I didn’t write yesterday, so I’m combining Friday and Saturday into one post. We had Friday off as a free day in Perth, so almost all of our group decided to go on a wine tour, as Western Australia has a number of really great wineries. We left around 1020 for our day long excursion; the 14 of us were joined on the bus by two Canadians and two Tasmanians. We visited four different wineries, had lunch along the river, and visited the Margaret River Chocolate Factory. We had a number of very good white wines (few of us liked the reds which were very spicy), and the scenery of the whole area was very beautiful.

After the wine tour we had a large group dinner, and then Danielle, Jake and I ventured into Northbridge to a bar called Sheds that our tour guide had recommended to us. (As we approached the bar, we realized that the spotlights we had seen in the sky every night originated from Sheds; it was like finding the end of a rainbow.) Sheds was very cool – a beer garden (outside bar complex), the bar itself was in a little shed that looked like a hotdog stand. As we walked into the bar, we turned around and saw Geoff, one of the Canadian guys we had met on the wine tour. Jake was very glad to be able to talk to another boy for a while (he is the only straight male on the trip, and understandably can sometimes be overwhelmed by the girliness of our group). The bar itself had a very fun atmosphere, and although we didn’t get home until way past our jet-lagged bedtimes of 10 p.m., it was still a great night!

I woke up this morning and had to pack up all of my stuff as we were leaving for the next leg of our journey: a week in Katanning in the Great Southern. After just a week in Perth I have started acquiring stuff (two bottles of wine, some books, boomerangs, etc.), but luckily I was able to pack without having to expand my suitcase…yet.

We were supposed to be picked up around 1030 a.m. at our motel by Izzard and Charlie, two Noongar men from Katanning, but as we soon learned, they operate on “Noongar time” — it happens when it happens. We didn’t end up leaving City Waters until almost noon, but as soon as we all packed into the bus, I was asleep. Nothing like a great road trip to take a great nap! When I woke up, though, we were about an hour and a half outside of Perth and the scenery had completely changed. After a lunch at a roadhouse, we watched the countryside as we passed sheep farms, bush, and red, red dirt. It rained all afternoon and the moisture really made the colors even more vibrant. About a half hour from Katanning we stopped to see the great ram of Wagin and Charlie actually turned the bus around so that we could see a pair of kangaroos in the bush.

After arriving in Katanning, we stopped to pick up some breakfast food at the grocery store and settled into our hotel before heading off again for our Welcome to Country ceremony. Though we have already been through two Welcome to Countries (Sorry Day and at Curtin University), this one was dedicated specifically to our group, as it was put on by the small community which will be hosting us for the next two weeks. After a number of speeches by prominent community members, a Noongar dance group called “One Blood” performed several dances, including some that had never been publicly danced before. (All of the dancers are from the same family, hence the name “One Blood.”)

The incredible dancing was followed by a huge potluck meal with all kinds of traditional and contemporary foods from potato salad to three preparations of kangaroo meat. (After now having kangaroo in four different ways, I don’t think I’ll be eating it again, but it is a very gamey meat that is reminiscent of venison.) We were able to mix with members of the community, though, during dinner, so I had a lot of really interesting conversations with several people who were incredibly welcoming and open to our group and questions.

The next few weeks will be interesting, though, as our group finds our way through this very complex community. Apparently a number of different people came to the Welcome to Country who ordinarily doesn’t speak with each other. Additionally, our very reason for being here is quite contentious amongst the community: Colgate wants to be involved here because of a collection of paintings that were recently discovered in our art gallery. Some people in the community want those paintings to come back to Katanning and Australia, while others want a greater sharing of culture between Colgate and Katanning. It will be interesting to navigate through this situation, but I am very excited about the opportunity to be here and learn so much!

Peace,

Jill

Today was another jam packed day at Curtin University, although it was all very thought-provoking. We started out with a visit to their art gallery which currently has an exhibit on by a contemporary artist who comes from an indigenous background. Many of his works are reclaiming old images of Aboriginal people who have been stripped of their identities; by manipulating and changing the mediums of the images, he gives them back power and identity. Some of the artworks are in neon lights, others are photographs, and many use traditional patterns from his Aboriginal tribe, though not knowing the context of them, they appear very contemporary and op art.

We also went on a “behind the scenes” tour of the museum and boy, could Colgate use facilities like those. The collection is only about 2,000 pieces, but there is a huge amount of exhibition space compared to our gallery and the storage facility includes a number of racks for upright painting storage.

After our museum visit, we went back to the Aboriginal Center for a workshop on Noongar culture and traditional technologies. Our two presenters, Delvene and Tom, were extremely knowledgeable and very well sync-ed – you could tell from their chemistry and presentation that they work with a lot of school-age and community groups. Delvene used a lot of Noongar language and history in her presentation, while also describing how kangaroo skins were used, the division of labor between the sexes and how food was gathered. Tom showed us kylies (boomerangs) and explained how they were used to hunt, while Delvene explained how women would trap and kill a duck by digging a small trench and luring the duck into the trench with seeds. Since ducks can’t walk backwards and the trench wasn’t wide enough for them to fly out of, they would be trapped in the hole. She also taught us to make bush string from a river reed and Tom demonstrated how to make a bush knife using resin, a mineral, kangaroo poop, quartz, a stick and fire.

Lunch was sponsored by the Vice-Chancellor of Curtin. Professor Kraly gave a presentation about the Colgate/Carrolup connection to a crowd that included our group, several Curtin administrators, faculty from the Aboriginal Center, several of the Noongar elders from Katanning, and some business people from the community who Jaime would like to help support the girls’ fashion project we’ll be working on next week. Both food and presentation were great, and after Vice-Chancellor Hackett made some brief remarks, I had to present her with a card and Colgate souvenir. Everyone has taken a turn at thanking our lecturers and hosts, but I’m pretty pumped that I was chosen to thank the President of the University. We spoke briefly after the lunch, and she is a very nice woman; she has also been an excellent, foresighted leader for Curtin which is very impressive.

After lunch, Dr. Ted Wilkinson gave us a lecture on Aboriginal health issues; it was very compelling, as he shared personal experience and recent statistics from his work in the community and as a Whadjuk (Noongar) man. There is currently a 17 year discrepancy in life expectancy rates for Aboriginal peoples in Australia overall, although for Noongar peoples that discrepancy is less. Still, that is quite unacceptable given our present knowledge and capabilities. Diabetes, heart disease, kidney failure are all plaguing the population, though, as nutrition and quality of care lags behind white standards.

To close our two days at Curtin, we were then joined by Dr. Richard Walley, a renowned Noongar musician who has toured throughout the world and met other great performers like Stevie Wonder. Dr. Walley spoke to us for a while, but also led us through some meditation and played the didgeridoo. We ended singing a song while he played the didgeridoo and sang.

While Dr. Walley is very important in the community and it is huge that he spoke with us, I found some parts of his talk frustrating, as he spoke in binaries. One particular point which I did not agree with is that Western life lacks balance and spirituality; while this might be true for many, the three principles that he stressed (spirit, mind and body) are part of the core values of the YMCA. Having been fortunate enough to be raised in such an environment, this is something that has been stressed in my life. I was grateful to feel that I am an exception to what might be a standard, although by speaking in binaries, Dr. Walley ignored those exceptions.

I kept going back to the idea of education today, especially after Dr. Wilkinson’s lecture and keeping in mind some ideas that Dr. Walley presented. Currently there is a very high dropout rate for Aboriginal students, and few earn the necessary grades to go on to University. Even there, Curtin has one of the highest retention rates and that is around the 20% mark. Thus on the one hand, the community is suffering from a lack of education (health issues), while on the other hand there is a very poor legacy of education in Australia’s past (stolen generation). Additionally, if a school is not culturally sensitive, the Aboriginal ways of knowing may not be prized, and thus lost on or alienating to the students. I am thinking that there is a possible connection here to Lisa Delpit’s work, but I’m wondering if there is a model of culturally sensitive education in the country, and if not, why? Jaime said she might be able to arrange for me to have coffee with her sister while I am in Katanning, as her sister is the principle of the school there. Hope that works out as I have so many questions, and my questions are leading to ideas and wanting to fix the world. Ok, enough for today.

Peace,
Jill

Fulbright Program

I finally had a chance to catch up on some news today, and as I was going through the NYTimes email, I came across this story. As a Fulbright recipient, I feel frustrated that other people are not going to have the same kind of opportunity to study, despite the fact that they are uninvolved in the conflict in their region. Read this article, "U.S. Withdraws Fulbright Grants to Gaza."

Colgate at Curtin University: Day 1

Today was our first day at Curtin University, which is located just outside of Perth. We left our hotel before 8 a.m. to catch a bus out to the University. After a welcome by Clive Walley, the director of the Center for Indigenous Studies, we had a number of excellent speakers on topics such as indigenous peoples and climate change and housing issues amongst Aboriginal people.

I was particularly impressed by our talk by Tom Stannage today. A professor emeritus of history, Professor Stannage has spent a long career advancing a revisionist account of Australian history that seeks to include an Aboriginal perspective. He shared some traditional Australian poetry, as well as influential poetry by Jack Davis, an Aboriginal man who was especially prolific in the 1970s and 80s.

After lunch we met with two professors – one from journalism and the other from film and television stories – and two of their students who were part of a class that produced a four episode television series about Noongar culture. This class project has actually won a number of awards in Australian community television, and they generously gave a copy of the show to us for the Colgate library. We watched the first episode in class, and they interviewed the dance troupe from the Sorry Day commemoration on the show!

We also had a really great lecture after lunch on indigenous people and sport, led by a very energetic man, Darren. Asking us to draw on our own sporting experiences, we discussed the importance of involving Aboriginal children in athletic activities as offering them an arena for success. (Aboriginal people have been very successful in Australian and international sports.) Therefore, we literally drew a portrait of ourselves as athletes and spoke briefly about our own experiences. Clive, Jaime and Darren were able to ask questions about our own sport backgrounds and learn some about sports in America, as well. As we left, Clive gave us baseball caps from a foundation started by David Wirrpanda to support Aboriginal youth in sports.

Unfortunately, I’m not feeling too well from lunch (a curry pie and some really gross pea soup), so I think I’m going to head to dinner and bed. Tomorrow we are having lunch with the Vice-Chancellor of the University, and I am presenting her with a thank you from our study group, and Colgate as a whole.

Peace,
Jill

Behind the Scenes at the UWA Museum and Indiana Jones

Second day of classes as UWA, but today with John Stanton, who is the foremost expert on Carrolup art. Our trip to the campus was fairly uneventful, but I was looking forward to today’s classes as John also curates the University’s anthropology museum, which houses an incredible collection of Carrolup art. In fact, he is an incredibly knowledgeable man on the topic, and though most of the details are reiterations of content I have already been studying, it was interesting to put that into a larger picture of the how his work with Aboriginal art, including the Carrolup pieces, fits within the academic schema of the Australian academy. While at Colgate the pieces are valued for their art history and culture, here they are of little interest to fine art historians. They are dismissed as both child art and Aboriginal art, and not seen for their true beauty and value (if you ask me).

After a lecture from John which was delightful because of the depth with which he was able to converse about artists and pieces and the history, we had a lecture from Cindy Solonec, a University lecturer in Indigenous Studies. Though she is an Aboriginal woman from the Kimberly, she shared her family story which is pretty symbolic of relations among different racial groups: white, part-Aboriginal and Aboriginal peoples. Her father, a Spanish immigrant with little English language initially, was accepted by his Aboriginal wife’s family, as he was similarly accepting and faced comparable discrimination from white Australians. I was particularly impressed with her lecture, which outlined her master’s thesis, as it focused almost entirely on documenting and interpreting family history though oral histories and her father’s journals. Having recently undertaken family-based research of my own, I was impressed with her courage to interpret and divine academic theory from a complex family past; this was my greatest struggle in creating my film in the fall.

Our group had lunch at one of the University cafeterias before visiting John’s museum to look at the Carrolup pieces. With some extra time, I wandered around some of the little shops and stands next to the cafeteria and found a great children’s book about a dog named Walter who farted and ruined this stodgy couple’s vacation and was expelled from the beach. In the end, though, he saved the couple, found buried treasure for his family, and was allowed to vacation at the beach again. I thought the book was great, but it didn’t fall within my price range (less than $7) so I left it at the stand.

We were only able to see six Carrolup pieces at John’s museum, as they are currently preparing for a new facility, and have moved most of the collection off site. Still, the works that we did see were absolutely incredible! I was particularly impressed by a tray decorated with a corroboree scene that was given by Noel White to his friend Percy (there is an inscription on the back). To physically hold such an object was an incredible reality; it made the academic study tangible.

After our museum visit, we bused back to Perth. Iris and I did some shopping – I got postcards and some souvenirs and a beautiful necklace that I am in love with. We met up with Megan for dinner at this café with half price waffles on Tuesday (delicious!) and then met Professor Kraly to watch the new Indiana Jones movie (bizarre!) All in all, it was a relaxing, entertaining night. Early bus to Curtin University tomorrow, though, so have to get some rest!

Peace,

Jill

Because I always visit jails...

We began our first classes in Perth yesterday at UWA; Charlie Fox, a wadjella man who lectures in aboriginal history, gave us two brief lectures on aboriginal history in Australia and Western Australia in the morning. He is certainly a very knowledgeable man and had a very relaxed lecture style which was engaging. Charlie was just as interested in imparting Aboriginal history to us as he was in inquiring into our own Native American history. This led to some interesting comparisons towards the end of class, as we considered the prominence of Aboriginal issues in Australia politics, as compared to the near absence of Indian issues in American politics. Overall, I think his lectures offered a useful background for approaching the rest of the trip.

Right after the lectures, we left UWA and took a bus back to East Perth where we are staying to go to a Sorry Day gathering. Sponsored by the Bringing Them Home Committee (which is aimed at implementing a 1997 report about the Stolen Generation), the Sorry Day commemoration included a number of speakers, dancers and musicians. A traditional Noongar Welcome to Country was performed, which is exciting as we will have another such welcome when we arrive in Katanning on Saturday. Several of the dances were based on Australian animals like the kangaroo and emu and offered impressive interpretations set to the music of a didgeridoo. Very cool.

The point of Sorry Day, though, is to recognize the wrongs and hurts that have been aimed at Australia’s aboriginal people and, by offering an apology, begin to heal that wound. Thus this was not just a celebration of Aboriginal culture and Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s recent apology (February 13, 2008), but also offered a chance to remember those who died as part of the horrible effects of forcible removal, and call for the improved support of Aboriginal communities which face complex health, education and cultural issues.

As a whole, the atmosphere of Sorry Day was quite uplifting. Though part of the purpose is to commemorate those who were lost as part of the Stolen Generation, there was also a great celebratory atmosphere, in honor of those who have survived to see the recent apology. Additionally, there was a sense of hopefulness that the Australian community could begin to heal as a whole nation. People smiled and engaged strangers in conversation while children jumped in a bounce house. Aboriginal people seemed delighted to share their culture with white people who were eager to learn; in that spirit, there was a free barbeque at which I tried a kangaroo hotdog. (Interesting flavor, kind of tough meat, although that might have been the degree to which mine was cooked.)

After Sorry Day, we jumped on a train to Freo to check out the Fremantle jail. This was our second trip to Freo by train, but first as an official group. Unfortunately when we arrived someone realized that Iris wasn’t with us. After some mild panic, we reasoned that she would probably just get on the next train to Fremantle; Professor Kraly, who wanted us to see the prison, stayed at the train station to wait and sent the rest of us to visit the prison if we were so inclined. Leaving her, the rest of the group decided to reconvene at 5:15 p.m. for dinner and chose the most memorable spot in Fremantle we could think of: the corner where Chris nearly was hit by a car (had Elise not pulled him back) and let out the most shrill shriek I have ever heard. About five of us proceeded to the jail then, as others went to find some food.

While walking towards the prison, we were overtaken by two familiar faces: Iris and Professor Kraly. (She had indeed gotten on the next train which arrived shortly after we left the station). Our now slightly larger party proceeded to the Freo jail for what proved to be a very interesting tour!

At the jail we joined up with a few other Colgaters and toured what had been an operating prison until 1991. Our guide, Kim, had a great sense of humor and a pure love of ice hockey. (Upon finding out we were American, he couldn’t stop talking about his love of the Rangers!) The jail itself was originally built by the first convicts sent to the colony from England; though the Swan River colony (Western Australia) was started as a free settlement, there were not enough people to build a sufficient infrastructure and convicts were sent after about a decade. After they built the jail it became their home at night; during the day convicts were subject to hard labor. A number of years later, it was turned over to the colonial government as a prison and remained in service until just seventeen years ago.

As we walked away from the jail and reflected that it was our second jail tour in as many days, I realized that I have actually visited a number of correctional institutions on field trips (my count now includes: Eastern State Penitentiary, Attica Correctional Facility, Kilmainham Jail, Rottnest Island and Fremantle Prison). The Freo prison was similar to the others in many regards and I think I was a lot less shocked by cells and prison life than others on the tour (I also correctly guessed that the chapel is still used each year for marriages, which surprised everyone else). This was a particularly interesting jail, though for a number of reasons.

First of all, there is no indoor plumbing in the cells. All inmates were instead issued a bucket which they could empty once a day; this practice continued until the prison closed in 1991, except for a period in the 1960s when they experimented with chemical toilets only to find that inmates drank the chemicals as they contained alcohol. Secondly, we toured the isolation cells and the prison’s gallows. This was actually very eerie. According to Kim, the prison is supposed to be quite haunted, and just standing in the gallows in daylight was enough to convince me of that possibility.

Finally, as we entered one of the exercise yards, we were suddenly surrounded by these incredible murals that our group immediately recognized as reminiscent of the Carrolup style of art. Black trees and kangaroos painted over a backdrop of a brilliant sunset surrounded the yard. Two artists, in particular, were responsible for these murals in 1991. Though inmates had not been allowed to paint on the walls, when it was announced the prison would close, guards encouraged inmates to paint on the walls. Two Noongar men who shared a cell in the prison were responsible for a number of the murals on the walls, both inside and out. As we left the yard and moved inside, we were astonished by the mural on the wall of their cell. In stunning reds and blues and yellows, it seemed as if a Carrolup piece had been blown-up and painted to the wall. Our guide noticed we were particularly interested in the art, and offered to take our group to see a few other cells on the top floor after our tour; one cell featured an aboriginal dot painting of a wauygul (snake that created the Swan River, according to some Aboriginal dreaming stories), while another had impressive studies of classical figures. While these were not as exciting to us as our Carrolup-inspired discoveries, we were still incredibly grateful for the extra “behind the scenes” glimpse.

The jail had been of interest to us as a number of Noongar artists served time in and out of prison; many continued to paint while in jail, producing stunning works. We had not expected, though, to find pieces as part of the physical history of the prison itself. I’m curious to try and find out more about those two particular artists responsible for the murals: who they were, how they are connected to the Carrolup tradition, and how they came to be in prison. Perhaps this is something that can be investigated further in Katanning.

After our visit to the prison, our group split and some went to dinner at a riverside restaurant in Freo, while seven of us went back to the Northbridge area of Perth to eat at an Indonesian restaurant called Sparrow. Food was good, management was delightful, and the conversation was entertaining. Plus, it was a comparatively inexpensive meal. Good day, overall.

Peace,

Jill

Day Trip: Rottnest Island

Today was an incredible day, both in terms of the weather and the trip itself. We left early (before 8 a.m.) for Rottnest Island, which is off the western coast of Australia. We had to take a ferry from Perth down the Swan River to Fremantle, and then change boats to cross the ocean passage to Rottnest. Both parts were incredibly beautiful; we even saw dolphins as we approached Fremantle! The Swan River (named for black swans which were first seen by Europeans here) is full of history and, as it is very shallow, is used frequently today by mainly recreational users as it is pretty ineffective for shipping. I love all types of bodies of water, so the boat ride was right up my alley! The ocean passage was quite choppy, and a lot of people felt pretty sick as we arrived at the island, but looking out on the waves I thought about nosing a kayak into a big drop and my stomach stayed in line.

The forecasts predicted rain for today, but as soon as we landed we were greeted by beautiful sunny skies. Our group parted ways shortly after landing to explore the island, with everyone planning to meet up for a 2 p.m. tour of the history of the settlement. There is a guide service on Rottnest staffed by volunteers dedicated to educating the community; many are retirees who hold a special place in their hearts for the island.

In fact, Rottnest is a very interesting place. It was originally intended for farming, but the first land grants were revoked in 1839 so that the government could use the island as a jail for aboriginal men from throughout Western Australia. It stayed that way until the turn of the century when the jail was closed and the island became a popular tourist destination. Most of the original buildings are still standing, but have been converted to tourist lodgings rented by the government and almost always fully booked. As a result, many Western Australians have grown up vacationing on the island, a place that holds such terrible cultural memories for Aboriginal Australians.

Iris and I went exploring the island together right after the group split up. Our first stop was the Lomas cabin, a small facility originally built for an ex-convict who probably had a mental breakdown and was cared for by the state for a number of years. The highlight of the current facility, though, is this stunning collection of mounted photographs from the late 1800 and early 1900s. Some are of incarcerated Aboriginal men dressed for corroborees, while others from just a few decades later are of white Australians on the island for recreational purposes.

We next went through the small chapel on the island which is really beautiful and briefly through the island museum. Though small, it takes in a broad array of subject matter from island geology to plant and animal life to human history. I was most interested in its history as a jail site, but was very disappointed by the interpretative text on the display. Though informative, it was clearly written from a white perspective; and while at least the history is reported, the bias is still evident in the text.

Iris and I then rejoined Professor Kraly and a few other group members for a tour of the island’s World War II fortifications with Irene, one of the volunteer guides. The seven of us took the free bus to the southwestern end of the island which overlooks the channel between Rottnest and Fremantle (mainland Australia). Two huge guns with a range of over 20km were installed at this point on the island, so they could protect the port. As early as 1936, Australia had anticipated being attacked during the war, and thus began to fortify. (They had expected a naval attack, but Japan ended up trying to launch an aerial attack on Western Australia. It turns out that their planes couldn’t reach the coast, though, and that the attack was unsuccessful.)

As we walked along old railroad tracks, now filled in to become a path, we were stunned by these incredible views of both the Australian bush and the ocean. Mixed into this landscape were the cement and metal remnants of the World War II fortifications. Barbed wire still dots the hills and many of the buildings, though now abandoned, are still standing.

On the way up the hill was also stumbled across a quokka. These marsupial creatures (they look like big rats, but cuter) are indigenous to the island and roam pretty freely. They eat everything they can find and aren’t afraid of people, but are also pretty harmless. We missed the quokka tour, but still, I took a number of close-up pictures of the animals which were just wandering around Rottnest with all of the tourists.

After resting for a bit by the water, we met up with the group at 2 for a tour of the settlement. Practically all of the original buildings are still standing; they are made of thick limestone walls, nail-less roofs, and painted a rusty color. (The original buildings were white, but there was such a glare off of them that in the early 1900s they dipped horseshoes in sulfuric acid to produce an ochre-color that was mixed with the sealing paint.)

The tour itself was interesting, but perhaps the most fascinating part was that this area is a hot tourist spot. The jail, which held Aboriginal men with up to 7 people in a small 15’ x 11’ cell, is now converted into a hotel with a sign for a poolside restaurant. There is no sign of the people who suffered there, as it is now a spot of luxury. Many of us were pretty appalled at this rendering of such a tragic site, although the Australians on our tour didn’t seem as much affected by it.

Our trip to Rottnest brought up two points that I want to consider further. The first is whether it is easier for us as outsiders to come into a culture more sensitized to the marginalized peoples and thus able to see and lend critique easier. If an Australian came to the U.S. and began criticizing our Native American policy, would we feel offended by such an outsider who is missing the larger picture? Are we doing a service by lending such a critique, and how can we do so in the most effective manner? Ultimately, in three weeks I will be going home; my goal cannot be to change Australian hearts and minds, but still, the cultural discrepancies are so evident from the outside perspective.

Secondly, I have been very challenged professionally, as I seek to bridge my education background with a future career in the museum field. Coming from a teacher certification program that so heavily emphasizes and prizes dialogue about social justice, how do I integrate that into core belief into museum work which can be very static. While Rottnest had a number of very interesting exhibits across the island, this was something that was definitely missing and, in my mind, MUST be present at such a site. This is a perfect place to impart a message of social justice to the many vacationers and visitors. When a wall text reads: “Many aborigines were apprehended for infringements of imposed English laws. Naturally, the aborigines had difficulty understanding these laws and the reasons for the imprisonment,” though, the museum has done a cultural disservice by not clearly illuminating the cultural discrepancies, instead focusing just on the results. The Aboriginal Australians did not naturally have difficulty understanding English laws because they were stupid, as you might fill in the blank from the text; they followed their own law systems, not realizing they were subject to the laws of their conquerors, or possibly that they had even been conquered. And yet, there is a huge hole where a powerful social justice message could be put in place. This should be Rottnest’s biggest goal for the future.

Peace,

Jill

PS Iris and I walked out on a dock to look at the water and saw these three HUGE stingrays. I thought it was pretty cool until she informed me that stingrays will jump at shadows. So then I used my handy zoom to take this picture!

First Day in Perth

Rottnest Island today, so Megan (my roommate) and I are up nice and early this morning. It turns out that it rained so much yesterday and especially when we were coming home that our pants are still wet from last night. I’m glad I brought an extra pair with me, because otherwise it would be slightly reminiscent of spring break 2007 when we damply traveled around Italy for a week with jeans that never completely dried.

Yesterday our only requirement was to go through an exhibit at the Museum of Western Australia. We met there around 1045 and received our assignments for the trip: to keep a journal (this blog for me), write a two page policy memo about Dog Head rock which we will visit in a little more than a week, and participate in the service learning projects. Our final project, though, is exactly in line with my graduate school choice: design an exhibit for the Museum of Western Australia extending their current exhibit about the Stolen Generation to include the case study of Carrolup. We need to make scholarly choices, write text, select images, create floor plans, and write interpretative guides to promote discussion. While it is a ton of work, it will be a very cool project with which to enter CGP.

After the museum, we souvenir shopped for a little bit which I found very difficult since I have only just gotten here. But in one of the shops, I found a set of shot glasses with all different “parts” of Australian culture on each glass; the last one in the series said “An aboriginal man” with a picture of a dark face and boomerangs and spears. I was shocked. I realize that we might be more sensitive to such overt racism, as the point of this trip is to build cultural bridges with one particular aboriginal tribe, but is that really something that is seen as a marketable part of tourism – a group of people? (Is this what we do to the Amish, as I can’t see people driving through Native American reservations as they do Amish country.)

We also found the grocery store and bought some breakfast provisions – very much like shopping at Sainsbury’s and made me miss London a lot – and then left for Fremantle which is just outside of Perth on the other side of the river. Walked along the river at dusk which was stunning: palm trees to one side, lights reflecting off the Swan on the other. At the train station, one of the station operators tried getting us the best deal possible, which included variously student concessions and a family ticket for five college kids. Finally, he ended up taking this yellow pad of paper out of his pocket and writing us a voucher ticket for 15 of us to travel until 1130 pm. Not bad, but whenever we had the ticket checked, we’d have to present it and then point to our herd – I don’t think it was meant to be used with 15 people!

We had dinner at this brewery in Fremantle which is supposed to be one of the hip places to go, but everyone was about ten years older than us and the wait staff there was very unaccommodating. Two girls left their IDs at the hotel and were outright rejected which is understandable, but the manner in which the lady at the door did so was incredibly rude. She told us to find any table inside and sit down, so the one empty table we found was a huge and a perfect fit for our party of now 12 (one girl didn’t come and the other two went to find food on their own). Turns out that the table was reserved, which caused a huge ruckus and resulted in several more encounters with the rude lady in the red coat. We ended up having some pints and eating outside, which was fine but it was definitely an interesting experience.

We took the train back to Perth at what seemed to be a very late hour, but in fact was only about 10 p.m. As we walked back to the hotel from the train station, it began to downpour, though, making for a very soggy trek home.

Peace,

Jill

Safe in Australia

So after over 37 hours of travel, I finally arrived in Perth, Australia yesterday around 3 p.m. (Perth time). There is a twelve hour difference between here and home, which was actually very helpful in that I didn’t have to change my watch, time antibiotics and makes calculations to figure out the time at home a lot easier.

I started my travels from Buffalo on Wednesday, May 21 flying Southwest to Los Angeles via Chicago Midway. Not the best airline, but also not the worst, this part of the trip was terrible as I was still feeling quite sick from the bacterial/viral/allergic (the doctor couldn’t tell) symptoms I had developed during graduation weekend. Landing in Midway, I lost my hearing in a very painful descent and didn’t regain it until I was over Colorado. That led to a very interesting conversation – from what I understood of it – with the Indian man I sat next to on the way to L.A. As I blew my nose for the 20^th time before taking off, I turned to him to apologize and let him know that I was on antibiotics and not contagious. I think he tried telling me that I didn’t need antibiotics because it was probably something else called a schlivangl but honestly, I couldn’t hear at that point and may have filled in the many conversational blanks incorrectly.

I had a decent sized layover at LAX which I have deemed to be the worst airport in the world. After arriving and finding my bag, I knew I needed to find a different terminal and began looking for signs. Most other airports that I have encountered clearly label which airlines fly out of which terminals and where to find them. LAX must not believe in clarity or self-sufficient travelers, so I had to stop some baggage handlers who could tell me the two terminals for Qantas and guess at which one I needed. It took another person to learn I could walk 10 minutes to the terminal or take the free shuttle downstairs, and a number of frustrated shuttle drivers to instruct by then a large crowd of us that we needed to take Shuttle A to our terminals.

By the time I got to the international terminal I was very hungry and tired as my body felt like it was 11 p.m., not 6 p.m. West Coast time. I decided to check-in, get through security and find my gate before eating, though, as then I would have boundless amounts of time to find a sufficient eatery on the other side. It turns out that LAX is actually in the process of being renovated, so once on the other side it was like entering an abandoned indoor work zone for Boston’s Big Dig. Tons of dust, orange signage, fences marking off most of the terminal area and access to few places I actually wanted to be. After stopping off and paying $12.00 for a bottle of water and a mediocre turkey sandwich, I found my gate and enjoyed my gourmet meal. Honestly, though, I’ve flown out of a lot of middle-of-nowhere airports, but none lacked so severely in facilities. We were amazed that the renovations were so widespread, essentially shutting down all services in the terminal and creating a very inhospitable atmosphere for travelers and workers alike.

Gradually a small contingent of Colgate students emerged at the gate. I had been worried as I know few of the people on the trip, but everyone was very nice and in such a pool of complete strangers, being with Colgate faces was like being with old friends. Right before we were to board our plane, they announced a gate change to the other end of the terminal, so several hundred people streamed out of the workzone wing to the far end of the terminal before boarding a bus to take us to our plane.

Honestly, I don’t remember much from that first leg of the trip. After putting on sweatpants and curling up with my blanket and pillow, I fell asleep almost as soon as we were in the air. If they tried to wake me for dinner, all attempts were unsuccessful; I woke up a full 9 hours into the plane flight, though, wide awake and as refreshed as you can be when making such an international trip. I paged for some food so I could take my antibiotic (by that point I’d figured out that lots of water and some easy food made it easier on my stomach) and then settled in to enjoy Juno and 27 Dresses on the plane. I think movies make long plane flights endurable, so I was pretty pumped with the selection and the chance to catch up on movies I have wanted to see but had to put off because of time constraints.

Arriving in Brisbane, Australia was really cool. The sun rose right behind us about an hour before we landed which made the clouds look like pale puffs of cotton candy over tiny glimpses of ocean. As we began to descend, we entered into thick clouds that looked like a mean London fog, but when we broke from those, the tip of Australia peeked out from the water. I took some pictures from my window of these first glimpses of this, my third continent. (See above.)

After Brisbane we flew a domestic Qantas flight to Perth. The flight was pretty empty, so after take off I moved to an empty row a little further back to watch Charlie Wilson’s War. I dozed off after the movie ended, only to wake up to someone stroking my feet. As I opened my eyes, a little two-year-old girl who had been sitting behind me grinned from the end of the row. She must have left her seat and, spying my lime green fuzzy socks that look like Muppet skin, felt the irresistible urge to pet them. It was probably the strangest way to be woken up on a plane, though.

All arrived in Perth safely and we met up with our professor and a van driver from Curtin University, one of the schools at which we will spend a few days next week. They guided us to our hotel which is right on the Swan River in the city, and after showers and a couple of hours to ourselves, our group walked a few blocks to a noodle bar for dinner. Food was good, but I was so tired by that point that we came only to pass out by 8:30.

We don’t have internet in this first hotel, although there are some cafes with public access just a few blocks away. Therefore, to start out this blog, I think I will type my posts when I get a chance and upload when I’m checking email. Posting might be a little more erratic and lengthy this week, but bear with me.

Ok, off for some breakfast (brekkie?) and then to the Museum of Western Australia which hopefully is not as lame as the Coastal Discovery Center in Hilton Head. We are receiving our final project assignment today, so we can work on it over the course of the trip. It is weird to think that I am someplace between a student and alumna – still completing homework assignments, but knowing that I have already satisfied all of the requirements of my diploma. Yikes!

Peace for now,

Jill

Press Release

CARROLUP: CONNECTIONS, COMMUNITY, CULTURE AND COLGATE.

The community of Katanning is busy preparing for a visit from academics and students from Colgate University, New York State, USA.

Colgate University holds the largest collection of artwork by the Child artists of Carrolup Mission. Many will remember the magnificent exhibition of 1940’s-1950’s Noongar child artists’ paintings which were returned to Katanning for the 2006 Perth International Arts Festival.

Colgate University has displayed considerable sensitivity in its custodianship of these important Indigenous Australian art works. Strong links have been built with the Noongar people of the Great Southern region of Western Australia and Mungart Boodja Art Centre in Katanning.

Sixteen exchange students and Geography Professor, Ellen Percy Kraly will meet with Noongar artists over the long weekend of the 30th May to 2^nd June 2008. Especially poignant will be the commemoration of Sorry Day and the sharing of stories and paintings. The Colgate University visitors will gather at Marribank to hear the Elders stories first hand, including their child hood experiences living at Carrolup Mission-as it was known. The students will also be documenting significant South- West heritage sites and continuing the work on the Moorditj Noongar Yorgas Wearable Art Fashion Program for Noongar girls aged twelve to twenty- two.

This exchange enriches understanding on both sides and is an important affirmation of Noongar community values and the contribution to the region.

A traditional Noongar Welcome will be performed in Katanning by Gya Ngoop (One Blood)-Barry McGuire and his seven brothers, at the Katanning Noongar Centre at 6:00pm on Saturday 31^st May. All are welcome. To assist with catering purposes please RSVP Patricia House by Friday 23^rd May 2008 on 98 212 836 or email phouse@mungartboodja.com .

Barry says “Through art I believe our culture can provide a platform to keep our traditions alive. If we believe in ourselves and pull together as one in our communities, we can do anything.”

For further information please contact Manager, Patricia House 98 212 836