27th May 2011 - 11:45pm
This week we've had to say goodbye to one of the most loved and well-respected members of Ramingining community.
He was an Indigenous member of the East Arnhem Shire Council (who Ben works for), and was the Head of the School Council. But I remember meeting him and his wife Miya on my first day in Ramingining and feeling completely welcome. He had a big friendly voice, and a huge white-teethed smile. Miya is beautiful too, and as the cultural advisor at the school, I see her most days. She always greets me with 'hello Helen'. For the first few weeks she checked if she was getting my name right, and I corrected her. But now it just feels normal that she calls me Helen. I really don't know how the community will manage without him. Although not a traditional owner of the land, he was a figurehead for the community, pushing for anything and everything in the interests of the community. We've talked to the Year 11 and 12s about being the next leaders of the community, and now they're going to have to make that big step up.
He passed away Wednesday night after not feeling quite right for the last few weeks. He went to a Council meeting in Jabiru, but flew home early because he was not feeling well. The clinic gave him the all clear to fly, and he made it home - just. From what I've heard, he passed away not long after arriving back at his home. I really do feel that sometimes people know that they're dying, and have the power to hold off until they're with their family. And he did just that.
Out of respect for his family, the school was closed yesterday. There was a staff briefing to tell those who were not aware of the situation, and I've never seen a group of people looking so drained before. School was meant to be back on again today, but in the staff briefing, the Principal said that the smoking ceremony had not occurred yesterday, so we had to wait with the students (those who had come to school) on the basketball courts until it was done.
I was so honoured to have the chance to take part in the ceremony. The high school boys were asked by Linda (an Indigenous lady who works at the school, and is also Ben's adopted auntie) to collect the branches and bark for the fire. The girls were allowed to help collect the bark, but only the boys could do the ceremony. Some other family members and men from the community also came along for the ceremony.
They lit the fire in the middle of the school grounds, and we all had to gather around, females on the right, males on the left. The men were jumping and singing, and the ladies were swaying and saying 'yo' I think, which means yes. Then the boys took smoking branches of leaves and used them to hit all of the entrances to the buildings of the school, and then ran through the buildings doing the same. The smoking is meant to get rid of the spirits I think. Then we all had to take a small piece of branch and use it to hit both sides of our chest. Then the Indigenous men and women came around with the branches and did the same to our shoulders and backs.
It was a really emotional experience to be part of. No-one was crying, although I certainly felt a tear in my eye. It's the most amazing ritual, and I felt really special to be included. The funeral is likely to take place over the next few weeks, and hopefully I'll be able to experience that as well.
*I haven't mentioned his name is respect of the community's tradition.
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
day one hundred and twelve - coloured sports day
25th May 2011 - 11:20pm
Well, it really has been too long since I've written, but I've been a busy, busy girl!
I started up at the school on teaching placement during April, and within my first few weeks I got to take part in the 'Coloured sports day'. Although it sounds really racist, at first I thought that it meant Indigenous sports. How rude did I feel when I realised it was just what we'd call a normal sports carnival in Tassie, where the kids are divided into four colours - red, yellow, blue and green. Whoops. But it was an honest mistake.
I knew I wouldn't be much help organising the students, because I had not gained their trust yet, and relationships are so important up here. But to get involved, I offered to take photos during the day. So I have some incredible photos, but for cultural reasons I'm not allowed to put them up, so you'll just have to imagine what they look like until I can show you in person.
The first hour of the day was spent face painting. What an awesome morning! The captains and vice captains were in charge of getting everyone painted. What surprised me was that they were using plain old painting style paint! In Tassie, I'm sure that wouldn't be heard of - you'd have to use face paint or makeup! They painted all of the teachers too, and most of their clothes as well.
Then we all headed to the community oval for the day. It was completely different to how I remember our school sports carnivals. I guess to begin with, I DESPISED sport, and whenever I could I either got Mum to call in sick (I can't remember if I pretended to be sick, or was so upset Mum was doing the pretending), or didn't put in any effort. I must have been hoping that people would think that I might have been good if I'd actually tried... But it was so completely different here. The kids were all, honestly, cheering each other on. Every single one of them. The slow ones, the fast ones, the fat ones, the skinny ones. And just for giving it a crack. Yeah the kids got ribbons if they won, but I didn't see any sign of bullying or teasing because someone didn't do well. That's one of the things I love most about the people up here - they are so accepting of everyone, no matter what. It really is a beautiful thing to see.
Even the transition (prep in Tassie) class did their tiny little relay. The teachers had a relay race against the students. And the cutest thing was to see the young disabled boy, Geoff, having a race against one of the teachers (another Geoff, who is about 6'6"), and the little Geoff winning and getting a ribbon. The crowd were all cheering, and it was really honest, heartfelt cheering. And, I almost forgot to say, they were ALL barefoot. Even the year 10 student Ricky who's about 7' tall and ran like the wind.
Morning tea was icypoles and massive drums of water, and was all provided to the kids. They were all under a makeshift stage covered in tarps for shelter. The oval wasn't all mowed because it would've taken too long with the hand mower, so only the 400m line was mowed. Lunch was a BBQ back at school, again, all provided to the kids and staff.
The afternoon was spent with the little kids doing egg and spoon and sack races on the basketball courts, while I was down with the older ones on the the oval doing javelin, shotput and discus. There were a few issues between teachers about the positioning of the events for safety, but it's nothing like the setting up that you would see in a mainstream school.
The kids who did well, and continue to attend school, will be part of the Arnhem Sports carnival (all of the schools in Arnhem Land) in a few weeks time, so I'll look forward to helping out then too.
Well, it really has been too long since I've written, but I've been a busy, busy girl!
I started up at the school on teaching placement during April, and within my first few weeks I got to take part in the 'Coloured sports day'. Although it sounds really racist, at first I thought that it meant Indigenous sports. How rude did I feel when I realised it was just what we'd call a normal sports carnival in Tassie, where the kids are divided into four colours - red, yellow, blue and green. Whoops. But it was an honest mistake.
I knew I wouldn't be much help organising the students, because I had not gained their trust yet, and relationships are so important up here. But to get involved, I offered to take photos during the day. So I have some incredible photos, but for cultural reasons I'm not allowed to put them up, so you'll just have to imagine what they look like until I can show you in person.
The first hour of the day was spent face painting. What an awesome morning! The captains and vice captains were in charge of getting everyone painted. What surprised me was that they were using plain old painting style paint! In Tassie, I'm sure that wouldn't be heard of - you'd have to use face paint or makeup! They painted all of the teachers too, and most of their clothes as well.
Then we all headed to the community oval for the day. It was completely different to how I remember our school sports carnivals. I guess to begin with, I DESPISED sport, and whenever I could I either got Mum to call in sick (I can't remember if I pretended to be sick, or was so upset Mum was doing the pretending), or didn't put in any effort. I must have been hoping that people would think that I might have been good if I'd actually tried... But it was so completely different here. The kids were all, honestly, cheering each other on. Every single one of them. The slow ones, the fast ones, the fat ones, the skinny ones. And just for giving it a crack. Yeah the kids got ribbons if they won, but I didn't see any sign of bullying or teasing because someone didn't do well. That's one of the things I love most about the people up here - they are so accepting of everyone, no matter what. It really is a beautiful thing to see.
Even the transition (prep in Tassie) class did their tiny little relay. The teachers had a relay race against the students. And the cutest thing was to see the young disabled boy, Geoff, having a race against one of the teachers (another Geoff, who is about 6'6"), and the little Geoff winning and getting a ribbon. The crowd were all cheering, and it was really honest, heartfelt cheering. And, I almost forgot to say, they were ALL barefoot. Even the year 10 student Ricky who's about 7' tall and ran like the wind.
Morning tea was icypoles and massive drums of water, and was all provided to the kids. They were all under a makeshift stage covered in tarps for shelter. The oval wasn't all mowed because it would've taken too long with the hand mower, so only the 400m line was mowed. Lunch was a BBQ back at school, again, all provided to the kids and staff.
The afternoon was spent with the little kids doing egg and spoon and sack races on the basketball courts, while I was down with the older ones on the the oval doing javelin, shotput and discus. There were a few issues between teachers about the positioning of the events for safety, but it's nothing like the setting up that you would see in a mainstream school.
The kids who did well, and continue to attend school, will be part of the Arnhem Sports carnival (all of the schools in Arnhem Land) in a few weeks time, so I'll look forward to helping out then too.
Monday, May 2, 2011
day eighty eight - the barge road
1st May 2011 - 1:40am
After a few stressful weeks for Ben at work dealing with the whole community complaining about the state of the roads, it's finally driveable again. We've been really lucky that the rain completely stopped. It had been raining daily, then one day it just decided to stop. And the dragonflies started to appear, which signals the start of the dry.
Ben brought in Dave from Gove to help with the monstrous project. Dave's probably the most Aussie guy I've ever seen. Unshaven, flanny and shorts only slightly longer than Stubbies. Huge beard and a long rat's tail. Looks like he's just got off the back of a Harley. Dave travels around the communities in the Northern Territory working on the community access roads, so was the perfect person for the job. What an amazing job he did. To single-handedly get the road from the disaster it was a few weeks ago, to driveable with only a couple of foot-deep puddles was an amazing feat.
Last weekend Ben and I went for a drive to check it out. I was quite excited, because it would be the first time in ten weeks that I've seen the water. It might seem strange, but I've always lived near the water, and although I'm not one to jump in whenever I can, I love it. I feel safer on the water than I do anywhere else. It reminds me of how relaxed I always am when I'm at the shack. Heading along the road, I was so surprised to see the difference in the land as we headed towards the water. Around Ramingining the bush all looks the same. And I mean exactly the same. There's green grass that's about a foot tall, some cycads that are a foot to a few feet tall, and then there are the gums and palms that are around three metres tall. And everything is green. The same bright shade of green.
But heading towards the water, all of a sudden it changed. We drove past a billabong with it's beautiful water lillies (and maybe a croc or two), and not far after that, the trees stopped. Although it wasn't farming land, it immediately changed to grass. And it was brown, not green like all of the land around Ramingining. And then we reached the water.
Sitting next to the barge landing under the shade of a tree were two locals who said they were waiting until later to catch some mud crabs. I went down for a bit of a sticky beak, and was lucky enough to see a huge one scurrying under a rock. I called out, and the locals ran down with sticks and bare feet, reading to jump in. It was hiding under a rock, so the guy used the sticks to scare the crab out. We had to leave him to it, but he told me that once it came out from its hiding place, he would just pick it up by the huge front claws. Bugger that for a joke.
How lucky was I, that Dave would be leaving the following day, and had a spare crab that he'd caught that I could have. I don't remember having crab before, but he told me it would be similar to crayfish - my favourite food in the world! He brought it around, and I managed to clean the whole thing by myself. Well, I didn't really have a choice, since Ben was dry retching even at the thought. It was worth it - it tasted amazing! Now it's heading into the dry season, I'll certainly be looking for someone to take me fishing...
After a few stressful weeks for Ben at work dealing with the whole community complaining about the state of the roads, it's finally driveable again. We've been really lucky that the rain completely stopped. It had been raining daily, then one day it just decided to stop. And the dragonflies started to appear, which signals the start of the dry.
Ben brought in Dave from Gove to help with the monstrous project. Dave's probably the most Aussie guy I've ever seen. Unshaven, flanny and shorts only slightly longer than Stubbies. Huge beard and a long rat's tail. Looks like he's just got off the back of a Harley. Dave travels around the communities in the Northern Territory working on the community access roads, so was the perfect person for the job. What an amazing job he did. To single-handedly get the road from the disaster it was a few weeks ago, to driveable with only a couple of foot-deep puddles was an amazing feat.
Last weekend Ben and I went for a drive to check it out. I was quite excited, because it would be the first time in ten weeks that I've seen the water. It might seem strange, but I've always lived near the water, and although I'm not one to jump in whenever I can, I love it. I feel safer on the water than I do anywhere else. It reminds me of how relaxed I always am when I'm at the shack. Heading along the road, I was so surprised to see the difference in the land as we headed towards the water. Around Ramingining the bush all looks the same. And I mean exactly the same. There's green grass that's about a foot tall, some cycads that are a foot to a few feet tall, and then there are the gums and palms that are around three metres tall. And everything is green. The same bright shade of green.
The usual Ramingining greenery
But heading towards the water, all of a sudden it changed. We drove past a billabong with it's beautiful water lillies (and maybe a croc or two), and not far after that, the trees stopped. Although it wasn't farming land, it immediately changed to grass. And it was brown, not green like all of the land around Ramingining. And then we reached the water.
Sitting next to the barge landing under the shade of a tree were two locals who said they were waiting until later to catch some mud crabs. I went down for a bit of a sticky beak, and was lucky enough to see a huge one scurrying under a rock. I called out, and the locals ran down with sticks and bare feet, reading to jump in. It was hiding under a rock, so the guy used the sticks to scare the crab out. We had to leave him to it, but he told me that once it came out from its hiding place, he would just pick it up by the huge front claws. Bugger that for a joke.
How lucky was I, that Dave would be leaving the following day, and had a spare crab that he'd caught that I could have. I don't remember having crab before, but he told me it would be similar to crayfish - my favourite food in the world! He brought it around, and I managed to clean the whole thing by myself. Well, I didn't really have a choice, since Ben was dry retching even at the thought. It was worth it - it tasted amazing! Now it's heading into the dry season, I'll certainly be looking for someone to take me fishing...
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