first impressions: north east arnhem land

After a mere 10 hours driving from Katherine, 700 kms of the drive on red dirt avoiding pot holes, sandy bogs and jagged rock we arrived in Arnhem Land.

For 11 years I've been hearing about Arnhem Land and Peter's Yolgnu family who live here.

Finally we are here together with our own children.

Pete is working with a Yolngu Grandmother here who takes care of her community through a healing program, taking young at-risk Yolngu out to homelands for support and healing.

We are based in Nhulunbuy the mining town set up here on the Gove Peninsula in the late 60's when Rio Tinto started mining bauxite for aluminium.

From Nhulunbuy we go out bush with Pete for him to do his work.

The coastline and landscape is postcard perfect except when the mine and refinery come into view, the mined red earth and the imposing refinery buildings and silos look like something out of a sci fi film dropped from the sky.

It is hard to fathom what it must have been like here in the 60's before the mine arrived and even harder to imagine what it must have been like when Rio Tinto made their mining 'deal' with the Traditional Owners of this land.

I don't even feel like I am in Australia anymore. It is a place of its own here.

We are remote in many senses.

Food comes in on a barge from Darwin once a week. Once the supermarket runs out of something for the week that's it. I was told on one of my first visits to the shops "Sorry, no bananas until next week".

But then there's Nature's 'supermarket' where real food is plentiful if you know where to look and how to catch it.

On our first trip out bush we ate the most spectacular mud crab, speared in the mangroves by a Yolgnu friend and cooked on the beach by his mother. "From the mangrove, to the fire, to your mouth," she said laughing as she handed Sol and I a crab claw to share.

There was no sense of time that day on the beach until the sun started to set, "We need to get back to camp before its dark, so they can collect gapu (water) from the creek" our Grandmother friend said looking up the beach for her son and husband who had gone fishing with River and Pete.

As dusk settled around us on the beach I began to worry about baru (crocodile). I looked up the beach nervously hoping to see the hunters walking back. I noticed Grandmother and her daughter-in-law did not take their eyes off the sandy point in the distance where the men had gone hunting, they too seemed to be willing them to walk back into view soon.

Within minutes we could see them walking back towards us. No fish today. We were happy and grateful for the crab. Grandmother gave the other crab claw to Peter and River to share and divided the body of the crab up for her and her husband, her son and daughter-in-law.

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I shared this story on my facebook page, it has been one of my favorite moments of the trip so far...

We went to meet Nandi Beth, Pete's Yolgnu mum. Nandi is the Yolgnu word for mother. Nandi Beth was spending a few days in hospital, nothing serious so we went to the hospital to meet her. Her delight and joy at seeing River and Sol for the first time was so lovely. She hugged them to her and smiled from her heart, then stood back and looked at the boys, "I get depressed when I come to hospital. Now you've made me happy". In the car when we left Sol said, "We look different but we have the same feelings. Grandmothers love to see grandchildren." They sure do. It was such an experience of universal love.

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There are challenges here. Divisions. Politics. Corruption.

There are wonders here. Songlines. Dreaming. Artistry. Family. Ceremony.

I hope you'll stick around to hear more.

postcard from Alice

My camera and photography skills don't do justice to the magnificence of the land here in Alice Springs and surrounds.

I can completely understand how people become enchanted by the desert. The natural beauty is captivating, red dirt, golden grasses, olive green trees growing against all odds. The light, the changing colours it all draws you in.

Alice is our base and from here we travel out with Arrernte Elders to spend time with them on their land. What a gift.

I am a heart on my sleeve kinda gal - cry at the sight of a newborn sorta thing - so to meet Elders of this land and hear their stories, tears are frequently filling my eyes. So much humility, grace, strength and wisdom in the Arrernte people I have met in the short time I've been here. More about that later as my heart and head take in the depth of life and culture here.

We shared a simple and beautiful kale and veggie soup made by our hosts neighbours, a delightful couple B and her husband S, who escaped the cold of Victoria and living their retirement in full colour. They're savouring the weather, the landscape, and the increasingly "alternative community". B is a celebrated artist here, we're looking forward to visiting her in her studio and opening our budding little artist's mind (Sol) to the painting life.

I don't even know where to begin writing about the Indigenous art here. The colours and stories are so vibrant and the canvases abundant. I am trying to take it all in slowly.

I've embraced the art of the honest selfie in this post. I'm soaking in the amazingness of this place on broken sleep. Hands up who else has a five year old who rarely sleeps through the night? Not that I was going back to have a third baby but there is NO way I could do serious sleep deprivation again. Hats off to mothers of newborns, you are doing an amazing job!!

Homeschooling on this trip has fallen into a fairly easy rhythm for which I am extremely thankful. As with pretty much everything you do with children, if you make it fun they're up for it. In this photo of the number cards, the fun part for Sol was using a huge long stick as a pointer to point to the numbers as I said them. He was having fun with the long stick and brushing up on number recognition at the same time. Simple but effective.

Getting him to write each day proves a little trickier as he just wants to draw or paint, so I let him do the drawing or painting and then ask him to write some words about the picture. I'd like him to write more but I figure the drawing is helping with the fine motor co-ordination needed for writing so it will all fall into place eventually. She hopes!

River is totally engrossed in a project about Red Kangaroos "I'm enjoying it so much Mum I'll be sad when I finish it!" Dream child. (I may or may not have had to spell out my expectations about attitude the day before. Seems to have worked).

That's enough from me for now. Friends and family I'm missing you! Thanks everyone for reading.

More soon x

weekend reading

A gorgeous blog find, if you are following GAPS you'll like this

Love this

I thought Melbourne had a lot of festivals and exhibitions but I think Alice Springs has taken the lead. Let's see, there's the Desert Song festival coming up, The Alice Desert Festival and Desert Mob and that's just skimming the surface!

Pete and the boys and I were lucky to spend a day at Akeyulerre this week, an Aboriginal healing centre here in Alice. You can read more about Akeyulerre social enterprise and healing products made from traditional bush medicine here.

We've also been fortunate to spend time with MK Turner a respected Arrernte woman and author of a beautiful book Iwenhe Tyerrtye - what it means to be an Aboriginal person.

I'll be talking more about Thrive over the coming week, a fantastic new e-course for Raising Kids Who Love Real Food. Put together by two wholefood mamas and health coaches, Alexx Stuart and Brenda Janscheck. You can read more about it and sign up here. (I'm an affiliate which means I get a small commission if you sign up via my link, just so you know!)

I support domestic violence campaigner Rosie Batty and her online campaign Never Alone, they've had a win this week with Tasmania committing to a respectful relationships program being introduced in Government schools from kindergarten to Year 12. Join Rosie's campaign and help put pressure on the other states to do the same.

Have a great weekend everyone. X

smooth revolution

How cool is this bike?

We spent last Sunday morning at the desertSMART eco-fair here in Alice Springs and River blended up a smoothie for him and Sol using pedal power.

Note to Canberra: solar and pedal power are the new black!

No doubt the harshness of the climate and the limited water supply here means that environmental concerns are at the forefront of people's minds. The eco-fair is heralded as Central Australia's Premier Sustainability Event and offers visitors opportunities to participate in activities and workshops so that they can learn and create.

The highlight of the day for Pete and I was hearing Arrente Traditional Custodian Aunty Doris Stuart in conversation with Costa Georgiadis and our friend Jodie Clarkson, speaking about connecting to country.

Aunty Doris spoke from her heart about responsibilities of traditional custodianship, the importance of sacred sites and what this means living in a modern Alice Springs. Aunty Doris's words stirred much emotion in her and in the audience.

"We get our life from our land. It's not just a hill, it's not just a tree, when it's cut we feel that pain. 
Everything comes from country and goes back to country. 
Country is kin, country is family.
Kinship is a map. When people are born that map tells them how to relate to country and to people".

Pete and I had tears rolling down our cheeks as we listened. At times Aunty handed her microphone to Jodie to speak while she took a moment to compose herself. Jodie has lived in Alice for twenty years and describes arriving in Alice "Like coming home to a place I'd never been before," I can appreciate this. Jodie's deep connection with the land and its people is clear, the friendship and respect between Jodie and Aunty Doris was moving in itself to witness.

Aunty Doris shared a vivid and fond memory from her childhood. She remembered sleeping outside and hearing the sound of singing and chanting carrying through the night air from women in ceremony at nearby sacred sites. "We'll never hear that again because so many of our sacred sites are gone," said Aunty with sadness. It made me think about the younger generations of Aboriginal children who have grown up or are still growing without this experience of their culture.

Being a Traditional Custodian brings with it responsibilities and decision making that cuts deep. Aunty Doris explained that for Aboriginal people being asked to choose which tree to cut down so a road can be built, so that people can save 5 minutes on their travel time, is like choosing a relative to be killed. To non Aboriginal people who don't have an appreciation for the depth of connection between Aboriginal people and the land, that may sound extreme but for Aboriginal people it is a painful reality.

"All we want is for our sites to be respected" - Aunty Doris Stuart.

Culture and environment, that's where we need a smooth revolution in this country.