Blog Entries for laine

Tribal Punishments

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100

"Several killin's were performed in these shoes," Billy continued, "but the karadji man doesn't always spear the criminal. The victim knows the executioner is always watching but he never knows when the blow will be struck."

Depending on the crime, the executioner might play with the fellow, leave signs that he'd been there while the criminal slept, move his things, or take something and return it another night. All these actions tell the victim the karadji could have kill [...]

Karadji Man

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Billy paused only a moment before moving to the base of the tree. He fished through a tattered box. Before he showed us this prize, he offered a serious warning.

"You can both look but only the bloke here can touch. These are men's objects. Even though you're not a tribal member, they have such a strong curse I would be afraid for you if you broke tradition."

He produced a pair of slippers woven from human hair and feathers.

"I keep them hidden so tribal women won' [...]

Government-sanctioned Genocide

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

After learning about the Stolen Generation, I mentioned to an Aussie that while I had been greeted warmly I was unsure how a black tourist would be treated.

He felt that black Canadians, Americans and Europeans were afforded the same courtesies I had enjoyed. Africans and Jamaicans fared well but were considered inferior. Australian blacks ranked last.

Apparently the kinds of experiences Billy had suffered during his youth were still alive and well Down Under. The young American [...]

Stolen Generation

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

As the rest of the audience hurried away after the lecture, a young American asked Billy's opinion on a few things. Billy soon spoke of his youth.

He had grown up at a time when the Australian government had thought children of mixed race would be better raised in white households.

He and many other children had been forcibly removed from their families, split apart from siblings and raised in foster care. They had been denied information about their biological families.

[...]

Aboriginal Dancing

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

Billy explained the Aboriginal concept of time. Even now many tribes follow their own rhythm, something a non-native might think is a total lack of concern for the passing hours and days. To understand this, he said to look not only at cultural differences but the weather.

The extreme heat of summer doesn't encourage vigorous activity. In fact, Aborigines tend to think white men are crazy to rush around in the middle of the day.

"You won't see any tribal people that silly," h [...]

Hunting Kangaroos

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 25 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

The docent Billy passed around traditional items to aid his lecture. The nulla nulla or fighting stick had been fashioned from the ironwood tree, a hardwood that attracts lightening. The nulla nulla was used for digging the ground or pounding food.

A sharp flint inserted in the end might have been used in battle to cut the enemy but more often had sliced open game. The animals would have been thrown onto the fire whole to singe the hair and the blade wouldn't have been used until the meat was [...]

Billy Tea

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

An outdoor museum called Pitchi Richi was the final stop on my list of Alice attractions. Agricultural equipment and water tanks from Australia's colonization were preserved on the lawns.

Magnificent flowers burgeoned before the house, the most spectacular of which was the Stuart's Desert Pea. The vine bloomed an elongated flower like a split, red pea pod with a large black swelling at the middle.

The highlight of the day was a demonstration of boomerang and spear throwing, bullwh [...]

Always Travel Alone

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

"Excuse me!" A woman charged across the clearing to my campsite. She stopped just short of bulldozing me with her ample hips.

"Can we share this space?" She waved at two vehicles puttering nearby. "There isn't another clear spot left."

"Sure, come on over," I replied.

The spot was rocky and the Kombi wasn't a 4WD. Besides, a bit of company sounded like an appealing change from my long evenings of solitude.

My fingers paused abo [...]

Quiet Outback Days

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

South of Alice, a parking bay became my new camp. A few trailers at the edge of a stream looked as if they had been entrenched for weeks. I set about my own routine for making camp.

First I stocked up on firewood. A pit had been dug by a previous camper, leaving me only to round up a half-dozen fair sized rocks. The rocks would contain the fire, provide a shelf for the kettle, and retain heat long after the embers died down.

Aborigines traditionally used rocks extensively for cooking. [...]

Meet a Handsome Man

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Melody asked if I had met any nice guys during my travels. When I said no, she rummaged through her pockets and turned out a handful of condoms. She shuffled the packets and spread them on the table.

"Take one, be safe," she said. "You never know, you might see a handsome man. Wait, I pick one for ya. What color you like?"

"What colors do you have?"

"I had blue but now only black and white."

She gave me a sly look. I lau [...]

Dreamtime Babies

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

In Alice Springs the Todd River provided a dry bed in which mothers gave birth.

According to the Dreamtime tales, Moon created female babies and Lizard brought male children.

Since the afterbirth contained a portion of the newborn's soul, the waste was buried. This shielded the spirit from animals and other spirits that might take it away.

Infants were found in hollow logs, caves or in the shade of scrub when a woman's time was near. The souls of babies also congregated in [...]

Gone Down with the Rain

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

In a pub one evening an Aboriginal woman named Melody paused by my table to chat. Soon she asked me to meet her friends. They spoke Aboriginal Creole, a mix of English and local tribal languages.

Melody had been a teacher and a health counselor for the local tribes until her job had "gone down with the rain."

"Down with the rain, shh." She hissed through her teeth and rocked on the barstool. "But I stay here, this my home. Not Alice, ya know, but out, ya [...]

My First Didgeridoo

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

I returned to the Alice to purchase a didgeridoo, an Aboriginal wind instrument created when termites hollowed out a branch. Kinks and curves increase the richness of the sound.

Even though mine was straight it produced a wonderful mellow tone. A rough sprinkling of sand overlay white, red, brown and yellow bands as if a wind had blown up before the paint had dried.

The sound had haunted me for years after I had first heard a recording of the instrument accompanied by click stic [...]

Natural Beauty

inkimp@earthlink.net — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Not all Aussies were oblivious to the beauty of their land. The next morning I prepared my shower. A swimsuit maintained my modesty but otherwise I splashed unsheltered.

Performing such a basic and personal task under the sky further connected me with the earth. Bushes were in flower, one a faint purple and the other pink. Fuzzy golden wattle cushioned my feet against the red earth. Broken rock jittered through the ground like the bony spine of a flame dragon.

A ute pulled up as [...]

Conservation

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

Dusk waltzed arm in arm with the cold. I lounged around the fire with an older couple who were camping in a trailer. The fire was the typical Australian-built inferno; they seemed to always build a bonfire even when an average blaze would have sufficed.

Then the couple boiled a giant billy, a kettle or pot used to heat water. We drank only a few cups of tea. Wood and water were both previous commodities in a desert landscape.

I had expected the average Australian to be more cons [...]

Give and Receive

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

After I had freshened up, a couple who had been camped in this one spot before me waved me over. They offered me a cuppa tea and bickies, or cookies. The Aussies called cookies sweet bisquits, and shortened nearly every word over one syllable down to something ending in -ie or y. Thus we had bickies.

Although elderly, the man insisted on collecting the firewood I would need for that night. I was a woman, you see, and he didn't want to see me hurt myself. Then he ratcheted into the dese [...]

The Necessaries

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

One day I pulled over early to do laundry bush style. I washed my shorts and shirts in a bucket then draped them over a clothesline. The window frame of the car acted as one post while a tree was the other.

Sun and wind quickly pulled the moisture from my tiger-print undies. I left them to dry as I hiked deeper into the bush to answer the call of nature. If I wanted to make sure no stray drivers got an eyeful of my shiny butt cheeks, I had to do a lot of walking during the day. The thin scrub [...]

Beware the Drop Bears

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

After the British fellow admitted to having been scared by the deadly redback spider, I couldn't help but whip out the other favorite Aussie fable.

"Have you heard about the drop bears?" I asked. "Oh, now there's another terrible bush peril. You know those fuzzy things that look like little bears?"

"Koalas," he said.

"Whatever. They live in trees and eat nothing but certain types of eucalyptus leaves."

He nodded; thi [...]

Redback on the Toilet Seat

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

My conversation with the British fellow shifted to the more amusing Aussie quirks. We laughed over the fabled redback spider. Cousin to America's black widow, this spider had a red mark on its back rather than its belly.

While many pioneers had fallen prey to the tiny fiend, antivenin and a long reaction period had reduced the spider's list of victims. The danger had been raised to mythic proportions by the Aussie sense of humor, though.

The redback tended to hang out where human [...]

First Day in the Alice

inkimp@earthlink.net — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0100

The population this side of Never Never was so sparse, I navigated using only a map of the nation. Dots scattered like knuckle bones across the outback occasionally consisted of two or three shops but were often just roadhouses dropped among the mulga.

Alice Springs was large for such a remote town. As I wandered the streets a young British fellow joined me on my hunt for the post office. After dropping our relatives postcards to assure them that we weren't dead yet, we went to a local [...]