This Old Man

Learning "This Old Man" is so much more fun with the right choreography!

The landscape

Can you see the moon above Uluru? It feels as though the moon is everywhere here, it is prominent and lights up a clear and amazing view of our milky way. There are no street lights in Docker River, which has made locating planets and observing the ever changing night sky an absolute joy. This week I am taking some students on a camp out along with an astronomer and a telescope. Lucky me!

From the Docker River turn off you can see the Olga's from a different angle.

It is mostly about 30 degrees and perfect here but the winds at night are rather fearce, resulting in a the trees and grass all being uniformly slanted.

The landscape is absolutely amazing. I didn't imagine that it could ever be so beautiful. It's like someone has turned the colour up. The reds come in all shades, as do the greens and blues. Sunset is my favourite time of day, watching the blue sky turn to lilac, orange, yellow and finally black.

Good night to you! xxxx

Umenda - Pitantjara

Happy Weekend!

Pitantjara (Pit) is the first language of ‘the Docker mob’ as they call themselves. There are two people who know how to write in Pit, two elders who currently live in the community. Sadly, there doesn’t seen to be an urgency to pass this knowledge on. Students are taught in their second language, English, (spoken to them only by white fellas) and noone in this community can write in English. Much like me trying to learn in German, Haagen Dazs, now THAT I understand, but that’s about where it would end. As a result, when it comes to school the students are disengaged and disinterested.

Everyone here calls me Umenda, it’s my Pit name, the kids were chuffed to tell me and to call me by a name they had given me, they were chanting it and laughing at me, when I asked them what they were laughing and saying they said ‘You…Umenda, Umenda, Umenda’, lets hope it secretly doesn’t mean white woman who doesn’t know we can see her knickers through her dress.

It’s Saturday night as I write. My weekends here have been filled with pottery, knitting, painting and locating planets and constellations in the night sky. The pottery shed gets my company regularly, I spend a part of most days mixing paints and making tea for the ladies, mainly so that I can be in their company and listen to them singing, I have no idea what they are singing about but it sounds pretty amazing, one will start and before I know it everyone is chanting.

Spending time with Alison and learning pottery has been a wonderful experience, I am a long way from becoming friends with the pottery wheel but enjoying it very much and hoping that someone invents a collapsible wheel that 'folds down and slots under my bed with ease', my money is on Danoz Direct.

Hope everyone has had a great weekend!

Love Umenda xxxx

Which doctor?

Good morning!

I don't have the right attachment for the camera I am using, so for now, you will have to trust that my photos are amazing!

In the mornings I drive the school truck into town (ten minute walk) to collect all of the students (approx ten-on a good day) and bring them in for breakfast before starting class. Today was a little more interesting. I arrived as usual to collect an elder-Naomi. Usually Naomi is doing what everyone else in Docker is doing at that hour, sitting around a fire making tea, not this morning.

Today there were a lot of people pacing around the yard at Naomi's house there was chanting accompanied by exaggerated gestures . I pulled in to see what all the commotion was about and was informed that there was a Witch Doctor in town to perform a healing ceremony on a nephew of Naomi's who was being taken by the 'bad spirits' (I later discovered that these 'bad spirits' were manifesting themselves as a marijuana habit).

Naomi's nephew started walking around the community, trying to escape the attention (and no doubt find a cookie). The Witch Doctor followed him, along with around 30 other people, oh and me, trailing in the truck, trying to entice the students in with promises of painting and pottery at school! I got 2 in the end, a win by anyones standards!

Lots of love Shan,

P.S. HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the lovely Lucy McAlary! xxxx

Pitchury

Computers are slow, I rarely have access and there is so so SO much to take in about this place, the people, the intervention, the politics, the culture. Sorry for being a crap updaterer. I will attempt to share some of the details of Docker with you over the next week to give you an idea of what it's like here.

I will start with what I thought was a whole community of people with mouth cancer. Pitchury. You can see it in the mouth of the girl to the right in the photograph above.

Docker is a dry community, I was warned on arrival that there is a $50,000 fine for anyone caught with alcohol (rather severe for a community where there 99% of the population are unemployed don’t you think?). Petrol here no longer contains any mind altering qualities so people have come up with their own mind altering concoction. Pitchury.

Pitchury is a mix of ash from a particular tree (this tree looks albino, tall, thick and bright white, the contrast to the deep red earth surrounding it is pretty amazing) and tobacco, it is then then rolled into a ball and placed inside the lip. I am told that it brings numbness to the face and has a relaxed calming affect on the body and mind. The youngest person I have seen with pitchury is 3 years old. It is common for parents to give this to their children to chill them out.

Tonight I am moving houses, I have been living on my own in a little house (I was housesitting a cat-Finn, who despite my preference for dogs I ended up becoming rather good friends with). I am moving into 'the shed' where I will stay for the rest of my time here. I will update more throughout the week.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY for Sunday Mum.

Love Shan xx

Bush Camps

As of next week I will be going on weekly 2 night/3 day bush camps with Luke (the teacher-there is only one) and the students as part of a project that involves the students collecting photos and information about bush plants. This information will be then passed onto the elders who will share the traditional medicinal use for the plants. Luke hopes to publish these findings from Docker River to create funds that will go back into the community for future projects.

The camps will be at outstations, which are smaller communities that are so remote that they don’t come under a council. I am told that it is just a tin shed where a three or four families live. We will be sleeping under the stars in swags which will give me a good chance to track stars with my newly purchased constellation map. I am looking forward to story telling time when the sun goes down.

Oh, did I mention that the landscape is Amazing? Although I am not going to be able to do it justice I will try to get some photos up.

Have a good week!

Camel stew?

So, the deal l is, there are camels roaming wild here in Docker. Oh…and 3 donkeys (not to mention dozens of camp dogs). The only meat in Docker is camel. Camel snags, stew and even pizza…!! So I shouldn’t really have been all that shocked to be asked to go and open up the recreation hall so that some elders could go in and debone a camel. The camel is for the community stew night (that happens every Monday night). I help out Monday nights at the recreation centre so it will be my job to organize the cooking of this hump stew. Ummmmmm….sorry but I think I have swine flu!!

My plan was simple. To hide my dislike for all things with feathers, blood, guts and any other hints of grossness from the good people of Docker. I thought maybe this would help me to get a some much needed cowboy about myself. I knew it wouldn’t be so easy when I walked into my accommodation to see Emu feathers as a centre piece on a table…’Oh….is that?????’ Yes Shan, aren’t they beautiful Emu feathers? Ummm…. YESssssss…. I said as I was hiding them in a drawer (with my eyes closed). Surprisingly I managed to do ok when I was shown a camel hump with no skin on it, breathe, then answer, that is the trick! Oh right… so you make soap with the fat? Great! (Note to self, don’t buy soap in Docker).

The Kindness of Strangers

After the second girl in our group got sick the rest of us were collected from the MemO Club (memorial club) where we were challenging the locals in a spot of Trivia (and YES, Total Eclipse of the Heart WAS one of the answers!) and taken to a hotel (sans clothes and toothbrush!) to wait out the rest of our quarantine period separate from anyone who was already sick. The owners of the hotel somehow heard about the whole swine debacle and that our plans were delayed in heading out to our work placements.

We have a trailor full of food with us so we decided to cook up a bbq at the hotel when we were approached by the hoteliers. They invited us to use one of their tables, Yes please, Thank you! That would be lovely! We finished cooking and headed around the corner to find that they had set up a beautiful table, complete with candles, champagne and heaters for us. It has been a rather unpredictable week and the kindness of these two strangers went a long LONG way for us 4 city girls in this desert town.

Thank You Kel and Julie.

West Macdonnell Ranges

Alice is flat but the areas surrounding Alice Springs are quite stunning. Here are a few photos of the East Macdonnell Ranges that we walked yesterday.

We have now been in Alice for a week. Another of the girls travelling with us (Janice) has become sick and is suspected to have swine flu. It has been confirmed today that 3 of us will definitely be heading out tomorrow morning, as for Janice, hopefully she will come out through the week. Lauren, my partner and initial swine flu suspect has flown home today. Alison who is the Mission Youth Worker/potter who was coming to Docker is no longer coming, which means I am heading out on my own.

Alison has resigned but plans on visiting Docker before she goes back to Melbourne. She has offered to teach me how to run the pottery shed and use the kiln so that I can share it with the people of Docker. I am so excited to get out there and start working.

We are celebrating our last night in town by attending a performance of 7 short indigenous plays by the Red Dust Theatre Company.

Hoo Roo for now, have a great weekend, I intend to.

Shan xx

Swine oh Whine

We are back in Alice Springs for the next seven days. In swine flu lock down. Let me explain.

• Someone from our group was in touch with someone, who was in touch with someone, who had contact with someone in Sydney who had swine flu.
• There was A cough and a request to be taken to the hospital.
• The hospital would not test because there were "no flu symptoms ".
• Everyone was collected and driven back to Alice (it took the day for us to collect everyone).
• There are 6 of us in a 2 bedroom apartment.
• I reside with someone who wears a mask.

We leave on Monday and head back out to the communities. I can't wait to see Docker River, I have heard some wonderful stories about the people who live there.

For now, the sun is shinning high in Alice and with no swine flu, infact, no flu at all, I intend to take full advantage of the McDonald Ranges and ANZAC Hill walks.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Love Shan, Oink Oink xxxx

Ayres Rock and the Olgas

Yesterday was a lot of firsts for me.

We departed Alice and drove to the community of Imanpa where I was initially due to stay. It was mind blowing, I can't really do it justice here in the ten minutes I have to update this blog but lets just say, I have never been anywhere like it (not even Quandialla mum). The compound, where the whitefellas live, has high fences all around it and is locked up at night. It was red, flat and we had to be introduced to a few of the elders before we were allowed to drive in to make sure we weren't tourists (apparently German tourists try and rock up every now and then to take photos).

We drove on to Yulara and stopped for the night. Our accommodation is in a boarding school paid for by government and set up by the church. Not ONE person is enrolled for this term. Not bad for a $8.4m government intervention project. It's mighty flash tho and I sure enjoyed the sleep over, which must account for at least $100.

From my dorm window I can see the Olgas to the right and Ayres Rock to the left! We arrived here just in time for the sun to set over the Olgas. Magic! I will upload a photo when I can. The colours in this place are unbelievable!

The person driving us is Alison, she is a youth worker with Mission Australia. Thank god for her, she knows all the locals and last year was even invited to a return ceremony for 'mens business'. She is staying on in Docker River with us for 10 days which I am very grateful for. She has a pottery wheel and oven there and will run some classes with the elders which she has invited me to sit in on.

My other travel buddy Lauren is at hospital at the moment being tested for swine flu. She was in contact with a family member who tested positive before she left and is coughing. Alison was nervous about her taking swine flu out to Docker River where health is already fragile. There is a good chance I will be going to Docker without Lauren, the test results are back in a week and she may have to wait it out.

So far the NT is not what I had expected. I really couldn't have imagined that it could be this stunning.

Hope you are all travelling well.

Love Shanny of the big red rock. x

P.S. Oh and in case you are wondering, yes 4 girls did run away from the circus! We passed them on the bus and they were made come back to school, when I asked them where they were going they said home (7 hours in a car).

Yirara College

Here is a photo of the girls that I am staying with for 'cultural training' in Alice. They are all great girls and it's reassuring that we are all together. I will be travelling out to the community on Monday with Lauren (opposite me). There are two girls going out on their own!

We are staying for the weekend at Yirara College, it's a boarding school intended for the socialisation of aboriginal children, numeracy and literacy programs are replace with training in hygiene and life skills. Sleeping in the dorms and eating with the students has been quite an experience, everything is run by the sound of a bell and it is very strict. Tonight we get to take the girls on a trip to the circus (we are there mainly to ensure no one runs away) and tomorrow we are organising a scavenger hunt for the afternoon.

Now... Sunday night it is planned that the six of us will go into Alice and have dinner together, I think I it is fairly safe to say that I will take this opportunity to enjoy the last glass of red that I will be seeing for the next 10 ten weeks! The bush basher bush leaves at 8am Monday morning! Bring on Docker!

Love Shan x

P.S. Leachy! Have the best birthday party tonight!!! Love you.

Alice, Alice....

I have arrived! Unfortunately my bag has not arrived with me )-: QANTAS assure me that they have a good track record with missing luggage and that they can ship it out to me in Docker River on the bush bus should they find it, oh well, wasn't counting on being particularly clean anyway!

It is beautiful and sunny, the awesome kind of sun where you feel like you have loads of energy! The view from up high was beautiful, and RED! Looking forward to meeting my buddy, Lauren soon and heading into Alice for some cultural training before we head out to Docker on Monday.

Hope you are all travelling well.

Love Shan of Alice x