Well as usual I haven’t been staying on top of my blogging. Funny that. Things are interesting here in Maningrida but not plant-y enough. My work has been desk focused for the most part which is really frustrating but weekends are spent in the tranquility of Djjinkarr with Books and Bikes and Uke. However, while I love the bush and the slower pace, a big part of me really wants to go dancing and get wild in the city. The grass is always greener I guess.
My dilly bag is 2/3rds complete. May even showed my how to dye the gulwirri. We used the red roots of a local sedge and mashed them up in a billycan before boiling with the gulwirri for about 15mins. This gave teh fibre a deep brown color. No-one in Arhnem land dyes fibres until missionary contact in the early 1920s. Because these items were wanted for trade and sale to Balandas in the cities it was thought that the artefacts should be prettied up. 4 or 5 dye plants were discovered and continue to be used today.
Outside of plants and the town I got out most of last week on Rembranga country to help do cultural site recording with the mob from Bulhajadaru, an outstation about an hours drive from Maningrida. I wrote a sequence for cybertracker that allows people to record the site name, its company clans, take pictures, record the dreaming associated with it. This was pretty great. We went to a number of different dreaming sites and sacred law areas with an elder called Robert who is the traditional owner for the area. I’ve spent the last few days making up a map in Cybertracker which we can print and put at the outstation so that kids can see their country and where the sites are and their significance. This is with the eye of enabling the rangers to properly care of the country in keeping with the land owners wants and responsibilities.
My car has shit itself. The roads and weather out here really take their toll on vehicles. I just spent all last week ordering a recon engine and a new radiator so I’ll have it all pumping in the next few days I hope, which should be an interesting learing curve as I try (with some assistance) to fix it up.
My friend from Hawaii is coming to visit me in Darwin next week so thats going ot be fantastic. She was the one who inspired me to make tinctures and she recently sent my a batch of tinctures and salves she had made to get me through till christmas.
If she wasn’t coming I’d be headed to the ethnobotany meet in Victoria EGA. It is a fantastic gathering and I encourage anyone with an interest in plants, people and culture to get along if they can for 4 days of amazing fun and interesting discussion.
Aloha, stay herbaceous.
Harris
