Weekend in Oenpelli

It is Saturday night and all is well. We have been adopted by a ginger cat, who has taken command. He has spent every minute he can in the cabin curled up on the bed and begging at the fridge all the rest of the time. As I write this he is curled up on my feet. He seems to like being the centre of attention.

We have food this weekend at Oenpelli, different to last visit, and at the moment we have a red curry bubbling along. Nice veges in the curry and have some local bananas for dessert.

We are exhausted after an incredibly busy workshop in Minyerri this week. So today was always going to be a rest day. It was also a chores day - we have a washing machine in Oenpelli and so this morning we took advantage. Then of course it rained, so we had the washing hanging up in the air con; and then the power browned out so low, it would not even keep the light on. But after a big day, it is all dry.


As you can see the digs we have are quite nice. It's like a cabin you would find at the beach - about 10 feet wide and 25 feet long, with an inside toilet and shower; and a little veranda. There is a very small kitchen with a microwave, desktop burner and an electric frypan. We have a small table and a bed. It's clean too which is not usual. The view from our digs is unbelievable. We have a view across the water to Injalak Hill which has so many colours as the light and mood of the weather changes. It is almost as changing as Uluru. I can see why this place gets so many tourists in the dry. We will be back too. It's too wet to get to the hill this weekend. We had hoped to have an escorted walk up to the paintings.

It's been a report writing day today. We had a huge sleep in and after the "chores", we went for a long walk to the end of the road. The community here is totally surrounded by water. It's an island really, in the middle of very full wetlands. The lagoon just opposite our cabin seems to be at a reasonable level, but further down the road it is extremely wet. It is about 3 K to the end so we walked up to see how people were going - heard a few people were fishing down there.

It was a beautiful walk - what a treat to see the wetlands up close and get closer to the escarpments.


There is no one coming in or going out. This is the road. It stretches for as far as we could see. Its deep enough for people to fish in. There were two families fishing using frogs as bait..... I was a bit amazed at the kids frolicking in the water.... The wetlands are very full of crocs.


The rock formations of the escarpments are spectacular. Some we can not go to because they are sacred sites, but we can walk on the roads near them. I had never been to Arnhem Land before this project and I have been very impressed with the landscapes. Oenpelli has an amazing mixture of environments. It's hard to believe we get paid to come and see this.


Even the flight over was terrific. It was pretty wet on the way from Minyerri to Oenpelli, so the pilot had to scout around storms. This meant we got to see some amazing country and the last half at 2000 feet. It was wonderful - waterfalls, wetlands, huge formations, gorges. Wonderful views, even though it was raining. We loved it and planning a helicopter ride now through the georges when we finish this project. It is actually hard to believe how much water is down there in the wetlands. There is sooooo much more water about since the last time we came here.


We spent a few days in Darwin since our last blog. We bought supplies for the next four weeks and arranged for them to be shipped out to Maningrida and Yirrkala. It was good having coffeeshop treats and catching up with folks. We managed to have some decent sleepins and have our usual visits to rearrange everything in the shed. We also had to buy all new cameras, cause they have all been broken. Think the dust and wet finally got to them. Lucky we lost them close to a visit to Darwin. Got a video camera too, so we have fun making videos and helping others learn to use video too.

We then drove to Katherine, having a meeting at Humpty Doo on the way. We flew from Katherine to Minyerri where we ran an exhausting set of workshops. The deal on arriving in Minyerri was to buzz the house of the community manager and he would come and meet us. Amazingly, this worked. We did have strife getting into the accommodation cause people were away and the person with the "spare" key had gone fishing. We eventually got the policeman to look twice and he found a key. Paul actually left Minyerri with the key in his pocket, so its been a bit of a key saga. He also flew to Darwin with the car keys in his pocket - the car was on Groote Eylandt. Maybe it's time I took control of the keys......

Minyerri was exhausting. We had four days with 30 or so people a day crowding into a room for 10 laptops. Very keen. People just love technology and really take advantage of our time in town. We worked until 7pm one night. It was the most draining time we have had. We got folks making more sophisticated video products which we played on the big screen each afternoon.


Our blog is not full of interesting stories this time. The travelling round is getting pretty routine for us. We move every Wednesday and Saturday morning and write a report in the afternoon for the nameless ones. We do try and get out and enjoy the places we are in, during the afternoons and spend a bit of time setting up if we can.

The most interesting thing yesterday was we went to the Gunbalanya "club" which is open on Friday afternoons from 5-8pm serving mid-strength and light beers. We were invited to pop along by Anthony and Suzette the art centre managers to meet the artists. We met Cruscoe Kurdall who was one of big stars in Ten Canoes. He played the hunter, brother of the main character. He is pretty good looking.... He humbugged Paul for two beers, but it was very interesting talking to him. We've met three of the actors/musicians so far.

We are looking at a 4wd camper at the moment. Organising for an RACQ Inspection this week. Hopefully it will mean we can really retire... or keeping driving to work. let you know when we know.

Hope things are well with family and friends. Keep in touch with us. Its wonderful to get email or Facebook notes from folks. Helps us feel connected.

Much love till next blog.......

Reward after writing yet another report

It is Sunday night and all is well. We have had quite a journey since we last wrote. Some bunch of people who will remain nameless, but know who they are, make us write all these reports after each community visit. I have usually run out of puff by the time I finish each report to blogg. But I finished early today.

Groote beaches

We have arrived on Groote Eyeland, after travelling to Galiwin'ku and Yirrkala. On Groote, we are staying in a very nice resort beside ET's fishing business. It has been lovely to have luxury digs, good resturant and a wonderful new venue for our workshop at the art gallery. Tonight as we had a beer (first in weeks), eating a steak and salad (also first in weeks), watching the sun set over the water, we had a croc swim past. It has been a wonderful weekend walking the beaches of Groote. Many are closed because of Sorry business (funeral tomorrow) and because it is too wet to drive to them. It sure rained on Saturday but we managed to get all the gear under cover before it started.

Wonderful wildlife, especially the birds, though I did get fascinated by butterflies this afternoon. We can't believe we get to visit these wonderful communities and places. It's a pretty good retirement we are having.

We had the most beautiful flight coming here from Nhulunbuy (20k from Yirkala). It was fine when we left Nhulunbuy and clear. We flew down the coast and the blue waters and beaches kept us clicking the cameras the whole way down. People here were envious of our luck to get such a good morning in the wet season. We could see the storm building as we landed and it pelted down soon after we arrived. It was a pretty good way to spend our anniversary.

Manganese mines

We knew there were two major Indigenous communities here and a resort, but had no idea about the size or location of the mining community and the little town. That's how much I bothered to look up... So we have strong next G access and three places to go out to eat. There is even a bakery where we got real bread. Because we are staying in a resort, we can have a beer on site or at the clubs. We have not been able to have any beer since Darwin. Big surprise. Can you believe I had everything organised for our visit, except to find out where the town was or even that there was a town. We had to ask about 4 people before we found it and that was mainly cause I was not looking for a town.

Flying over the Indigenous community Angurrkwa, which is not Alyangkwula where we actually ended up.

We had some treats in Nhulunbuy. It was the first time since we had seen a Woolworths, (another mining town). We even had a Cappuccino. We also got another washing machine to use. Its the little things really that count. We actually did not look around Nhulunbuy much. I think we are getting tired. By the time we went to the community and solved our promotion and plane problems, the travel day was over. The travel problem was a plane size problem. The charter company we decided to use on this side of Arnhem land could not fit our gear into their plane, so I had to ring around and get another group to take us at no notice. Lucky!!!

The airvan we got at the last minute fits in our three 36Kg cases and 20K printer plus 4 bags and 2 bckpacks and my food bag. In all this I have a 10 Kg clothes bag allowance.....

The community we were working in was called Yirkala. It was 20 K out of Nhulunbuy set in amongst some really nice beaches and wetland forests. Thus the art gallery there was into poles, carvings and bark. It was a very vibrant art centre but it was incredibly more expensive than any other we have seen, so it is well and truely out of our league. The people there are terrific and we had a terrific workshop, even though the three contacts we had had all left the community in the last week and omotted to tell anyone we were coming. First time that has happened and usually avoided by having three contacts in a community.

Just in case you wonder if we do any work, some evidence from the Yirkala workshop. I worked with the girls and Paul worked with the boys here (and two women).

The team at Yirrkala.

Before that we had been in Galiwin'ku, a community on an island in the north. It was a pretty large community with many outstations. Some nice places - makes you realise why folks like to live out on their homelands. We were pretty shocked to find out about thefires. We did not know of course, without good Tv, but a facebook friend talked about it and we turned on the tv to be pretty shocked. The digs at Galiwin'ku were "interesting", and had to be shared with about 8 others. Downstairs was non existant, and upstairs had several condemable features, including the state of the floorboards and steps. It was a good pennance for the next two luxury towns such as they are. At least they were towns.

The Yirkala beaches

We are actually at the end of the first circuit of the first 8 communities. So later this week we head back to Darwin to restock the supplies, rearrange the shed and do a few days meeting people to organise the next round of the communities and write yet another report.

It will be terrific to visit communities for the second time. At least we know where they are and which one we need sheets for and which ones we have to bring crockery for. Also we know the folks we are going back to work with and looking forward to that bit. We love the second visits. Hopefully we will also catch more fish......

Looking forward to staying with Marg and John again and having the curry nights.

Sad News

I had a phone call today from one of our participants in a community we recently visited. Normally that is great news as it means they are continuing on with what they started with us and just need a bit of help. Today, though, was different. I will not use any names out of respect for the people involved but this is not going to be the only story of this kind in the communities. It is an important story that should be shared so I will tell it without the names and without pictures.

Using PhotoStory 3, the lady had made a DVD about her family that was set to music and could be played on her home DVD player. She was very proud of her work and it was shown all around town and enjoyed by many. Today, she asked for help to change the story.

Her sister-in-law had died of shame by her own hand. She had been a good worker at the local store and was in her early thirties. She had been caught taking money from the store and most people believe she had been humbugged into it. It is called humbugging here when people pressure other people to do things. Often it is as simple as asking for smokes. At other times it is much more serious.

It seems that there was some serious humbugging about money. The sister-in-law had a good job and did not need the money so it seems very likely that she was pressured into taking it for someone else. She was caught and the penalty is always dismissal. Without severe penalties, there would be a lot more stealing and it is likely no locals would get jobs.

The shame was too great for her and she paid the highest price possible. Life can be cheap here.

We have heard stories of people who give up work because they are humbugged too much by those without a job. That is one of the consequences of high levels of unemployment. Those with a job get a hard time from others who need money to survive too. Things here cost about twice as much as they would in Brisbane but the average money available to each person is quite low. As schemes such as no work, no pay begin (including work for the dole) there will be even more pressure on people with jobs. 

Tomorrow, I will talk on the phone with the lady who made the DVD as we have the original version of her work and can delete the photos of sister-in law. You show respect for those who have passed here by not looking at photos of them - at least until the sorry time is over. We will burn a new DVD and send it back  so the joy of the workshop can continue while respecting the deep sorrow of the loss.

There may be many more of these. We will leave the program and the original work with people so they can change it themselves as they need to. Some will put the DVD away until the sorry time is over. Others will make the changes. For some though, the DVD may be put away for a long long time as there are too many passings.

On a personal note, my cousin Robert will be buried tomorrow. Robert was about 13 when I can first remember him. I was about 3 then. He is a part of my special childhood memories of wonderful times spent at the beach at Uncle Gordon, Aunty Patsy and Robert's home. They were always wonderful times. Uncle Gordon was a beautiful gentle man who spent his last 22 years in a wheelchair. I was privileged to sit by Aunty Patsy as she faded away in hospital. I would love to be able to see Robert off tomorrow but it cannot be.

Vale Robert and thank you for your contribution to my childhood. That is a time never forgotten and you will forever be an important part of it. 

Gunbalayna and Maningrida

Gunbalayna from the air with wetlands and Injalak Hill clearly visible.

We spent last week in Gunbalayna or Oenpelli which is on the eastern side of Jabiru country. It was wonderful. After the flatter country of the other Arnhem communities, it was terrific to see hills and landscape structures. The colours are just unbelievable. We will go and spend more time in the escarpments next time. We met the guys who do the tours of Injalak Hill ( below) to visit the cave paintings. It should be drier, so we can go. We did visit the art centre and picked up some pressies for people and us. It was fun seeing the art of the people we worked with - added to our respect of their talents.


This view from our accommodation was wonderful. Landscapes all around the famous Injalak Hill in the foreground. We also had very close wetlands, especially in the rain - watching the locals fish from plastic chairs to avoid crocs was a bit of fun! The afternoon walks were just so breathtaking and the bird life was very diverse. We saw so many species. Even Jabirus as we landed.



We had a food disaster - well almost. The shop at Ramingining closed on the Friday and we had run out of most of the Darwin Supplies we brought with us. Then on the trip over it rained and we turned back ( last blog). On arrival into Gunbalanya, it was too late to catch the shop and they were closed to Monday, so I had three left over cooked sausages, two potatoes, a carrot and some dried food and some curry for two days meals. So from now on, I'll make sure we have weekend food.

We also have learned to carry a tea towel, a chux, other cleaning bits and some detergent. We usually have to clean before we can either do the training or live in our digs. Gunbalanya accommodation was an exception, but the training room was awful till we cleaned it. The digs also had a washing machine which was a huge bonus. We have only seen one working washing machine since Darwin.

We loved the flight into Manigrida. The airstrip is rather close to the sea, but not as short as some we experienced in Torres Straits. The community is on the sea and has several lovely beaches. We went fishing and lost 4 lures. I built a album on my Facebook of the beach combing I did. It is rather hard to believe, so I had to get photographic evidence.


Manigrida is a buzzing community and they had two shops, one which had lots of fresh veges and soy milk. We even got another jar of curry. We could have bought a new boat but the BIA Budget does not stretch that far.


We loved the town. So many people doing great stuff. We had involvement from Art centre staff, male and female rangers and the Women's centre. There is more separateness of men and women here that we had not experienced before. I also learned that only women should play the digeridoo, which explains why I am so bad at it.


The Art Centre was breathtaking to walk into. There were incredibly large painted posts, bark and wooden crafts. We are contemplating our next acquistion. We won't make any money this trip if we keep spending. It is so hard to resist when it is so terrific.

We stayed in the Art Cottage which was attached to the Museum. It was amazing! It was so well organised and so beautifully compiled. We were very lucky to be given the keys for the weekend and had two visits. Next time, we will get Marcus, the very talented tour guide to tell us all the stories behind the artefacts and the museum. We also have to get better at this fishing thing.

We are on a diet of good steak now. paul fixed a computer for the manager of the Abattoir, and he was so grateful, he gave us a huge packet of meat. Loving it. if only we had salad to go with it.

Well we left Maningrida and flew to Galiwin'ku today on Elcho Island. More about that next time. Love to all!

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.