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Published: June 17th 2006
Shadow Boxing!
Me and my wonderful friend Katie (who's a lot like Emma)Maarli Mia means the home of the swan, and we saw tons and tons of it this week. It started with a famous Aboriginal artist painting three ganache works in front of us instead of going to class on Thursday. They were beautiful, and there's nothing like watching an artist work, especially if you know how they feel.
The next day we packed into a tiny little school bus bubble-like car thing (yeah I know, I'll get a picture of it next time), and drove all around and outside the city. We stopped at an Aboriginal art gallery where we got to hear stories from a tribal elder named Primus and were fed an amazing super fancy lunch of kangaroo, emu, crocodile, bush tomato and pepper pate, beer soaked macademia nuts, jam tarts, berry ice cream, and fresh pure grape juice off the vine that tasted like honey. It was incredible. I caught the elder alone after lunch and we had a talk. His eyes were beautiful when he said kangaroo and I said it back to him in Nyungar. Just that is worth learning the language. He explained to me his totem, the meeting place, which is symbolized by
Aboriginal paintings
A famous Nyungar artist painted these in front of us and donated them to the Kulbardi Aboriginal Centre a small, imperfect circle inside a larger one. The totem my teacher gave to me is the nyingarn, the echidna, but Primus said his was mine as well. I left with a handcarved boomerang decorated by fingertips dipped in tradtional white ochre by another elder, but this one was named Steve.
That same day we went to a beautiful sandbar below the city skyline where the Nyungar women used to collect turtles and bird eggs, and we watched dolphins playing in the water only a few yards away. We went to a small island held sacred by the Nyungar people and got to see a statue of their most beloved hero. On that same island, we found some kangaroos bouncing around. A ranger came up and gave us food for them and we lured them in and took a ton of photos. One torpedoed me. Then, just as my camera batteries died, we went to the highest point in the city, Kings Park, to see the buildings lit up. It was beautiful. That spot is where the Waakal, the creator snake of the Nyungar land, was supposed to have rested and the spot where the same snake delivered the
Ozzie rules football
These people are serious about their footy. It's like a mix between soccer and American football, and it looks like it would be really freaking fun to play so we're gonna when I get home righteous in the Nyungar version of the great flood story.
That same day we drove to two different pubs in our bubble school bus and one of my teachers bought me two glasses of wine at one and a pina colada at the other. That's school in Australia.
Today we went to an Ozzie rules football game. It was great. One of my teachers is a past pro player and he was very intense. Our team, well, their team, lost but it was still quite a good game. It's a mix of a lot of sports. It's mostly like American football except the down system is gone and the field is in the shape of a very large circle. It's like basketball in that you can only take about 15 steps without passing, bouncing, or kicking the ball, and it's like soccer in that the only way to score is by kicking the ball through three spaces. The central space is like a touch down, and the two outside spaces are like field goals. It's also like dodgeball in that if you catch the ball another team kicked before it hits the ground you get a free penalty
Uncle Sam?
This is the Australian come join the forces guy. Look familiar? kick. It's also like schoolyard fights in that they crawl over each other to get the ball and sometimes a heap of them will get in a big tangle and fight over it until you finally see someone pop out and run. And it's like quidditch because all the players can fly. We're all playing it when I get home.
I think that about covers it. I'll try to update this really often. I got my wireless to work in the apartment so, like now, I can update when my roommates are asleep and I'm bored. Cheers.
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Christie
non-member comment
Bring me a kangaroo
Really cool pics. I hope you are having a blast! Miss you!