December, 2009

The chopper pilot and I were coming in at 2,000 feet off the mountain. We came right up behind a Wedgetailed Eagle (Aquila audax) and the chopper pilot said “Look at this – I’ve never seen this in my life!” We were no more than 60 feet behind him and this magnificent Wedge-tailed Eagle was turning his head to check us out in the chopper behind him. An unbelievable and absolutely memorable experience that will stay with me forever.

“All travellers know that native accounts of the habits of animals, however strange they may seem, almost invariably turn out to be correct.”

While it is easy to have a knee-jerk reaction to the fact that thousands of birds are kept in appalling conditions purely for human exploitation, profit and enjoyment, it is important to note that, as with most of the relationships between people and birds, things are a bit more complex than that.

AMRRIC is covering a wider field now in that we are trying to help out with not only facilitating vets into communities but also to help the local Shires with legislation, trying to increase awareness at the Federal government level of the problems with animal management nationally and we are also trying to increase education of the community.

Like many other aspects of life in Aboriginal communities the dogs there are far more visible in Aboriginal communities where there are few fences and the dogs can all be seen in public, whereas in the suburbs of Palmerston and Darwin the dogs are all behind fences and locked inside houses and you just don’t see them.

Ngurra Arts is located in the hamlet of Ngumpan, which is on country belonging to the Gooniyandi language group. Most of the artists that paint at Ngurra (camp/home/country) come from the Walmajarri & Wangkajunga language groups from country in the desert country to the south.

Researchers from other parts of the world are going to look to us and ask: “How do you grapple with this?” “How do you get your mind around that level of variation?” In this country that’s the stuff that gets us up in the morning.

Sunday morning music? My current favourite is from a band called The Drones and the song is called “Shark Fin Blues” – it has lyrics that Bob Dylan would be proud of and music that is a bit like early Rolling Stones crossed with Neil Young crossed with…well…name any good eighties punk band. “Shark Fin Blues” – it might just change your world-view!

We need look no further than Howard’s Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough to see that this portfolio has an awful ability to wreak absolute havoc on political careers – and with Nigel expected to run for re-election next year there will be more than a few – both inside his Country Liberal Party and in NT Labor – who will be keeping a very close eye on his performance.