August 22, 2009 – 11:50 am
These bird sculptures are just about the best bird sculptures I have seen. Made out of the scattered bits of metal that we discard in tips, along the road or just leave to rust where they die, they become a whole lot more than the sum of their parts.
All about me lay the scattered, shattered remains – here the severed head, there a leg, stripped of flesh, next to the road another head, ten feet away a razor-taloned foot, wing and tail. Whatever had happened here had been brief and incredibly brutal.
Feral cats have been in Australia since European settlement. They live independently of humans and are found in all habitats ranging from rainforest to desert throughout the Northern Territory.
The main reason for my travel to Warmun was to get a better look at the work of, and make contact with several of the local artists who paint bird stories grounded in the local landscape and culture.
I stopped, turned and bore witness to the death of this small wonder.
The successful man would be declared Tangata-Manu, would take the egg in his hand and lead a procession back to his homeland. Once in residence there he was tapu (taboo) for the next five months of his year long status, and allowed his nails to grow and wore a headdress of human hair.
By Bob Gosford
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Also posted in Animals, Birds and people, Religion
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Tagged Easter Island, Follore, Jo Ann Van Tilburg, Katherine Routledge, National Geographic, Orongo, Rapa Nui, Society of Ethnobiology, Tangata Manu, University of Arkansas
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Maybe instead of blaming the animals we should be saying “I committed a murder of a kangaroo today”, “I was driving too fast to let the Wedge-tailed Eagle get enough height to get off the roadway” or “I didn’t slow down to let that Goanna cross the road safely”.
By Bob Gosford
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Also posted in Animals, Art, Some places I've been, Stupidity, Writing and writers
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Tagged Alice Springs Writers' Festival, Jennifer Mills, Mary Anne Butler, Narelle Autio, Olive Pink Botanic Gardens, Richard J Franklin, Roadkill, Shane Maloney, Swamp Jockeys, World Press Photo Award
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The Crested Bellbird has a very distinctive call, from which its Warlpiri name of Kanpanparlala is an onomatopoeic derivation.
By Bob Gosford
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Also posted in Animals, Birds and people, Indigenous land management
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Tagged Anangu Tours, Bird Observers Club of Australia, Crested Bellbird, CSIRO, Herbert Basedow, Kanpanparlala, Kurdaitcha men, Lasseter, Lasseteria, Mark Kuliitya, Megan Hatton, National Museum of Australia, Oreoica gutturalis, Paku Paku, Panpanpalala, Rachael Kohn, South Australian Government North-west Prospecting Expedition, The Spirit of Things, Uluru, Warlpiri dictionary
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The latest edition of the National Library Magazine, from the Australian National Library in Canberra has a fascinating article by Penny on the life and works of the French naturalist and ornithologist François le Vaillant.
By Bob Gosford
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Also posted in Animals, Art, Birds and people, The Arts, Writing and writers
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Tagged Australian National University, Coenraad Jacob Temminck, Dr Penny Olsen, Feather and Brush, François le Vallaint, Glimpses of Paradise: The Quest for the Beautiful Parrakeet, Histoire Naturelle des Perroquets, National Library Magazine, Natural History Museum Leiden, Wedgetailed Eagle
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This series of posters features birds that indicate ecological and social events in four Central Australian Aboriginal languages: Arrernte, Anmatyerr, Alyawarr and Kaytetye.
By Bob Gosford
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Also posted in Animals, Birds and people, Ethnoornithology, Some places I've been, Yuendumu
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Tagged Aboriginal bird knowledge, Alyawarr and Kaytetye, Anmatyerr, Arrernte, Birds That Tell People Things, Charles Darwin University, Cultural Signs of central Australia, Myfany Turpin, School for Policy and Social Research, University of Queensland
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