The People

We are the Yolngu people of Ramingining, in the northern part of Central Arnhem Land in Australia's Northern Territory.

Ramingining is a town of about 800 of our people. More of our people live on outstations different distances from town. Also about 50 Balanda live here.

The nearest other town is Maningrida, more than two hours drive away except in the rainy season, when we can only fly there.

In Ramingining we have a store, a clinic, a school, a new police station, an arts centre, a resource centre, houses and not much else.

But we have history and culture here, that our ancestors have been growing for more than forty thousand years.

They passed that culture on from generation to generation. Now it's our turn to pass it on, not just to the next generation, but to people everywhere, all over the world.

That's because our way of life is changing fast now, and what you can see on this website is for every generation to remember and keep our culture alive.



Taken from http://www.12canoes.com.au/

Sunday, March 6, 2011

day thirty one - goin' shootin'

6th March 2011 - 5:00pm


Most of you will probably know (if not personally, then from reading previous blog posts), that I DO NOT do extreme sports. But according to Ben, this year I'll be pushing my boundaries, and doing things I never would've seen myself doing before. So yesterday we went shootin'.

Ben bought a 0.22 rifle (or something like that, to me it's a big gun) when he was working in Gapuwiyak, but hadn't used it since arriving in Ramingining last July because he wasn't sure where it was safe to set up a target. After chatting to his work mate Tony in the morning, he had worked out that there was a quarry out near the airport that was a fantastic spot for setting up targets. So off we went.

I thought I was going to be watching Ben do the shooting, and trying not to jump a mile in the air when he took a shot. That was the case for about 30 rounds, but then it was my turn. I would never have seen myself shooting before I got up here, but I guess I am meant to be throwing myself into the way of life up here - and people often head out shooting here.

I have to admit, I actually had fun! And I wasn't too bad! Not quite as good as Ben was, but it was my first go. We had a bit of fun with Ben aiming for a water bottle and making it explode, so next time we're going to take up some shaken cans of pepsi max (they're on special here at the moment because they're nearly out of date, otherwise we couldn't afford it).


 This is what the 'highway' looks like.





 Ok, so he's a pretty good shot...

 Some of the smaller ant hills which are everywhere.



 Not quite as good as Ben, but gave it a crack! The ones on the outside lines were meant to be there.

 Good shot, Ben!


Time to head home - didn't want to get caught in the thunderstorm.


Two weeks in to my new life at Ramo, and I'm almost a new person!

No comments:

Post a Comment