A busy end to Term 2

CULTURE LESSONS AT THE WAKALA CENTRE

Each term we do a Culture topic. This term it was around family and relationships. The children were being told by Cathy an Elder, about their ‘skin’ names. Each person has a skin name which dictates who they can marry. Jeff and I have been given skin names which of course line up. I am Napurrula and Jeff is Tjapanangka.

Kamus was interested in the old tools and weapons which are housed in this building. It is called the Wakala Centre and it is essentially the Balgo museum. It’s a great place to get lost for a while.

CULTURE AFTERNOON AT OLD BALGO

50 odd years ago the township of Balgo as we know it didn’t exist. Old Balgo is about 30 km away. This was a mission where desert aboriginals were picked up and taken here. The children were put into the mission school and were told not to speak their language. The children were only allowed to see their families at Christmas if at all. These children are now the Elders of present day Balgo. Many of them have both positive and not so good memories of Old Balgo. They all have stories to tell about how their family ended up in this mission. Old Balgo was abandoned when the water ran out about 50 years ago………… and here we are!

The Elders were telling the students about their time here at Old Balgo before they let the students go and investigate the ruins.

Cathy has found some bush tucker.

A BOMBER SUPPORTER IN A FIELD OF EAGLES!!!!

My amazing friend Sue sent us some Band-Aids in our favourite teams. I quickly used my Cats ones on my infected finger!!!! Jeff then got to use his after my broken mug ‘bit’ him. Of course when Jeff walks around community in all his Bombers gear he certainly gets some conversation from the Eagles and Dockers crazy community.

COOKING WITH THE KIDS...PIZZA TODAY!!

We cook once a week, and this week the overwhelming suggestion was pizza. This was good because they got to roll their own base and fill it with fillings they liked. This is Patricia with her very yummy pizza.

RECONCILIATION

Last week the Year 4 children in my grade did their Reconciliation….this is where they tell their first confession to Father. We had been practising all term for the ‘sin’ that they were going to share. Overwhelmingly their sins involved swearing, teasing and fighting!!! Some of the Church Elders painted the head bands they are wearing.

This was the part the kids were looking forward to the most…..morning tea. We are all excited when we have cake and biscuits.

NOT QUITE THE BLOOD BANK

Due to this crazy thing called Haemochromatosis I have to give 470 mls of blood every 3 months. Due to Covid, we haven’t been anywhere that this could be done. I am accustomed to doing this in the comfort of the Blood Bank with snacks and a drink after the ‘donation’...……...So here we are at Balgo..... At first the nurse had the blood sitting on my lap while it filled but I suggested it go on the floor to let it go down hill!! No frills here at the Balgo Clinic!

A WEEKEND WITH DOUG AND WENDY

My brother Doug and his wife Wendy came to Balgo to see where we live and then we met in Halls Creek for a night. It was nice to have a night out as we have been almost Balgo bound for the last 6 months.

In the shower cubicle in our hotel, little Kevin popped out his little green head. He had it made, just sitting on the window sill eating the bugs.

On Saturday morning we headed out on the Duncan to see China Wall. Of course, nothing about it looks like the Great Wall of China!! However, it is nice and worth seeing. The wall is made from quartz and it is a line of white rock among the red dirt. (note where Doug is standing)

3 photos above shows Doug standing at the bottom of the gorge. Well, on the way down after our climb, Doug slipped in this spot and dislocated and broke his ankle. Wendy and I kept him comfortable while Jeff ran up the hill to the car and drove 1 km to get telephone service. An ambulance arrived and a lovely nurse called Myles and his trusty orderly from the hospital came to our aid.

There were 6 of us to carry Doug out of the gorge and into the ambulance. A local teacher was riding past when Jeff was calling the ambulance and came down to help as well. During our trek out of the gorge, Scott the orderly had an asthma attack and we had to put Doug down so the nurse could get a Ventolin for him. We nearly had two on the stretcher!!!

The Halls Creek Hospital could not have been better nor could any of the people who attended Doug. Everyone was so caring. Doug had his dislocation put right and they plastered it before being flown off to Perth in the Royal Flying Doctor Plane. This service is such a life line to us up here in the Kimberley.

PREP STUDENTS COME TO VISIT

The Kinder kids came to visit our classroom to give my kids cards to celebrate their Reconciliation. They were seriously cute.

Our class invited the Kindi’s to come for a walk with us. My big kids all took the hand of one of the little ones and we headed off.

My class was walking along the dry creek so it was too far for the little ones. We said goodbye to them and headed on our way. We found an old motor bike where my kids stopped for a picture.

On our way back to school, we ran into Mr Jeff going back to work after lunch. The kids all know Mr Jeff and are excited when they see him. We collected flowers and plants on our walk and Kamus is holding them

FOOTY DAY

In recognition of AFL coming back we ran a ‘Footy Day’. As I oversee all things sport, I had to plan a rotation of activities. The children were encouraged to wear football colours. Footy is so important up here, almost every car has a sticker or 100 showing their team. Henriqua is one of the few Geelong supporters here in community….. so we thought a photo was in order!!

YES IT DOES GET COLD!!!!

Jeff has never believed me that it gets cold up here, but I caught him wearing a jumper with a little ‘Rusty’ hot water bottle. It isn’t cold much but some mornings and evenings at the moment require a jumper.

OUT AND ABOUT

On the weekends Jeff and I do a 5-6 km walk out of community and into the Pound. We often meet kids on our walks as you would have seen in many of our blogs. They are always keen for a photo.

Just taking some kids home after they saw us out. As you can see Nutella is a popular food up here. Sometimes a child will come to school with a jar of Nutella!!! It goes into the office until after school.

ELDERS DINNER

Last week we had a dinner for the Elders. Many older family members help us with our Culture program. They come with us on trips to ‘country’ and help in the classroom and art gallery. It was a lovely night.

TIME TO BE MUDDIED

A lovely tradition in this area is to be muddied before you can swim in Lake Gregory or Mulan Lake. The Rainbow Serpent lives in this lake and if you have not been muddied by a resident then you are at risk of upsetting the serpent. 7 cars headed out to the lake with teachers, students and Elders. Jeff is getting the latest in hair care!!! The mud was really smelly!

One of my students from last year delighted in muddying me. It was nice going on but the smell was something else. After Terasala finished, Magda, one of the Elders (and my skin Aunty) decided I needed more on my face. So the next photo is after Magda did my face. It went into my mouth, but we were told not to say that the mud was smelly or horrible in our mouth in case we upset the Rainbow Serpent.

At least they didn’t put it in my hair!

Here is most of our staff with our mud treatment.

If you didn’t know better, you would think that we were at the beach.

This photo is of the whole group.

As soon as we arrived Magda found a goanna track leading to a hole in the ground. We spent the next ¾ hour trying to dig it out. It was amazing how deep the hole was and how far it went. Lucky for the water goanna, we didn’t find it.

I got to join Sadie with the Damper making. She did it so beautifully while I got to the same result but with so much dough on my hands and much mocking by everyone.

My skin Auntie Magda wanted my first damper, it wasn’t my best but she was happy with everyone I made.

There was a little competition between Sadie and I with the damper making. She clearly had more practise, but I'm sure I had more fun! I challenged Sadie to throw the dough like pizza…..she laughed a lot but didn’t try.

On the way home one of the 7 cars came across this giant Black Headed Python. It made a yummy tea for Magda and Cathy….which was good since the water goanna was so elusive.

Search This Blog

Mybalgohome