Wadeye township
I’ve written here recently about the fantastic (in the original sense of that word) approach that The Australian and its dwindling number of northern correspondents take to just about anything to do with Aboriginal affairs here in the NT.
This past weekend The Weekend Australian continued this dubious tradition when it ran this piece from its northern correspondent, Nicolas Rothwell.
Attif. Warmun, WA September 2009
This is Attif, who I ran into at the roadhouse in the small township of Warmun in the wonderful Kimberley region of WA a week or two ago.
Attif is riding his pushie from Darwin to Broome.
At night.
Attif is of German nationality and Tunisian descent and has spent the last year or so in Australia and one each of a wet and dry season in Darwin.
He escaped southwestward before the full effects of the notorious build-up descended upon the Top End.
All the Bush Tucker by Norman Cox
The Laarri Gallery is in the small community of Yiyili, an hour or so’s drive west of Fitzroy Crossing in, at this time of year anyway, the dry and hot heart of the Kimberley. A short drive down a rolling dirt road through rocky hills takes you to Yiyili and signs direct you to the gallery carpark near to the Yiyili School.
Mr Fluff - Cutest little ex-camp dog in town!!
This is Fluff-fluff – or Mr. Fluff, of just Fluff – depending on our mood at the time.
He came over our fence at Yuendumu a few months ago as a very sick young puppy who we thought was going to die soon.
But he is a very tough bugger and survived and thrived to be a thoroughly delightful young pup who got on with all the other dogs and loved his daily walks through the bush.
From Geoff Vivian's Kimberley Page
I’ve written about the Tanami Track/Road/Highway here before – but that was based on a couple of years of driving the short stretch of one hundred horrible kilometres or so of occasionally-maintained dirt road between my home at Yuendumu and the end of the bitumen at Tilmouth Well, two hundred kilometres from Alice.
I said “Don’t tell me, there’s good light in Broome”
Good light in Broome, well I’ll be there soon
I know exactly what I’m a gonna do
Sit on the beach, stare at the moon
Haven’t you heard? there’s good light in Broome
Good Light in Broome, Neil Murray.
As my old boss Neil Murray says, there is some bloody good light in Broome, as there is in Derby, a couple of hundred k’s to the north-west.
Spotted Nightjar Eurostopodus argus
I came across this road-killed Spotted Nightjar (Eurostopodus argus) a hundred or so kilometres up the Tanami Track from my home at Yuendumu just after setting off on my current trip that will take me through the east and western Kimberleys, to Broome (where I am now) and down to the Pilbara, where I’ll be heading tomorrow.
There are Aboriginal stories about the Spotted Nightjar right across Australia – but because I found this one in Warlpiri country I’ll include a couple of references from paintings made by several of the Warlpiri painters that work at the Warlukurlangu Artists centre at Yuendumu.
Pilbara languages map from Wangka Maya Pilbara Aboriginal Language Centre
I’m sitting here in the “Balgo Hilton” waiting for someone to come back from where I’ve just been.
We most likely passed each other on the road sometime yesterday as I struggled up the 530 kilometres of the torture that is known as the Tanami Track from Yuendumu up here to Wirrimanu – formerly known as Balgo.
When I got here and asked after him they told me he’d gone to Yuendumu earlier that day and was expected back here tonight.
So I’ll try to catch up with him early tomorrow.
Image from Getup
This a guest post from John Greatorex who worked as a teacher at Galiwin’ku on Elcho island off the coast of Arnhem Land for 27 years. He now is a part-time teacher of the Yolngu studies at a Darwin University.
He has now resigned from teaching to work with his Yolngu families on projects of importance to them – including the wonderful Arnhem Weavers group – you can find out more about the Arnhem Weavers and the food co-operative project they have recently started at their website.
Recently I was profoundly moved when I heard Richard Downs, an Alwayarra elder, seek refugee status for his people whose homelands are in the central east of the Northern Territory, Australia.
Alice Springs Waste Stabilisation Ponds - aka the "Shit-pits"
Birds, and birders, love shit – or more particularly in Alice Springs, they both love the fact that in the driest part of the driest continent the average daily household use of water is about 1,500 litres a day.
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