Volunteering Day

Today, all of Group Corporate Affairs volunteered in the community. My group volunteered at Weave, a community organisation in Waterloo. We built planter boxes for the kids to grow gardens on the rooftop terrace of Weave.

Bawaka - Day 2

Waking up in Bawaka after an amazing night's sleep - listening to the waves lap the beach. Each morning we've had a quick, big rainstorm, then a perfect day.

Grace is braiding my hair.

And doing a fantastic job!

Peter is attempting the yadaki.

Nikey is still hanging around - why wouldn't he when he gets his morning steak!

Everyone watching Nikey

The boys speared quite a few fish this morning - mostly mullets.

And some Queenfish.

Nikey eating a fish belly.

The family hangs out a bit closer to Nikey than the rest of us...

Lak Lak has published a few books, and her newest one is called 'Welcome to my country' and we all got her to autograph it before we left. Peter's her first customer.

We've split up to do men's and women's business. For women's business, we're weaving. First part of weaving is going out into the bush and finding the plants that make the red dye. Diane leads the way. (Meanwhile the men are spearfishing...)

Lak Lak - my yapa (which means she's my sister now that I have a skin name)- digging for the plants.

So, all of the grass is really rough, and you have to find the smooth green blades among the rough grass, and those are the plants with the red bits on the bottom. All of the ones I find they say are too small to dig up.

Next, we go to a place with a lot of pandanus trees. Diane brings along a big stick that she uses to get at the young fronds from the center.

While picking pandanus fronds, we have to steer clear of all the green butted ants.

Lak Lak teaches us how to split the pandanus and then we leave them in the sun to dry.

Donna and I are trying to make ours look like Lak Lak's.

Next we go through the plants and peel out the red bits, and will boil them on the fire with the dried pandanus.

Lisa separates the plants.

Saying goodbye to Bawaka: (back) Donna, Rob, Andrew, Shyrell, Bill, Derek, Arian, (front) Lisa, Diane, Lak Lak, Djawa, Peter.

Back in Nhulunbuy on my hotel balcony at the Walkabout Lodge, and 4 BIG cockatoos flew at me all at once and are now hanging out. There's a kookaburra on the balcony next door.

Sunday - Back at Gove Airport and checking out Arian's band East Journey's merchandise in the airport store.

Bawaka - Day 1

We arrived in Gove Airport on Thursday night after an afternoon of travelling (Sydney to Cairns to Gove). We were picked up by our host, Djawa and Matt from Lirriwi Yolngu Tourism and wento into Nhulunbuy to stay at the Walkabout Lodge. Strangely, the bar was already closed so we went down the street to the Arnhem Club to get to know the group.

On Friday morning we left Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, to visit Yirrkala and tour the art gallery and learn more about Yolngu culture. Yirrkala is known for the 1963 bark petitions to Parliament and much of the art is painted on bark panels. The key pieces were the church panels - one from each part of the Yothu Yindi kindship - Dhuwa and Yirrtja -- with a panel from each clan.

Then we drove 2 hours south down to Port Bradshaw with our host Djawa (also known as Timmy).

The roadtrip with Rob, Andrew, Derek and Bill in our car.

Lisa

Arian and Peter

Donna and Lisa

We're entering as guest of Djawa's family so we don't need to get permits like the last time I was in Arnhem Land.

This is a paperbark tree that has had a bark panel cut out to use as a canvas for artwork.

Stopping for Djawa to teach us about some key trees and plants.

Andrew

Lisa and Bill

Bill and Arian

The road gets progressively more adventurous.

The boys are bogged.

The boys trying to push the car out of the sand. It didn't work, we had to use a winch and pull it back.

Finally, the 'natural massage' sandy road is over and we're driving on the beach.

A jabiru - very cool and very rare as they're usually found in swamplands not oceans.

Arrival at Bawaka.

Theo and David speared some fish (mullets) in about 2 minutes of arriving at the beach.

They gutted the fish and put them back in to cook them.

Fresh fish on the fire for lunch.

Slowing down to Bawaka time.

Best classroom ever!

Learning the kinship structure and our skin names. We each went off into the bush and brought back an item that was identified as Dhuwa or Yirrtja. From there, we know which half of the ying/yang kinship we belong to and there's a set of names for girls and boys. Once we have our skin names, we are welcomed into the family and see how we related to everyone. For example, Lak Lak is my sister (yapa) which means that Djawa and Arian are my sons. Nara yaku Jennifer. Nara Dhuwa. Nara malk Galjan.

Out to Lonely Beach for sunset.

Arian, Bill, Djawa & Jen

Amazing cliffs on the beach.

We all went up and down the cliffs on the trail and Shyrell went straight up the rocks.

Andrew leading the skipping stones competition.

Grace and Jen

Derek and the girls.

The guys gather firewood for our bonfire.

Peter gathers a bundle.

Rob drags a few trees back to camp.

Andrew with a good batch of tree limbs.

The bonfire is looking good.

Bill and Rob getting ready for bonfire time.

Lak Lak, Theo, Lisa, David and Djawa

Donna, Peter, Andrew and Derek

It's time! Nikey arrives on the beach in time for a steak.

View of Bawaka from our sleeping area.

Arian cooking dinner.

The bonfire has a remarkable image of Biyini - the female spirit of Bawaka.

The boys speared a mud crab. After they put it on the fire, it crawled out so we had to put it in on its back.