Today was Bush Country Day. Wheels rolling at 8:00..
It was just a short drive outside Alice Springs to the bush where we were met by Con, a veritable expert on the aboriginal way of life. His talk covered so many aspects of the culture that many of us had. It was in 1967 that the aborigines became Australian citizens. The Australian government gave them their land in 1985, but the tribes gave it back with the promise of being able to lease it for 99 years.
Some of the most interesting facets of the aboriginal culture center around marriage and death. When a member of the tribe dies, the sorry business ensues. This process sends the spirit to the ground from whence it had come. When the elder declares that the time of sorry business is over, no one ever speaks of the deceased person again.
Marriage for girls happens as soon as a girl reaches puberty. Because of the limited diet of the aboriginals many girls did not have enough body weight to be able to get pregnant and bear a child. If they married young, there was a better chance that she would be able to have children. Men, on the other hand married in their mid-twenties. It was the mother of the girl who chose her daughter’s husband. As soon as they were married, the mother could never have any contact with her son-in-law. This is so restrictive in that if the two were walking down the street, they would have to walk on different sides and not have any eye contact. The reason for this is that often the mother-in-law and son-in-law would be the same age because of how young girls were when they married. There are only 16 names for all the members of the tribe and a person had to make sure that the closest distance between a couple was 4th cousin.
After Con’s talk, we all sampled some bush bread that he had made and cooked over the open fire.
He then explained a bit about bush food, including some of the seeds and fruits that were a main stay of the diet. At the conclusion, he showed us how to extract a wichetty grub from a branch. The Witchetty grub is the larval stage (caterpillar) of a large cossid wood moth.
A number of Aboriginal artists came to the site to show and sell their paintings. They were absolutely beautiful and we contributed to their cause.
Then it was on to weapons and weaponry where everyone had a chance to throw a boomerang.
We drove into Alice Springs where we had lunch. The seven of us went to Sporties and had a very nice lunch. Cannelloni was the special of the day and Lois, Gerald, Barbara, Charles, and Earle had that while Sharon had some scallops and I had a side Caesar salad. I had spied and ice cream parlor on the way and wanted to save room for that.
After lunch we toured the Alice Springs Telegraph Station. The station was built in 1871 to facilitate communication between the vast distanced cities of Darwin and Adelaide. It was one of the relay stations that transferred messages between the cities. The site today consist of the Postmaster’s residence and kitchen, the telegraph office, a blacksmith’s shed and some other out buildings. It is also the site of the spring named for Alice Todd.
Back to the hotel for a couple of hours of downtime when I was able to write some of yesterday’s blog.
We then went back to the bush for a bush dinner.Sharon spotted a few kangaroo tracks, but still no kangaroos.
John and Kathy were our hosts. John had a great sense of humor as he made some spotted dog bread.
The sunset was spectacular.
Dinner was a tomato soup, steak or chicken, salad, slaw, and roasted potatoes. Just delicious. After dinner, Kathy did a wonderful job of describing the constellations and planets.
Then the spotted dog bread was finished and dessert was had.
Back to the hotel for sleep!
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