Digeridoo meets Chello!

28 November 2011

The Australian Art Orchestra from Melbourne visited Ngukurr in 2010. They have had a relationship for a while with some Ngukurr Song Men, the Wilfred family. Our local guys have gone to Melbourne and performed – just as our painters and artists have gone to Melbourne and exhibited. The musicians had a concert in a park in Ngukurr with an interesting combination of western instruments and indigenous music. An unusual but fascinating combination!

A little too faithful in church!

28 November 2011

Followed around like a bad smell – so the saying goes. In Ngukurr, it's dogs that do the following around and of course they can sometimes literally have quite a bad smell. On our morning jogs, our dogs like to eat buffalo poo and roll in buffalo poo. It's a dogs life!

In the top photo there are three of the many dogs owned by the ministers of our church. We are actually having the church service on the lawn outside the church building wit the dogs sitting in the middle! There are no collars or leashes in Ngukurr – just as there are no umbrellas and other things you see elsewhere. Dogs just follow their masters anywhere around town. They have been trained the hard way to avoid entering the shop but the health clinic has to fight a little harder at training since there isn't the daily reinforcement that there is at the shop. The lower photo shows some faithful companions following their masters to the front of the church during an ordination service for the ministers. These dogs just happens to belong to us this time! We went to the front with two friends to present Bible's to those getting ordained but unbeknown to us, our dogs followed us up! A little too faithful for church!

Beauty and the Beast

28 November 2011

I found these two photos beside each other in a collection of shots I thought were interesting. The beauty is a water lily at the Minyerri billabong. The beast is a caterpillar I noticed outside our house. Cute but not so cuddly!

Big Barra Brothers!

28 November 2011

Who caught the bigger one? Big brother's barramundi or little brother's barramundi? Our predecessors, Lance and Gwen, took the first photo of Jonathan's barra. I took the photo of little brother Tom and his barra. So who caught a bigger barra ... on camera? Us or Lance and Gwen?

Antics in the Territory

28 November 2011

Termite mounds (or white ants mounds) can be enormous! They can easily over-shadow a human. OK, yes we got our son to pose here when he was just 7 years old but still, they are really big! We have seen others even taller than this one!

Drawbacks of a neighbourly Buffalo

28 November 2011

This boy is a friend of ours with his Uncle's pet Buffalo. It was a little playful thing when young. Now it is a huge playful thing! Recently, they were told by Council that it couldn't live at their house any more. They took it out bush and have tried to settle him out there. I must admit I am relieved that we no-longer have a buffalo for a neighbour over our back fence – his horns were getting pretty long and he was escaping through the fencing! Also, being down-wind of his deposits was unfortunate.

Quite a sight.

08 November 2011

The two photos show different ceremonies in Ngukurr over the last few years. Both these had circumcision as part of the ritual for boys becoming men. This is now done with the help of a health professional. There is however a lot more to these occasions. Stories of the activity of creator ancestors shaping the landscape get retold. Art, as you can see, is part of the events. Dance is an important part also. Some parts are for the public and some parts are just for men.