Saturday adventure

Today was an interesting day. We had our first experience of travelling in the Wet even though the serious Wet has not started here yet. We loaded our 200kg of gear and ourselves into the plane at Ramingining around 9 this morning with pilot Brady and headed toward Oenpelli bearing 267 almost due West. About 15 minutes later at 6500 feet it was solid cloud with rain streaming off the windows. The weather closed in and we circled to descend to 1500 feet with the cloud and heavy rain following us down. It was impossible to know which way was up with the only clues the level indicator tilting over and the compass circling as we spiralled down.

Brady talked to his office in Maningrida to discover there was a line of large storms stretching too far to fly around and with rain too heavy to fly under. For a few minutes we headed to Maningrida to wait it out but that plan was quickly abandoned as the weather continued to close in. It was back to Ramingining from where we had started 20 minutes before.

The radar image shows the line of storms a few hours later

after it had passed over us at Ramingining. We made it to the little shelter shed beside the strip before the downpour started. It was pretty special with the whole area flooding about 10cm deep in minutes. The trees on the far side of the strip vanished in the downpour while we watched it on the internet radar on Brady's mobile phone. Going back to Ramo was a good call on his part. An hour later we were back in the air heading along the coast to dodge remaining rain.

The 50 minute flight was so uneventful this time that it got too much for Michelle in the back seat. We had occasional glimpses of the ground and the magnificent Arnhem Land escarpment. Brief glimpses of folded bare weathered hills, narrow gorges and confined rivers flashed under the plane through tiny

gaps in the cloud.

For 30 minutes we flew comfortably between upper and lower cloud masses in a white and grey world. 34 nautical miles out from Oenpelli, we began a cautious descent through the lower cloud mass emerging right on target in sight of the airstrip. Even at 500ft, cloud obscured the wonderful ancient hills of this country.

Our cabin makes up for not seeing it from the air. As I look out the window across a rapidly flowing lagoon complete with saltwater crocs vying for dominance in the expanded lagoon, Injulak hill rises high above the far side of the lagoon. In drier times, you can walk across with a local guide to visit ancient and new rock paintings. Now locals stand on plastic chairs out in the water fishing and watching for crocs. This afternoon the corellas flew in to explore their new neighbours while two Jacanas (Lilly trotters) danced around the edge of the lagoon feeding. High in an old tree, a white breasted sea eagle waited and watched while a blue winged kookaburra cackled its raucous call in the tree above the cabin.

We had arrived in Gunbalana, the gear was drying in the cabin after the front stowage of the plane leaked, the shop was closed, as was the take away, so it was pasta and a few vegies we brought with us for dinner. All was right with this beautiful corner of the world.

The rain has started drumming on the roof again drowning the digital TV - not just the sound, the picture goes as well. The Wet proper has not arrived here yet so I think we are in for an interesting time in the next few months.

Michelle put this video together of the flood created by the rain. Was interesting watching the water between us and the plane get deep and deeper by the minute.

Charlie

I am so proud of Charlie. On Tuesday he came into the workshop with little computer experience. On Thursday, he made a great little movie about his family. It was a beautiful tribute to the people he loves and belongs with. He searched through 500+ songs on iTunes to get just the right music and the result moved me to tears as I watched it. Charlie is about 43 and a well respected man here. He speaks slowly in English and we have to work to understand each other but we get there.

Sometimes I realise what he has been asking during the night & go back & fix it the next day. He asked me if we could put "the internet on his memory stick" (we give each participant a memory stick for their work) and I dutifully explained that the internet was very very big and it was not possible to put it on the memory stick. he looked at me blankly & I figured I had misunderstood something. Later that night Michelle said he had asked her about saving his internet stuff to the memory stick & then I realised what he meant. He had started a Word document to write his email address, passwords & how to access Gmail, Internet banking etc and it was the Word doc he wanted to save. Sorted it the next day.

By Friday, he had mastered internet searching and probably used a Gig of the Next g allowance single handed. He had a great time finding local dance videos on YouTube. he had earphones on so the music did not disturb everyone else but occasionally broke into song or started clapping along. It was great to see him so confident. He is an effective personal computer user after four days.

As we packed up he got all excited. "We go hunting when you come back. Take the camera, maybe movie camera. Get geese and kangaroo and crocodile. Make hunting movie and show everyone." I am not sure if that was an invitation but Charlie wanted to know when we were getting back. I can send him an email to remind him. I suspect he is sufficiently fired up to find a computer he can use to continue his exploration of the electronic world. Of special interest is the considerable amount of Indigenous knowledge there. Over time, more and more records and photos from the past are published allowing that knowledge to "come home".

Charlie tells his own story on our participant blog at bianorthernterritory.blogspot.com

Scroll down a little to find it or click on the Charlie Ramandjarri link on the left.

Raminginning for a week

Raminginging from the air

We have been in Ramingining all week and we are pretty exhausted for a Friday night. I am exhausted from going up and down the shorter red road in this photo. Our training centre was at one end of this road and the business end of the community (all two buildings) was at the other. I must a done the trek 3-4 times a day and it is not fun in the heat. Actually the last two days have been much cooler and quite pleasant at times.

The flight in

We flew into Ramingining on Monday - Australia Day. The only celebration in town was a pancake morning tea run by the local community manager Russell. It was not popular - about as popular as Australia Day is in Indigenous Communities. When we arrived we wondered "down town" and within 5 minutes were sitting in the yard shelter with one family, getting quite a strong view of what Australia Day is about for Indigenous people. We also had a great introduction to the community and picked up lots of local knowledge.

The flight was terrific. It's only 10-12 minutes by air from Milingimbi and so we had a low flight. We were amazed at the difference in the trees and wetlands as we moved from the coast to the inland area. Trees bigger and much more diversity of flora.

The digs

The digs are much better on the inside than the outside. It's a open area with 8 bedrooms. The shared kitchen is well stocked and has lots of devices. We made some curries, roast veges and chops, sausages and mash and a mince-based stir fry. Today (Friday), the shop was closed, as a complete surprise to me. We needed to shop cause we have run out of the Darwin-based meat we brought with us. This meant we had 3 left over sausages. So I made oven-roasted stuffed sweet potatoes (herbs, onion, mashed potato and sweet potato middle with mustard and soy milk in the mash) and some chicken stock flavoured rice and the left over veges with the 3 sausages cut up and stir-fried as an accompaniment.

The local veges were okay, but did go off very quickly. You have to buy as little as you can cause it does not last once out of cold storage, even the potatoes and sweet potato. We shared the digs with people this week who ate frozen dinners for convenience. We could not do that. Imagine 6 months of them. With a trusty jar of curry, I can pretty well make anything edible.

Hopefully the shop will be open at Oenpelli tomorrow or we are eating our emergency dry food supply for the weekend. We do have 2 carrots, 1 sweet potato and 4 small potatoes as well. Please send recipes.

The kids are wonderful. I love em. These guys were playing "flick" in the dirt with plastic bottle tops. The game is huge and lots of kids get together to play. My godchildren and nieces and nephews should be embarrassed by what they have to play with compared to these guys. Interestingly, I think these local kids are happier. Also I have had nice baby hugs including a little mite today who fell asleep immediately I picked her up. I had to then carry her for an hour or so while running the workshop. Not the sort of thing "presenters" usually do.


Ramingining is where Ten Canoes was made. We met some of the stars! Lovely folk and I can easily imagine them in the movie. They seem to just fit the roles they played. Also one of the musicians on the movie. Great bloke. We can certainly recognise the bush from the movie. Been for a couple walks through the bush and the diversity is wonderful. Love the bird life too. Beautiful blue-winged kookaburra, flocks of Torres Strait Pigeons and some small green parrots. There are also millions of crows.... We have found out about some local lagoon and been invited down to one of the outstations - need a vehicle next trip.


There are some wonderful topical specimens in the bush here. My facebook mates have albums of them to look at. It's so hard to stop taking photographs while walking around here.

We give folks the cameras to use and judging by the hundreds of photos on each workshop machine, I reckon we have a photo of every single person in Ramininging. Everyone in town knew we were here, that's for sure. These guys followed me round on my walk one afternoon and gathered increasing numbers of mates. Felt like the pied piper. They used my camera to take photos of each other.

Workshop days

We had four terrific days with the Ramingining mob. Some people came every day and stayed all day. It was astounding to see the progress. One important local man made a multiple video DVD of his worker teams in the CDEP and it was amazing. It drew a crowd everywhere he took it and it is running in the store, been used in school and being used in motivating people. It was astounding to see how proud he was. I need to copy his video for just about everyone in town tonight. Other folks made family videos, made family portraits and collages and the ususal Cds etc. Three young men came in and had a ball with photoshop putting their faces on the bodies of famous people. Priceless fun! So another sucessful workshop which thoroughly exhausted us. I was too tired last night for a walk and tonight was no better, especially as we had to pack up too after the workshop.


This is the closest thing we got to a cocktail. Lime and lemon mineral water in a plastic wine glass with a block of ice in it. It looked so good, I had to take a photo.

Paul had a sore leg. It developed in Millingimbi. Started as a small red mark and by Tuesday it was very large and very angry. It looked like a tropical ulcer. He went to the local nurse here in Ramingining and they think it had developed into celulitus. A dose of heavy antibiotics later (and the threat of needles), it is much better. We wash it in a surgery soap we were given often and put two antibiotic creams on it including a triple-one we got in the US that is not avialable here. It is hard to believe how quickly things can develop in these sort of conditions.

My teeth still hurt. I can't imagine why you (my readers) choose to go to dentists. Senseless. I have pain now in my teeth and I had no pain before I allowed myself to be persuaded to have a tooth out and two fillings in case it went bad while we were away. My mouth is not the same. And my breaking tooth probably would have lasted years. It had already lasted 15-38 years without trouble. I've had my whine now.

Well we are off to Gunballanya (Oenpelli) tomorrow morning on another flight. Quite a long flight too. More then.

Hope everyone is well and happy.

Leaving

I feel a deep sadness as I prepare to leave each community after our time there. Over the two days of our "workshop" - more like multiple personal journeys really - we have come to know the stories, families and circumstances of so many beautiful people. Those who come to learn with us want to learn, want to explore this new way of seeing the world. They bring to it their knowledge, wisdom talent and understanding of the world that is so different to mine.

On our little laptops, they share themselves in many ways. D built a movie of her family to take home to play on her DVD player. She took the camera for a few hours capturing images of her world as she found it on that day. Through her photos, we met all of her family and their stories began to emerge as D titled her photos and added comments and music.

J had never used a computer before. several times on the first morning I found myself turning the mouse around in his hand so the pointer would move in the same direction as his hand. By the end of the second day, he has access to his internet banking, sent several emails including a photo attachment and had his own iGoogle web page. Front and centre of the web page is the Joke of the Day with the time to the right and the weather on the left. My favourite moment was when J verbally translated the joke of the day about a blonde air hostess into the local language and the room erupted into laughter. Not much chance of taking offense at blonde jokes here!

J spent the afternoon exploring the internet on his own turning up all sorts of interesting information. It would be a mistake to think people living in remote areas are only interested in their own back yard. R was interested in the cyclone information available at:

www.bom.gov.au/cgi-bin/silo/cyclones.cgi

R looked at several cyclones including Monica, category 5, who passed north of her then damaged Maningrida quite severely. Then he searched for Hurricane Katrina to learn about it's damage to New Orleans.

The internet is a wonderful tool allowing otherwise isolated people to explore the world. Unfortunately, through decades of neglect of our social responsibility, we have left our remote areas least able to enjoy this facility. It is true that people choose to live here. It is their traditional home and they have maintained culture and language in this place. They are entitled to enjoy their heritage and this beautiful place. They are also entitled to be part of mainstream Australia. For a country that boasted multi billion dollar surpluses for many years, we did little to service our social responsibilities when there was money to do so.

Hopefully young Devon with the magnificent smile, will grow up strong both in his culture and that of the rest of the world he can explore through technology as well s physically.

Arrived in Milingimbi

We feel we are here! It's the wet season in the NT and today we had our first near miss with the weather. It's the first trip for 2009 and we had to unpack the plane really quick to beat a huge storm. Not easy with 200kg of luggage. Here Paul is helping Ben unpack the big pelican cases which should keep our computers and network dry in transit.

Ben watching the storm as we approach Milingimbi.

We have arrived in Milingimbi just avoiding a big storm. We managed to get the gear into dry places before the storm hit. Ben the pilot did a great job of getting to Milingimbi around the showers in good time. The flight over was astounding - the Arnhem lands from the air is pretty amazing. We have settled into a flat, rather than a room. Troy helped us move our 200Kg a few times and soon saw we needed space. Because we were not expected, we had to do a bit of cleaning, but we have settled in well for the next 5 days. We are both pretty tired after organising and packing. Paul particularly. Now we are here, the pressure is off and we can just start work.


Milingimbi looks amazing. It is on an island separated from the mainland by a narrow channel. The rivers near the coast are incredibly large. I did not expect to see so many large river systems. I imagined lots of water but more as small rivers and wetlands - there was that but also with large rivers separating out the regions.


The green of the wetlands is striking. It would be wonderful to visit. We can't wait for the weekends while visiting these communities of the north.


Milingimbi is a small community by town standards but quite large in terms of those we are visiting - about a 1000 people when everyone is in. It is "on the beach" and we had a nice cool breeze when we went down town. We just have to find the locals' fishing spots now.

The training venue

We have a good venue, with the ever helpful Joe helping us get ready. We have lots of interest and expect a sucessful day.

The shop and main street.

We got our supplies for the weekend. We flew some stuff in but bought bulky items here today. prices were quite reasonable for many things and just strange for others. Its stocked okay just now and we got all we needed. We flew in some supplies and now we are set till Monday.

We'll add more to our blogg when we enjoy our Australia day weekend in Milingimbi fishing.

Back in Darwin

Marg and John - we promise we will clean up.

We are back in Darwin and all is well. We have retrieved things from the shed, donethe downloads on the computers and started packing again, so stuff will fit in planes. We have exploded into John and Marg's lounge room. Not a pretty sight, but it will all be normal by tomorrow. John and Marg are being brave letting us use their lounge room for sorting. It seems the heat in the storage shed did not do any damage.

We have more or less got organised. The charters are all booked. Most shopping done and the printing is ready to roll. Just have to organise the supply drops tomorrow and finalise catering.

Michelle arrived in Darwin with a sore mouth after a terrible tooth extraction under anaesthetic. Her mouth became infected and so she spent the first afternoon in Darwin at the Doctors. Two days later she has now started taking ordinary panadol and is unlikely to visit a dentist in the next 38 years. Hopefully she will be ready to fly away this week.

The big news of the day today is Michelle has her own fishing rod and lures. She can even cast without too much strife. No catch and only lost one lure in practice. Not a bad effort for someone with a sore mouth. Twas nice and cool on the water.

We get to have dinner with Stephe tomorrow before heading off. We will soon have much more interesting blog news as we travel out to Millingimbi and Raminginning on the first two weeks leg.

Hope everyone is fine at home!!!

Michelle and Paul ( on the road again!!!)