Spoiler Alert: I pet a kangaroo!

Today was a bit more relaxed than the rest of our trip has been. We had a nice lay-in today (sleeping in) and went to the Mungar Boodjt Arts Center, which is just a few blocks away, around 1045. There we were met by Patricia House, the director of the Arts Center, as well as a number of members of the Noongar community, many of whom we met last night. Patricia had arranged for a workshop at the center to coincide with our visit, so we went upstairs to a bright workroom and were greeted by Lance Chad, a prominent Noongar artist, and Uncle Allen Kelly, the last of the Carrolup child artists still living today.

Lance showed us a technique he has developed to paint landscapes using a monochromatic watercolor wash and Japanese calligraphy brushes. With just a few flicks of the wrist, he deftly created a beautiful landscape that showed light glimmering on water and the hills of Western Australia. After the background dried, Lance then painted in various trees and kangaroos to complete the scene.

We had a chance to then practice the painting technique on our own, using small pads of paper to practice before graduating to large pieces of watercolor paper. While Margaret and Glenda, the two Noongar women at my table, deftly created beautiful scenes after just a little practice and other Colgate students also began painting beautiful blackboy trees, I carefully practiced my wash technique. While I really admire the landscape here, I felt very restricted in my ability to paint something I don’t know. Feeling slightly discouraged, I took lunch.

When I went back upstairs after lunch, though, I committed to starting a large piece. Lance had created the wash technique to show land with glimpses of water, but I adapted it to paint a view of Lake Ontario, an all water view. That lakescape which I have grown up watching every summer means as much to me as the landscapes mean to the Noongar people. With that idea, I was able to paint three different views of the lake and was proud of my work.

After the workshop we climbed on the bus and Joe took us on a small expedition to his friend’s farm so we could see kangaroos! With the leftover bread from lunch, we were able to feed these animals which have been reared on a farm as pets. There was a huge fenced in pen of more than twenty roos; Joe said that when men go hunting, if they come back with a baby, they will bring it to the farm. A number of the kangaroos were very friendly and came right up to us (or the bread!), although there were a number that were a lot more skittish and held back. The first kangaroo that I fed was carrying a baby which you could tell because of her low-hanging belly. We had a lot of great pictures taken of us with the kangaroos, but honestly it was very cool just to see these beautiful animals move around. They are even more adorable up close than in any picture!

We came back to the motel for a while before dinner and Megan, Danielle, Leighann and I started watching Clue. While Megan and Danielle had never seen it before, Leighann and I quickly got them hooked on the movie. We had to leave it half way through, though for dinner.

Getting back on the bus, we drove about ten minutes to the neighboring town of Broomehill. We arrived at a lovely restaurant, newly renovated after years of neglect. The building had originally been the general store, and has been beautifully restored and converted to a very nice restaurant. We feasted on pumpkin soup and chicken, snapper or lamb in undoubtedly the best meal we’ve had since we have been in Australia. Absolutely delicious!

Dinner was especially cool, though, as our group split up and mixed with members of the community. I sat with Frank who will be showing us around Carrolup on Tuesday, Carolyn whose mother was Bella Kelly, Margaret who was as the workshop with me, and Uncle Eddie, an elder from Broomehill, as well as Elise. We had some incredible conversations throughout the night with a lot of good laughs, but even more importantly, a lot of sharing of stories. Frank told me about everything from kangaroo hunting to why he works at Carrolup even though it holds such painful memories, and Carolyn told Elise her own personal story about being a member of the Stolen Generation. She was cautious in telling the story, afraid of seeming weak, but Elise stressed the importance of sharing her story as a sign of strength. It was just such a great learning experience for all of us!

I was very tired after dinner, but very grateful for everyone at my dinner table. I had felt a bit homesick in the morning as I struggled with painting an unfamiliar landscape, but dinner reaffirmed why I am here: to engage in really meaningful learning and cultural sharing with people who have experienced so much oppression in life. This is a really important trip for me, so that I can both bring stories back with me, but also so that I can share those stories as a witness to damages caused by Australian government policy which treated Aboriginals as simply “flora and fauna” until 1967. Still, despite small progresses including the Prime Minister’s apology for the Stolen Generations on February 13, the Aboriginal community is still plagued by health, housing and cultural issues. I have decided that I want to write an op-ed to submit to the NYTimes and other papers for June 13, the four-month anniversary of Prime Minister Rudd’s apology.

Peace,
Jill