Ok so I may have had a few strange nick names in my life… but I seriously thought that after 20 years I would have left Shanny Fanny Long Legs back in Melbourne… It appears not! Well not quite anyhow. They call me Kunga Wara here, which literally translates into long girl. Sometimes in English they call me long one… it seems to amuse them.
I went on a bush trip with some of the elder women today, “Kunga Wara puta…” Tall girl get down branch. I was in charge of picking the gumnuts and seeds off the branches that the others couldn’t reach. Important job! We were collecting seeds and gumnuts so that some of the elder women run some of the youth sessions and teach the younger ones traditional beading. They paint the seeds and gumnuts with such intricate dot paintings, burn holes in them to thread them and then varnish… the end product is amazing (I’ll take some photos of our attempts).
While I was fossicking on the ground today for gumnuts, I think I was lost somewhere between congratulating myself on how bush savvy I have become, and harking back to May Gibbs and imagining what life would be like as a gumnut baby, when I heard an outcry of “Kunga Wara” from the Troupe. The women are wildly waving their arms for me to come back. Their rationale… a BULL. Apparently the long eye-lashed female creatures that I had admired from the safety of the Troupe are in fact have giant male counter parts, with horns and big humps on their back and in most cases are quite territorial. Needless to say I backed the hell out of there, gripping my stash of gumnuts in case I needed ammunition.
Gumnut Babies
Feeling slightly shaky we found a safer spot to fossick, although I think my frightened jig when attacked by a swarm of, what I was convinced were crazy wasps amused everyone. It wasn’t until I had finished my dance and the women had finished their laughing that they told me the flying critters were harmless big flies. Eventually the women looked at the sinking sun and all rushed into the Troupe… “We leave now or Mara comes.” They told me of the Monster Man that comes. By this stage I was definitely keen to show the women that I was not going to be frightened by any more insects and certainly not monsters. But the story of the night monster that grabs females is ancient and so real within the community, I think I floored it all the way back!
The most amazing sunsets I've ever seen (I wish I could get a photos of the stars)...
I haven’t really got any other photos of our seed gathering trip that I can put up… it is such a shame, there are some amazing shots (I’ll check with some of the elder women to see if they don’t mind their images up here). I’ve been doing some photoshop work with some of the younger ones which has been fun. We’ve made some crazy and some beautiful shots (most of them silly). Unfortunately I can’t put up the pictures of the kids… but as consolation you can see a photoshopped image of me hiding behind an enormous bunch of leeks (I ordered some vegies through the store here and someone in Alice Springs must have an odd sense of quantity I got about 58 leeks and 1 orange and 55 cucumbers… I never want to see a leek or a cucumber again!) But they proved to be interesting props for learning photoshop, I’m not sure I’ll even be able to eat half of them!
Please send me your leek recipes (or alternatively leek jokes... I am enjoying them!)
Just one more thing to scare everyone… So one of the Government workers here had some printer trouble… the printer kept jamming. Frustrating. He tried everything, feeding the paper through mannually, changing the settings, trouble-shooting on the computer, until eventually he called the Tech Support in Darwin. They suggegested that he check the cartridge… he did and this little guy was sleeping behind it… dangerous paper jam!
I don't think I will ever check the cartridge again!
