I have had fun, paid for a few plane trips and bought a few things.

For photos of Tara's fashion, take a look at my new photo site (click on meg's flickr photo gallery) - I will also put up more photos there from Papunya soon.

More Mingarri

2007-01-20T12:06:00.001+09:30

More Mingarri, originally uploaded by wrap_nimbin.

My pet gave me a big fright when I went to pick up the washing pile this morning but she's very docile and amazing to look at. Her name is Mingarri. She is pregnant too so we might see babies soon, after the eggs are laid and hatched. I can give them to the kids. She has found a friend in my bedroom already ... see the photo ...I often find her there!

Mingarri the Thorny Sweetheart

2007-01-20T12:04:00.001+09:30

Mingarri the Thorny Sweetheart, originally uploaded by wrap_nimbin.

This is Caroline with the thorny devil we found on the way home which is now my pet.

Sun! Sun! Sun!

2007-01-20T12:00:00.001+09:30

Sun! Sun! Sun!, originally uploaded by wrap_nimbin.

Sun! Now the rain has gone and the sun is glaring down again, only not quite so hot as it was and there's lot more moisture in the air. And as usual, a big wind to blow it all away. The dear little frogs who have been singing with glee all night in the rain will retreat to wherever they go (where do they go?) and eventually the vast puddles will all dry up till the next rain. Everything is so green, the buffel grass (a weed) stretches as green as kikuyu in every direction. The feral animals will be especially happy as it was imported here just for them.

Meanwhile the kids enjoy the water, everyone is taking them down to the nearest creek (40 k) where we went yesterday, sneaking off in the aged care car on the pretext of getting firewood. When we arrived there were three 4WD'S on each side of the creek and several blokes and kids in the creek putting sticks up to check for the best place to cross. A couple of cars went across and then the police arrived - with a motor boat for our entertainment. They had fun and we went home as the sun began to emerge. There will be heaps of kids wanting to go down for their last swim today so I better go and get the car keys from Willy and Sharon though it feels
mean and I may not do it. My car has a new battery but it's still playing hard to start so I don't know if I should take people down tho it would be fun - might leave it today and go to Ulumbarra for a swim tomorrow instead - that's only about twenty k away and it is so beautiful
although the road is maybe too wet and too rough for my bus ...maybe I better travel in convoy with Matt, the kids co-ordinator.

Barracking for Collingwood

2007-01-18T18:39:00.001+09:30

Barracking for Collingwood, originally uploaded by wrap_nimbin.

Football is a passion out here and this old tank across the road from the Police Station bears witness to the many fans out here who have never yet seen them play - except on TV. Austar is very popular and especially for the football channel...

Flickr

2007-01-17T20:53:00.001+09:30

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Rain! Rain! Rain!

2007-01-16T22:48:00.000+09:30

It's raining! Raining! Like proper north coast rain! I love it, the smell of it, the sound of it, the vague anxiety of it, the snugness of inside, the coolness it brings - Sharon my co-worker doesn't like it, and I bet the boys camping out for their initiation business don't like it much either, but I love it!

Last week I was beginning to feel quite isolated. All around me people doing this men's business and I would love to be there too but no-one invited me. There were groups of women have been camped all around me but they don't call in... they look totally otherworldly in the wierd light and the first few spots of an approaching storm, trooping up to the ceremony ground with their billycans and blankets, some carrying things trad style on their heads. Everyone was into the business - No-one came to work, the car had three flat tyres, the delivery truck from Alice couldn't get through because the road is too wet so we had no food to cook so no meals to deliver...

To make it even worse I started wondering whether I should take the job that had just been offered to me in Alice Springs - with more pay, heaps more than enough to cover the extra costs of living in town. It is hard to be stuck out here when I can't even get to be at ceremonies... and I was fighting off some sort of beastly bug which caused me to feel totally exhausted. So I escaped! Hitched a ride to Alice and recuperated at SS&D's ...and everything is OK now.

The perennial beauty of rain is that it swells the creeks and gives us somewhere to swim at last - here are some photos of a trip to Wigley's Waterhole near Alice with Steve and Sunny and Daimon...

...and rain makes the desert bloom. There are thousands of plants popping up and the vista has different-coloured green patches amid the red sand. Yesterday I dug up and replanted some plants for my garden: baby Desert Rose, bush tomato (has a beautiful purple flower) and other things which for me are unnamed yet - and the rain poured down half the night so they may even survive. If they do, they should last a long time, giving refuge to the birds and delight to whoever lives in this little house. Papunya needs gardens and although many gardeners have come and gone from here, little remains of their efforts with exotic plants. Bill Mollison was even out here in the early seventies, but there is no trace of permaculture left.

We went to the Desert Park again ...and again ...Here we are...We love it!

Sunny and I ate some acacia seeds, delicious! There is food everywhere out here thanks to the acacias, which also provide homes for witchetty grubs and honey ants.
This is me on Sunny's birthday ...that's all folks, take care!

Welcome!

2007-01-07T14:51:00.000+09:30

Well, this is it, I've finally made it to blogworld - and back to Papunya! Here is a picture of my trusty steed parked at my new house. We fired up some rivergum branches inside on New Year's Day to smoke out the bad dreams of the previous tenant (my erstwhile boss) who is now gone, gone, gone to wherever his bad dreams took him. I have slept well here so far anyway, apart from the incessant heat which has driven me to totally re-evaluate the place of aircon in my life.

There is men's business happening, it goes on for four months and results in lots of blokes around painted up with red ochre and designs and lots of women all camping out together. Yesterday was the day for the lawmen to arrive from Ernabella and places south of Uluru who were bringing back a newly-arrived man who was recently a boy - in absolutely stifling heat, which kept me inside all day. There was a lot of excitement and build-up in the waiting, as we women are not allowed to see them before the ceremony. I was hoping to see it but in the end felt too hot and too unsure to venture out - heavy punishment for women who are in the wrong place and I didn't want to offend anyone...there will hopefully be more, men's business goes on for months and most of the women are camped out for their part in it all. Anyway the heavens heard our collective cry for rain after the ceremony and it is a lot cooler today with a few clouds to soften the glare.

I may not be emailing as much now I can blog instead, which is probably good as long as I don't use the time to dawdle on ebay and get out and about on my beautiful red bike instead - riding a bike is heaps cooler and faster than walking - I have portable self-generated aircon and I love it. My latest obsession with ebay has been around aquiring the most excellent hydration backpack for cycling and bushwalking and I think I have finally exhausted the possibilities, which is great. Anyone who comes to visit will probably be able to borrow my spare one, or two as well!

Anyone who comes to visit will also be forced to go to the Desert Park with me also - and see little critters like these as well as some incredible live displays - it's an absolutely amazing place. As a Territory resident I've got a yearly pass - we went there for Sunny's birthday and it is so good I'll go as often as I can get there. There I also met a fella giving a culture talk who is married to Lyn Oldfield's sister - so there ya go, connections all across the land. He told us more about the seven sisters dreaming and how it goes all the way to Nimbin and all over the country. Seven sisters and two little boys came down from the sky - the Pleides - and were chased by a lustful magic man - Orion - their tracks across Australia made the stories which link the landmarks - like the Nimbin Rocks - together. The Kungka Tjuta senior women from Coober Pedy showed us some dances from that cycle when we were camped at Kurnell with Uncle Kevin Buzzacott after the Peace Walk to the Olympic Games - one of those women also told us her very moving story of survival as a teenager while all her family died in the desert, leaving her absolutely alone after the Maralinga bomb tests in the 50's.

Today, Sunday is the end of my first week back here and everything is settling, I've cleaned out the house and done the washing. People are still glad to see me, lots of hugs and hallos - just what I love. The first few days I was pretty exhausted and headachy, partly due to staying up on New Years' Eve to party with the mob at the church and then sleeping on the verandah here for a few hours before the sun woke me.

We sang hymns to bring on the new year, kids up first on the mic, Lance the Council President pumping out the tunes on the electric piano/organ, old ladies like me all getting up together at the end. All in language, all in the hot hot summer night sitting on the warm red sand. The kids use the church floor as a gigantic sandpit, playing inventive games with emptied plastic bottles from soft drink distributed by the pastor Paul Traeger and his Taiwanese wife Mei-Li. The dogs scrap and whine and rest there and the adults also use it as a spittoon. Apart from the dogs and the spitting it is a lot like a Tuntable Hall gig.

On Friday I drove with some of the women who have been using the painting gear I got for them down to Ikuntji Art Centre where we all had a social time and I learnt a lot about
marketing the paintings they have done. Stay tuned for news of the Papunya Art renaissance...and pray for no more flat tyres for me - we got one as I was driving Martha home to her outstation, there was no wheelbrace so we walked a k in the blistering heat, then I rested while the kids went looking for a wheelbrace in the endless supermarket that looks like piles of rubbish. One of the lads went off with an entourage of kids and dogs to fix it and came back to cheers - but the spare was flat too! (No-one, but no-one, will be borrowing the vehicle now I'm back!) So I walked 6k back to town, it was very hot but the sun was a little lower in the sky and I shaded my head with a bunch of leaves and kept my mind on all the little wildlife tracks on the sand. Till I came upon great dinner-plate tracks that reminded me to look out for wild camels!

Well dear family, I'll leave it here for this week's post - tune in next weekend for an update, and love to you all - Meg
late-breaking news!!!!!!!!!!! I'm alive!!!!!!!!!!! I have just survived a massive dust-storm!!!!!!!!!! I foolishly rode out on my bike to check out an approaching storm and make sure the old people who were camping out were OK and left it a bit late (I was working on this bloggy blog) - got caught out and had to shelter behind a fence while rubbish big and small of all kinds hurtled down the street and the world gradually turned red and opaque with dust - it was worthy of a movie. I was fortunately in a very safe place where I had an incredibly good view of what was happening without even getting much dust in my eyes (although my ears were full of it when I had a shower later). I rode home when the rain started - that was what I had been wanting to do, get really wet. I do really miss the rain when it gets so hot here and it is great to smell it and feel it and catch it in buckets. And to know that it will be cooler tomorrow -it's still raining and it feels beautiful.