Garma!

Wow. That was all that I expected it to be and more. The few people that I had talked to here in Sydney before I went, (who had been to the festival before,) built it up so much that by the time I was leaving Sydney I was almost worried that I was expecting too much from it... this was not the case.

I will only give a brief overview here, as: 1) I don't want to spend a ton of time right now on the internet describing it, and 2) I am not allowed to post pictures from the festival on my blog, so the visual images will have to wait until I see you all in person, and can give you a better idea of what I was fortunate enough to experience.

Each morning, I would wake up around 6:30 to be ready for breakfast at 7am. The usual breakfast was a choice of either cereal, or bacon,eggs, sausage, potatoes, etc... or both/ whatever you wanted. The tent that was our dining area was right on the edge of this escarpment, looking out on an incredible view: a great way to start each day. After breakfast, we would head back to our camp site to have our little morning meeting. This morning meeting could include anything from a welcoming ceremony provided by the Yolngu family hosting us, to a discussion about some cultural topic, to an overview of what the events of that day would hold, to simply a cup of tea/coffee and some friendly chatter with the other festival goers.

I was part of the 'cultural tourism' group, which included about 30 men and 70 women. A lot of the activities were divided up into groups of men and women. Some of the people there were doing study related things like me, while others were simply curious Australians who were interested in learning more about the Indigenous culture of their country. Over all, I think there were over 3000 people at the festival, probably about half Aboriginal, and half non-Aboriginal. A large portion of those people were there for the key forum, which was only a three day festival, rather than the five days that I was there... and also, it was mainly just lectures and discussions in tents around the camp grounds: much more boring that what I got to do.

Each day we would do some fun activity: spear making, fire making, fishing... etc. and then at 4 o'clock, we would all gather at the central ceremony grounds to watch the evening bunggul, (dance ceremony). This would run for 2 to 3 hours, and consisted of various clan groups from around Arnhem land coming in to perform a set of their traditional songs and dances for us. It was great because it was very much like a lot of the things I have been reading about, but I was actually there in the action. That was the greatest part of this festival, I really got to experience it, and be there first hand.

After the bunggul and then dinner, there were a number of options for the evening. You could either go to an astronomy session, led by some astronomers from nearby communities. (This was really cool, because they brought some big telescopes to look at the southern sky... they also told some stories that related the stars to Aboriginal culture.) Or, you could go to the nightly film showing, at which they would show various documentaries, short films, etc. about Aboriginal culture. Or... you could go to the nightly concert, where various Aboriginal/ non-Aboriginal groups would perform anything from rock and roll, country, hip-hop, etc... One of the most famous performers was Jimmy Little, who was one of the first Aboriginal country musicians to become famous (back in the 1960's). He is getting a bit older now, but is still playing, and is an amazing guy. I got to talk with him briefly later in the week, which was really cool. Anyways, the concerts would go past midnight usually, at which point I would drag myself back to my tent and pass out on my air mattress, to wake up and have another amazing day the next day.

It was such an amazing experience, and I'm so glad I was able to go up there and experience such a different culture than what I'm used to.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who have kept up with my blog this summer. It was nice to get comments from many of you at various points throughout my stay here in Australia, and just to know that you all were interested in what I was doing and learning. I can't believe how fast the time flew by, and that I'm already heading back to the States tomorrow. I look forward to sharing more of my pictures and stories with you all, as well as hearing about all that I missed back in the US.

signing off.
-the didgeridude.

The Three Sisters

A Little bit of useless trivia for you: August 1st is the official birthday of all racing horses in Australia. Little did I know, the official horse birthday is January 1st in the Northern hemisphere. Who knew?

Friday morning, Peter and I headed down to Newtown to meet up with Chris Gibson, the co-author of Peter's book 'Deadly Sounds, Deadly Places.' Chris's field is human geography, and his most recent work deals with the effects of tourism on certain areas of Australia. He is a really interesting guy, and was really friendly as well. I found it kind of interesting that he and Peter wrote this book together when they don't even work in the same field. I guess it makes sense though, as they could then bring in different ideas and viewpoints on the same subject. It turns out that they were originally introduced because they had done work in the same region, studying the same general area of Aboriginal culture. As a result, they started talking, and realized that they had many complementing ideas and worked really well together. First they wrote a few articles together, and then developed some of them further, along with new material, into this book. Cool.

After lunch, Peter and I went in to Zoo. It was interesting to see what sorts of animals they had there. Originally, the zoo didn't even have Australian animals... it was more the kind of zoo I would be used to seeing in the states. Eventually, however, they decided to add Australian animals as well, though, which is good. Now, in addition to the elephants, giraffes, lions, bears, etc... they also have the kangaroos, wallabies, echindas, koalas, snakes, etc. As part of the day, there was a bird show at a little outside amphitheater. To start it, they had this commentary playing over loudspeakers, and all of these birds were trained to fly in, run across the stage, or whatever. It was great. Then one of the trainers came out and talked for a while. She even had one of the birds go take a coin from one of the ladies in the audience, (and then later return it to her.)

Blue Mountains! This weekend I got to spend out in the Blue Mountains, which are beautiful. On Saturday morning I took the train out to Michaels house, (about a 70 minute ride) which is out in Blaxland... kind of at the foothills of the mountains. Michael is one of the other Music Ed professors, by the way. Over a cup of coffee, I got to meet his family, and then we chatted about what I could go out to see over the weekend. His family actually reminded me a lot of my family, which was kind of comforting. He has one daughter, and two sons, (the middle child's name is Luke.) They are all just a bit older than me, but all very interesting and very welcoming. His daughter is just starting her Ph.D research, and both of his sons are still studying at university, and making music on the side.

It ended up that on Saturday, Michael, his wife, and daughter came with me for some hiking, and drove me around to most of the major sites in the mountains. It was nice to have company, but it was also nice to have a guide pointing me in the right direction. The Blue Mountains are called blue because most of the trees that cover them are eucalyptus, and their leaves give off this oil that appears blueish when the light hits it. They are very different from the White Mountains that I'm used to, as they are sandstone instead of granite. Instead of the peaks you see in NH, these are more sort of plateau like, with shear dropoff cliffs. It was really cold on Saturday, much colder than in by the city... especially because of the wind. That night I went in to an art gallery with Luke and the others, and they were showing some old American juvenile delinquency videos. These videos were really ridiculous, it was funny to see how the government attempted to dissuade kids from joining gangs or doing drugs. One of the videos was of this man dressed up in a giant dog costume, McGruff, and he was telling stories about the bad effects of joining gangs, etc. I'm not saying that I want to join a gang or something, but I don't think they went about it the right way with these videos.

Sunday I woke up to an amazing homecooked breakfast back at Michaels house. Chocolate chip/almond pancakes with real Canadian maple syrup, freshly squeezed orange/grapefruit juice, bacon, coffee. mmmm. Following breakfast, I set out to explore the mountains more on my own. I went first to Wentworth Falls. I hiked from the rail station out to the national park on Darwins walk. (Apparently Charles Darwin walked this path.) Then I got out to the Valley of Water. There were a bunch of waterfalls coming down in and meeting down in the valley. It was a bit warmer on Sunday, so that was good. I continue to run into people who think that I'm Canadian, though a few have thought I was Irish as well??? I guess when they think of American accents, its more of a Southern accent they picture. The walk around Wentworth Falls took the better part of the day. Then I took a short train up to Katoomba, and did a brief hike around the Three Sisters. This is one of the more famous landmarks in the Blue Mountains, (Basically just three big rocks jutting up next to each other, which have an Aboriginal dreamtime significance behind them.) The day was starting to wind down, so I made my way back to the train, and caught a ride back to the city. From out at Katoomba it took a little over 2 hours to make it back in to Central station.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) I'm going in to see an opera at the Opera House! I figured that while I'm here, I should probably go to see a show at one of the worlds most famous opera houses. I'm really excited. Lucia Di Lammermoor.















(Left) A Koala and its baby in at the zoo.
(Right) The Three Sisters.















(Left) Me and the Webbs, with the mountains in the background.
(Right) One of the many pictures I took around the mountains.




















One of my favorite pictures of a waterfall that I took.


I don't know if I'll be able to update again before I head up to the Northern Territory, so this may be it for a while. I will definitely try to get at least a quick entry in after I get back from the festival though.