Garni woora ngoong? = How are you? in Miriwoong!
Hello folks! Garni woora ngoong? I hope you're all happy & healthy, wherever you find yourselves today. Welcome back to my little world here down under & thanks for taking the time to check in on what's happening in Kununurra, Australia.
As you can see from the map above, Australia is a massive continent, large enough to fit several sizable countries within its borders. If I were to locate my new home on the map above it would be more or less on the southwestern tip of Ireland. Our Shire (and yes, of course I love getting to use the word Shire on a regular basis, which is what one would call a county in the US) is part of the greater Kimberley Region, famously one of the most gorgeous, scenic areas of the country, visited by guests from all over the world who wish to behold breathtaking landscapes of the outback's finest countryside. While I sound like a commercial, I promise I'm not exaggerating (though I do have some vested interest in convincing some of you to come visit me here)! Here are the rocks that sit just a few dozen feet from my backyard... yes, I'm that lucky!
Hello folks! Garni woora ngoong? I hope you're all happy & healthy, wherever you find yourselves today. Welcome back to my little world here down under & thanks for taking the time to check in on what's happening in Kununurra, Australia.
As you can see from the map above, Australia is a massive continent, large enough to fit several sizable countries within its borders. If I were to locate my new home on the map above it would be more or less on the southwestern tip of Ireland. Our Shire (and yes, of course I love getting to use the word Shire on a regular basis, which is what one would call a county in the US) is part of the greater Kimberley Region, famously one of the most gorgeous, scenic areas of the country, visited by guests from all over the world who wish to behold breathtaking landscapes of the outback's finest countryside. While I sound like a commercial, I promise I'm not exaggerating (though I do have some vested interest in convincing some of you to come visit me here)! Here are the rocks that sit just a few dozen feet from my backyard... yes, I'm that lucky!
On the subject of rocks, my new home is also home to the oldest rock formations in the world, which are up 4.4 billion years in age. It get's even more exciting: our dirt here is officially known as the "earth's oldest terrestrial material"! That's right. This area has been around the block a few times, and so have its inhabitants: it's no wonder that the oldest known rock paintings were found here! They are images of animal drawings from up to 50,000 years ago (yes, that long ago) along with detailed figures of humans drawn over 26,000 years ago, far predating cave drawings in any other continent. So, creativity had an exceptionally long time to develop here, thus it comes as no surprise that the indigenous Miriwoong people of my community are some of the most creative people I've had the privilege to meet.
Basically every person I've met in the community has a natural talent for creating art, particularly painting, drawing, carving, and playing musical instruments but also in dancing, and singing, especially at celebrations (which I look forward to seeing in person at the upcoming festivals). I can't tell you how many times a local friend here has whipped out a pencil and paper during our conversation and nonchalantly drawn up a beautiful, intricate scenery of rocks and boab trees along a riverbed, thinking nothing of it. They make it look so simple! The photo below gives you just a taste of some beautiful paintings from the Aboriginal art centre, across the way from where I work. Their musical talent is definitely something to write home about as well, and I must have some good karma from the past because I just moved into a new house last week which I share with a local Miriwoong musician, who plays beautiful melodies most evenings out under the trees as I lay in the hammock and feel grateful to be alive and here!
So, maybe I should back up a bit for those of you wondering how I ended up living with Miriwoong musicans on the oldest dirt on earth let me explain: Exactly 1 year ago I was getting ready to leave my beloved Paraguay (physically, not emotionally, of course) which was the South American country where I served 2.5 years in the Peace Corps as a Sustainable Agriculture volunteer. Naturally, after almost a decade of living abroad, I was already plotting which part of this great big world I would call home next. While researching one of my main passions, linguistics & the preservation of endangered languages, I stumbled upon a 12 month position Western Australia, supporting the Aboriginal community at the Miriwoong Language & Culture centre of Kununurra. The centre is called "Mirima Dawang Woorlab-gerring" which directly translates as "Mirima Country Talking-for" but actually means "Mirima place for talking", because it is important to the Miriwoong people that we learn their language if we are in their land. Upon arriving here, I joined a rambunctious team of truly remarkable people from all different backgrounds, who make my workday a complete joy. Here are some of their smiling faces:
The Language centre was built just over 22 years ago (a very lucky number, of course) though the work was initiated years years before that, by the traditional Miriwoong speakers back in the 1960s, who saw it was necessary to document, record, and transmit the Miriwoong Language in order to ensure the survival of century old knowledge and understanding. Their vision is that, despite globalization, future generations of local children here can grow up speaking their language, thus maintaining a crucial tie to their culture and identity as Miriwoong people. My new role is to support this effort, and I'm so happy to be a part of it. Some of our projects include: creating children's books in Miriwoong, producing Miriwoong games for language-learning sessions with school groups, a weekly radio program that teaches the community Miriwoong, transcription and editing from videos and voice recordings, and of course a highlight is working with the "Masters", aka the fluent Miriwoong speakers, of which there are tragically very few, but what they lack in numbers, the make up with in highly entertaining spirit. Here are the masters, sitting in the room where I spend most of the workday. In the turquoise shirt is my surrogate mum Agnes, who I can already tell will be my best friend while I am here :)
Another main highlight of my week is attending Mass with Agnes on Saturday mornings, then spending time with some of the cutest, most intelligent and respectful kids I've ever met, while visiting homes in the Mirima reserve area:
I'll pause for a moment to point out an obvious truth: The conundrum with sharing a very new & very different home with others is that each week, as I discover more about the place where I live, my understanding of my surroundings grows and changes, maybe even contradicting what I held to be true the previous week. Part of why I waited until being here for a couple months before sharing my observations with you all was in order to make sure I could offer a more well-rounded view of my new community, but even so, I won't ever be able to do it full justice, as even those who live here their whole lives might not be able to see all of the various realities of this very tricky town. I came to the community with an open mind and loving heart, the same way I enter any new community that welcomes me, and all I can offer is my perception as a wide-eyed outsider. Some of you reading this may be locals here or have lived in Kununurra before, and sometimes you may disagree with what I write here. On those occasions, I earnestly request that you forgive me, remembering I am simply a newcomer attempting to make connections between my experiences here and those of my past in order to share with people I'm fortunate enough to know around the world. My words here are by no means the definitive description of Kununurra and its inhabitants from all walks of life, and while I'll try to be fair and balanced, I apologize in advance if my observations seem inaccurate or offensive to anyone, anywhere. I would appreciate the opportunity to further discuss these reflections with others so that I can learn from your experiences as well. Unpause blog for beautiful Boab trees :)
Like these signs, located on a main street in town, sometimes things here (like everywhere) can be confusing upon first glance. One of the main realities in Kununurra is so apparent that not bringing it up here would be like ignoring the elephant in the room. This elephant is the the institutionalized racism and segregation that smacks you in the face when you first arrive in Kununurra. There is so much to say on this issue, enough to fill books, so I'll just share a small dose of my observations, saving more for future posts.
Upon riding into town my first day here I was elated to see local people gathering in the shade under trees, enjoying each other's company. My joy quickly turned to confusion and disappointment when I observed how disrespectfully many of the non-aboriginal people in town addressed the traditional owners of this land, or "blackfella" as they are called here. In my first few days in Kununurra I was taken aback by the comments I heard around town, with many non-aboriginal people openly making extremely derogatory remarks about aboriginal people, seemingly assuming that I would share their racist opinion (the "norm" around these parts), just because I was a "whitefella" like them. It reminded me of blatant racism I saw in Russia and parts of Latin America, and I felt like I'd gone back in time...
Speaking of going back in time, here's a very basic history to explain some of the background: The Australian government only granted citizenship to Aboriginal people in 1967. That's less than 50 years ago. Just 50 Years ago Aboriginal people were still covered under the "Flora and Fauna" section of the country, meaning they were essentially grouped with the local animals. The elders here remember clearly a time when they had to hide because "whitefellas" actually came in on horses hunting them down. Colonization here was that recent (a couple hundred years after such atrocities were committed in the US). To put it into perspective: here Aboriginals were granted citizenship over a hundred years after the "Civil Rights Act of 1866" which granted African-Americans citizenship (finally), and almost 50 years after the 1924 "Indian Citizenship Act" which granted citizenship to the remaining 1/3 of Native Americans whose states hadn't yet officially done so. I make this comparison not to judge, but just so that people can get an idea of where the mentality is, especially so here in the countryside. Aboriginal people don't seem to be seen as equal members of society yet by many of the non-aboriginal people I speak with, most of whom just can't understand why the Aboriginals are on welfare, etc, ignoring the fact that they are a "defeated" people whose land and culture has been completely stolen from them. Again, this is a complex issue, and I can address it again in later posts, but as they say "It's easy to see the negative, but it takes a sharper eye to see the positive". So I'll focus on some positives of the situation: in my past 2 months in Kununurra I've noticed certain mixing of Aboriginal people with non-aboriginal people, for example at the local pub, (though mixing isn't common in daily normal life, except for places like where I work, of course, where there is a lot of love between the two communities). Did I mentioned that I adore my coworkers. Here are some of my favorite people who make work feel like too much fun:
Upon riding into town my first day here I was elated to see local people gathering in the shade under trees, enjoying each other's company. My joy quickly turned to confusion and disappointment when I observed how disrespectfully many of the non-aboriginal people in town addressed the traditional owners of this land, or "blackfella" as they are called here. In my first few days in Kununurra I was taken aback by the comments I heard around town, with many non-aboriginal people openly making extremely derogatory remarks about aboriginal people, seemingly assuming that I would share their racist opinion (the "norm" around these parts), just because I was a "whitefella" like them. It reminded me of blatant racism I saw in Russia and parts of Latin America, and I felt like I'd gone back in time...
Speaking of going back in time, here's a very basic history to explain some of the background: The Australian government only granted citizenship to Aboriginal people in 1967. That's less than 50 years ago. Just 50 Years ago Aboriginal people were still covered under the "Flora and Fauna" section of the country, meaning they were essentially grouped with the local animals. The elders here remember clearly a time when they had to hide because "whitefellas" actually came in on horses hunting them down. Colonization here was that recent (a couple hundred years after such atrocities were committed in the US). To put it into perspective: here Aboriginals were granted citizenship over a hundred years after the "Civil Rights Act of 1866" which granted African-Americans citizenship (finally), and almost 50 years after the 1924 "Indian Citizenship Act" which granted citizenship to the remaining 1/3 of Native Americans whose states hadn't yet officially done so. I make this comparison not to judge, but just so that people can get an idea of where the mentality is, especially so here in the countryside. Aboriginal people don't seem to be seen as equal members of society yet by many of the non-aboriginal people I speak with, most of whom just can't understand why the Aboriginals are on welfare, etc, ignoring the fact that they are a "defeated" people whose land and culture has been completely stolen from them. Again, this is a complex issue, and I can address it again in later posts, but as they say "It's easy to see the negative, but it takes a sharper eye to see the positive". So I'll focus on some positives of the situation: in my past 2 months in Kununurra I've noticed certain mixing of Aboriginal people with non-aboriginal people, for example at the local pub, (though mixing isn't common in daily normal life, except for places like where I work, of course, where there is a lot of love between the two communities). Did I mentioned that I adore my coworkers. Here are some of my favorite people who make work feel like too much fun:
Here is another major "elephant in the room" in the community: the disease of addiction & alcoholism. I appreciated the words of a well-known Aboriginal man named Ian Trust who was Western Australia's "Man of the Year" in 2013 and has been the Director of The Wunan Foundation, (an Aboriginal development organization) for over a decade. He visited our office last week and talked to our Miriwoong workers about his perception of the main challenge facing the Aboriginal population today. He explained that their people can no longer live like they lived before the colonizers arrived, as times have changed too much and each person deserves access to modern healthcare, education, careers, etc. Yet, for the most part, they haven't been able to reach these modern opportunities because they all seem to be located on the other side of a metaphorical river and crossing said river requires use of the modern day Australian education system, which isn't part of the Miriwoong community for the most part. (Unfortunately in a town where the population is still predominantly aboriginal, the graduating class of the high school had only 2 aboriginal students in it last year due to drop out rates. This is partly due to cultural reasons as the local school's curriculum is not adapted for the Aboriginal history/reality/way of life, and although there have been attempts to do so in the past, they haven't stuck yet.) Mr. Trust explained that when those who lack the necessary education try to cross the river to get to the opportunities on the other side, they end up getting caught in the mouths of two big crocodiles that await them, namely DRUGS and ALCOHOL. He acknowledged that while there are plenty of "whitefella" organizations that offer to pull these people out of the claws of these addictions, they rarely get to the root of the problem, and eventually they chuck the people back into the river again, not fully recovered.
The disease of addiction that Mr. Trust pointed out is, in my observations, the biggest challenge facing the Miriwoong community today, as it is the main trigger of many other problems, such as domestic violence & financial troubles. After thousands of years of life without alcohol, the Aboriginal people were introduced to "grog" (as they call it here) by the colonizers and unfortunately excessive drinking has now become a part of daily life for the majority of the community. The children today grow up thinking that it is a norm of their culture that adults are constantly intoxicated, but the elders can recall a time when alcohol didn't exist, when no one drank. But nowadays it is difficult to find a person living in the reserve who doesn't suffer from alcoholism. So far I have only met a handful of people who were able to quit drinking, as I can imagine it wasn't at all easy to do so while living in a community where it's normal to be drunk from sunrise to sundown. As many of you know, I've also struggled with addiction for most of my life, which makes me feel extremely blessed to live and work in this community where I feel I'm in a unique position to be able to empathize with my fellow alcoholics here, unlike most other "whitefellas" in town who have very little understanding of the disease, often asking "why can't those blackfella just drink like normal people?" I am grateful to be involved in efforts to offer hope to those who suffer from this disease, and I'm especially grateful that even in this small town there is a recovery group which I am able to attend weekly. God is great!
The disease of addiction that Mr. Trust pointed out is, in my observations, the biggest challenge facing the Miriwoong community today, as it is the main trigger of many other problems, such as domestic violence & financial troubles. After thousands of years of life without alcohol, the Aboriginal people were introduced to "grog" (as they call it here) by the colonizers and unfortunately excessive drinking has now become a part of daily life for the majority of the community. The children today grow up thinking that it is a norm of their culture that adults are constantly intoxicated, but the elders can recall a time when alcohol didn't exist, when no one drank. But nowadays it is difficult to find a person living in the reserve who doesn't suffer from alcoholism. So far I have only met a handful of people who were able to quit drinking, as I can imagine it wasn't at all easy to do so while living in a community where it's normal to be drunk from sunrise to sundown. As many of you know, I've also struggled with addiction for most of my life, which makes me feel extremely blessed to live and work in this community where I feel I'm in a unique position to be able to empathize with my fellow alcoholics here, unlike most other "whitefellas" in town who have very little understanding of the disease, often asking "why can't those blackfella just drink like normal people?" I am grateful to be involved in efforts to offer hope to those who suffer from this disease, and I'm especially grateful that even in this small town there is a recovery group which I am able to attend weekly. God is great!
Another highlight of my week is visiting the Kununurra community garden, which was planted this year by a bunch of veggie-crazy hippies like me who love permaculture and sharing with friends! It's been a blessing getting to know these people, and I'm already enjoying the fruit of their labor (quite literally). I look forward to helping out with them all year!
Here's Joolama, one of my favorite people down here, and my "big brother" based on our skin names, cracking open a boab nut to eat (and share!) The delicious white part inside has the texture of a dried apple but without such as sweet taste. I really enjoyed it and, as you can probably imagine, I was running around cracking open boab nuts all afternoon after I found out they had such yummy food inside. Joolama is one most integral members of the Mirima council, and he seems to be involved in almost everything going on around here. I could listen for hours on end to his stories about Miriwoong life and his fascinating experiences both out in the bush and here in town, where he's been fighting for recognition of their land and language since he was young. He is hands down one of the most interesting people I've ever had the privilege to meet and I truly look forward to 10 more months of working by his side!
In conclusion (middle school essay style), I feel utterly honored to have been welcomed to the land and lives of the Miriwoong People, the traditional owners of my new home. In my second week in town, my mum Agnes, took me down to the river to perform an "official" welcome ceremony in the tradition of the Miriwoong people. She dipped the leaves of the native Eucalyptus tree in water and splashed me with it while reciting in Miriwoong "Respect our country and it will respect you in return". Her welcome made me feel I could finally walk around and "explore" the territory, which I wouldn't have wanted to do without permission of the people whose families lived off of it for thousands of years. Now I feel comfortable visiting the wonders of nature out in "the bush" here and even better was exploring it together with my new friends:
Come along for a visit down under... the outback awaits you with warm skies, refreshing rivers and smiles for miles!
See you next time :) Sybil Sana Mar
See you next time :) Sybil Sana Mar