So much to do, so little time!!!

AROUND COMMUNITY

Our Friday pizza night has brought on new games.  This one is called Catan and is lots of fun.

Jeff was left holding the baby!!!  While a mother was being treated at the clinic from about 2am to 7am, little Elton spent some time with Jeff.  They gooed and garred together and became great mates.

This family called into the clinic for an eye dropper to feed this young joey after they killed the mother for tucker.😆

Rusty is enjoying his time in our classroom.  Kamus' hand provided a nice pillow for a very pampered pooch!!

Sunday sewing afternoon with some of the teachers.  We were making black skirts for the Elders who are entering a competition for Indigenous dancing.  We used a black sheet as fabric is very hard to come by up here.

One of our local painters Gary Njamme enjoys painting AFL teams on canvas.  After my Cats one last year Jeff thought he would get one.

OFF TO CAMP.

4 NIGHTS ON THE ORD RIVER NEAR KUNUNURRA 

The kids enjoyed helping us pack up the swags!

On our first day we went abseiling.  The cliff was soooooo high but most of the kids had a go.  The view of the Ord river was a great backdrop.

It was just like a giant slumber party with 17 of us all sleeping side by side.  It made interesting sleeping with teeth grinding, snoring, talking and interesting sleeping positions, not to mention the fear of snakes and cane toads entering my swag...... oh and not to forget...'Ms Michelle can you spray me'.  The mozzies were relentless and due to the heat no one wanted anything over them.  It was lots of fun though.

These little green things came off a tree.  When you mix water and rub your hands together they make a lather.  The kids said that it was soap.  It certainly lathered up but left my hands a bit sticky.

This is the 'soap tree',

As calm as it looks, believe me it wasn't. It went something like this.....' I'm not getting in a boat with him' ..............'He cant steer, I want to get into another boat'   ..........'She tipped the boat last time, I want another partner' ......... 'Ms Michelle I want to go with you'.  So after a lot of negotiation we set off on our 6km trip up the Ord River, which was sooooo much fun.  It was really hot, so splashing was the order of the day.

We went to some rock art down stream and the kids found a Kapok tree.  The petals of the flowers are bush tucker.  The flowers are a really pretty yellow colour, but I found the petals tasteless.

Note the marks on the wall behind Juan.  Those marks were made by aboriginals sharpening their tools.  This is thousands of years old.

The cave art was easily to identify, this one a crocodile.  Clearly there have been crocodiles in the Ord River for a long time.  We only saw one!!!  and that was one  too many! 

The Kapok flowers.  They certainly do look good enough to eat.

Our evening entertainment was to catch Cane Toads.  On the first night only our leader and one child caught the toads, but by the 3rd night almost all the kids had caught one.  (No, I didn't feel the need to catch one   yuckkkkkkk)  Overall we caught over 100 cane toads.  They were put into the freezer to die a humane death!

A bag of Cane Toads!!  This got very heavy by the end of each night.

Our nights also involved snakes!! 🐍  This one is a children's python which is small and cute.  The next snake was not so small and cute!

This snake was an Olive Python which was about 7 foot long and as thick as my arm.  It was crossing our path when one of the other staff members holding a fading torch said.... "I don't think that is a stick' followed by a couple of expletives. 

This was the shower we used.  The walls were black plastic and the water cold and piped from the river.  It was actually very  nice as the weather was HOT HOT HOT !

Only problem was that the cane toads also liked our showers and there were many screams as kids walked into the showers to be confronted by a cane toad.

So hard to get a photo without some of the kids poking out their tongues!!!

Our bush kitchen.  Over the sink is usually where you will find me on camps and this one was no different.

/The kids at the camp site.

NAIDOC WEEK

Each class had to paint an animal for their class to throw a spear at.  Obviously I had help with the drawing of this lizard because if it was up to me it would have been a stick figure.!!

The spear throwing was great fun for the boys.  During the week the boys all made a spear with the help of the Elders.  They were very proud of their handiwork.

Here is Kamus with his spear.  We had to cut him off at the gate and suggest his spear stay at school!!

The ladies were telling the kids some sand stories.  Unfortunately it was done in language so I didn't learn about it too.

The kids had a turn to draw a sand story of their own.

These are the coloured ochre's that the ladies painted the girls with.

The ochre is mixed with oil to help it go on smoothly.

All of the girls were painted up.  Traditionally the paint goes onto their breasts so some of the children were happy to take of their tops but some were not.  We think having Kartiya (pronounced Gardia, white people) around might have made the older girls uncomfortable.

While we waited for the Elders to arrive to do the painting we played Chinese Whispers.  This game does not work so well with their accents.

Another activity we did was to make damper.  The kids were very good at it, but they did have suggestions given to them over their shoulders.

We took all of the girls to the Art Centre.  Along with their elders, the children did some lovely paintings. Here Patricia is painting while Eva looks on. 

Tossy passing on her famous troopy painting style!

Alexandra is given the finer points of dotting.  This painting was beautiful on completion.

While the girls were at the Art Centre, the boys cooked up a kangaroo that was killed the night before.

The boys and girls do different activities as many things are culturally sensitive.

Alfie is enjoying the leg bone of the poor unfortunate roo!

Once again the boys and girls were separated with the girls doing coolamon races and the  boys  spear throwing.  The coolamons did not sit so securely on their heads so they had to be very careful.

The kids did a colouring picture for the NAIDOC week colouring in picture

The Elders sang in language for the girls to dance.

The girls enjoyed learning the Seven Sisters dance from Eva and the other ladies.

The boys were painted up for their dancing. Much easier for them to go bare chested!!

Dancing to men singing traditional songs.

The two boys at the front were really painted up and they got to carry spears.

Just with a couple of my gorgeous girls.

Many an hour a day the community play cards in big circles.  Sometimes there could be half a dozen games going in different parts of community.  This circle of locals call this house the 'casino'.

Lots of money changes hands and it is a good way to share the wealth. It appears that $50 is the minimum bet per hand. 

Another 'dead' car on its way to the tip.

COVID has ensured that we stay away from Victoria for one more year.