National Gallery of Australia

For the second day of our orientation, we started with a tour of the National Gallery of Australia.  We were led through the indigenous artists' galleries which covered traditional art as well as modern styles.  Our guide was Heather, who was super cool and gave us a really great look into modern artistic forms and approaches of some of the leading indigenous artists as well as a really great cultural placement of where traditional art has fit into the modernization of Australia.  The following are some of my favorite pieces.

A commissioned piece in the foyer of the gallery displays traditional natural coffins, hollowed out and stuffed with the bones of the dead and left in a natural location, and painted with various representations of life and death amidst a riverine pathway that symbolizes the flow of life from birth to death

Platypus

Demon from beyond

A stinging rain, painted to depict a terrible storm that hit in Queensland, with rain carved into the painting to dramatic effect.

Indigenous depiction of life, the universe, and everything.

A depiction of how water flows over, through, and beyond, connecting everything living in the landscape.

Creation in a watery world.

Cyclone Tracy, a stylized representation of the path of devastation that hit Darwin, Australia on Christmas Eve, 1974

Amazing Australian scenery in watercolor.

More watercolor.  Apparently these were hugely popular in homes during the 60s.

Canberra, the Bush Capitol

Canberra CBD from Lake Burley Griffin

As part of the orientation for this program, we were given a lengthy tour of Canberra, Australia's capitol city.  The tour was led by Ralph, an American ex-pat and local naturalist (and whose research in floodplain ecology found him working with Tim Fletcher, one of my collaborators at University of Melbourne), and Dave, an aboriginal and indigenous archaeologist.  We were also accompanied by Matilda House, an aboriginal activist and head elder in the ACT region (Australian Capital Territory, akin to DC) with roots to the tribal groups that originally settled the surrounding areas.  Our first stop on the tour was the top of Mt. Ainsley which forms a backdrop for Canberra and the view from atop gives a great overview of the area.  Matilda offered us an official welcome to the lands of her peoples and informed us that despite the naming of places and settlement by white people, these lands were meant for all to share and respect and subsequent city planners had done much to muck them up!

Canberra from atop Mt. Ainsley

That point really set the stage for the day as we quickly learned that the relationship of indigenous peoples and white settlers is very much not fully reconciled and remains a source of ongoing evolution to this day.  Recognition of native peoples took far too long in this country (1967), and before then they had been considered in terms of governance as part of the flora and fauna.  While we have our own civil rights' issues back home and I would never purport myself to understand things in a foreign land with full comprehension, this struck me as a very tenuous subject that neither those of the government nor those of the peoples felt was where it needed to be.  It is difficult to rectify ownership, belonging, and the clash between commercialism and ecology when you have two groups of differing interests and ties to culture and the land.  I hope to learn more about this topic while I am here.

Close up of yellow ochre source, of which I have a piece to bring home!

Our next stop was Red Hill (or Gubur Dhaura as known to indigenous peoples), an ancient source for ochre that is still used today for traditional ceremonies.  Ochre is a natural pigment source, akin to rusted rock, that ranges from deep red to yellow to white even.  It is a very important source for body paint used in aboriginal ceremonies and cultural traditions, and this site was used many thousands of years ago for just this purpose.  It has been preserved as a park with signage and paths in the midst of a dense suburb, and Dave and Matilda had actually been out just recently to harvest some ochre for use in a ceremony that they held.  The fact that this ancient site is still in use today amidst the modernity surrounding it kind of blew me away, as did the fact that Dave allowed me to take a small rock-sized piece of ochre home with me.  To hold it in your hand and think that ancient peoples came here to harvest that exact same rock for use in their ceremonial traditions is pretty impressive!

A depiction of different ochres spanning Australia and related to different tribal groups' interpretations of the past and their relationship to their surrounding that they refer to as their "dreaming". 

From there we traveled south of the city, crossing the Murrumbidgee River (the second longest in Australia and draining to the Murray River, the longest) to the Tinbidbilla Nature Reserve.  This beautiful place reminded me of Cades Cove in the Great Smoky Mountains but with kangaroos and emus!  It really was beautiful and we were able to see MANY kangaroo (which actually become background after a bit there were so many!) as well as swamp wallabies, emus, and koalas (though in an enclosure area enjoying the presence of a heat lamp!).

Kangaroos from the bus. We encountered some at much closer range but I didn't want to swarm them with the rest of the group as I am sure I will encounter more during my trip in more peaceful settings.

Koala huddle under a heat lamp (it's winter here); the upper left one is holding a baby!

Swamp wallaby, distant relative of the kangaroo.

We also took a short hike to a site called Hanging Rock, a large hill-top granite rock used by aboriginal peoples as shelters in bad weather.  Dave explained to us that each tribe had associated traditional sources for water, food, shelter, etc. and part of the teaching for each member of the tribe was to know these and respect them.  In this area, one of the main food sources was the annual presence of a large local moth that would congregate on the underside of these rock shelters in great numbers during the summer months.  Local peoples had a big harvest and would grind these fatty moths into a paste that he has been told was nutty and sweet.  Different tribes in the area would come together for this moth paste harvest and at the end everyone left with distended bellies and a golden glow due to the high oil content!  I honestly wish I could try it!

Hanging Rock, ancient shelter site and moth gathering spot

The end of this day concluded at the Shine Dome, one of the Australian Academy of Sciences' buildings (known locally as the Martian Embassy), where we heard a lecture from a member of last years' cohort who extended his research again this year through an Australian-sourced scholarship, as well as a local researcher who has sequenced the DNA of several of Australia's most well-known animals to try to fill in the evolutionary gap between genetic ancestors worldwide.  Australia became genetically isolated from the evolution of other global species due to tectonic drift after the breaking up of the Pangea super-continent, and thus holds very interesting information in genetic history.  This long day ended with traditional Australian barbecue, which is not as we know it but merely the use of a grill, and steaks and sausages ended it just right!

Shine on, you crazy Dome

Us and Them

It's late Fall here, so the leaves are still pretty!

So I came to Australia with my boss a few years ago when I first started at UT and met the good people I will be working with.  That trip laid the ideas that seeded some of my research and approaches and really led to me being here now.  That was really my first time out of the country, aside from one night in Montreal to see the String Cheese Incident play, back when you didn't even need a passport to head over the border to Canada.  While Australia is on the other side of the world and there are naturally some pretty big differences over here, for the most part there may be more similarities to be honest, especially in cities.  The following are the ones that have really been clear to me having only been here a few days.

DIFFERENCES

Money - Colorful bills, smoother plasticy feel, translucent windows.  Coins are large and they have 50, 20, 10, and 5 cent pieces, no pennies, and also coins for $1 and $2, the two-dollar coins being a bit annoyingly small.  The coins mostly feature the Queen of England herself (colonial living) and the various Australian mammals we all know and love.  At least kangaroos and platypi. I'm not quite sure how I feel about the koala.  Seem a bit too secretive and scheming to me.

Coffee - All espresso based, which to be honest is a bit delicate for me as I don't take cream and am used to two big hot mugs of drip each morning.  Here I have resigned to a few tall blacks a day (shot of espresso with water) and find the caffeine levels the same, but my morning ritual has been compromised, that is for sure!  I'm just not much of a sipper, never have been, so I will have to figure out something else to do with my time.

They don't spell worldwide R&B sensation Boyz II Men exactly right, but we will forgive,

Driving - Left-side of the road.  I have yet to drive here myself and while I think I will be okay at it, walking around and crossing streets can be a bit odd at first.  I have always prided myself on my street-crossing abilities, having forged intimate knowledge of light-timing, patterns, etc. so that I could safely cross any street in Towson without issue, walk sign illuminated or not, by the time I was 12.  Well everything is a bit thrown out the window here and I am not quite a master of it, having been honked out more than a few times when crossing during what looked like a good clear window only to have a car come from a place I never even suspected was connected to my location by the rules of the road.  I have no doubt I will pick it up with masterful skill soon enough, but for now I am waiting and observing.

Tipping - They say it is not practiced here except for EXCEPTIONAL service, and I was fine to adopt this custom, ending my transaction at the payment, but I have come across several counter-service locations with what appears to tip jars (unless they are just also selling common coins) as well as receipts with tip lines on them which I feel a bit off leaving blank.  But I think I am going to take what I was told and run with it until someone makes me feel really uncomfortable for not offering more.  No need to be the free-spending Willy from America throwing tips around without care and shifting THEIR culture to support an odd custom that gifts the responsibility for customer service salary to the customer and not the shop owner.

Eucalyptus trees of so many different varieties are very common here and different types have evolved in various niches all over the country.

Language - British roots are very apparent here and I love it.  Good vocabulary is well-supported here, and people use bigger more formal words a good bit.  "Cheers", "mate", and many other words are used so commonly, and I pick them up quickly, that I have no doubt I will sound entirely annoying by the time I come home as these phrases infiltrate my regular use repertoire this summer.  Look forward to that, mate.

Food - There seems to be a large deal of cafe-type restaurants here, very casual places with a welcoming vibe where you can linger, interact, etc.  Pubs are big too, and in these you can always find chicken parma served over fries as it is basically the national pub dish, much like our cheeseburger.  Every place has it, it's pretty standard fare, filling and delicious and not that great for you.  Otherwise, there is a large proliferation of Thai, Malaysian, and Indian which makes sense geographically and which I will be eating quite a bit of.  While there are some decent places in Knoxville, it's just got to be a bit better here being much closer to the source and ingredients.

Cool courtyard at my hotel in Canberra.

SIMILARITIES

Too many to name!  The airport was full of fast-food restaurants, just different names (Hungry Jack I think was one).  I turned on the TV to find syndicated Family Guy, Simpsons, and Modern Family on nearly 24/7.  They have their own versions of the Today Show and actually air a bit of our Today Show as well (Savannah and Matt, we need not part).  There are Subway restaurants every 10 blocks.  People are really nice (is that a similarity?!?!), open, and friendly.  It's really surprising how much American culture really has penetrated here, but in reading Bryson's book ("In a Sun-burned Country") written 15 years ago, he remarked how this country seemed like such a clear cross between the States and Britain, so this is nothing new.  At some meetings with Australian Academy of Science yesterday we even learned of a few more similarities.  One, they too tire of political campaigning and are about over it themselves with an upcoming election to take place while we are here.  Two, they also have trouble with science skepticism as they have had to gather information and produce publications informing their people of the seriousness of climate change as well as immunizations, two topics we seem to have quite a few armchair scientists on back at home.  And three, they also have a tenuous and sometimes disconcerting relationship at the government level with indigenous populations, as aboriginal rights are something still of debate (ie, shouldn't we do a bit more for these peoples whose cultures and relationships with their native lands we simply brushed aside in a time when colonial dominance was the only world-view?).

I look forward to tomorrow when we will spend a full-day on guided tours of local geology, native culture, flora and fauna, and other national characteristics led by two prominent aboriginal people with high-rank in academia and government.  Should be interesting!  Stay tuned, more pics to come.

Canberra is full of cool sculpture wherever you turn!

A Long, Strange Trip

I made it!  I am finally in Australia!

I left Knoxville on Friday evening at about 7:30 pm, flew to Dallas then got on a large Qantas (pronounced Kwahn-tiss, Australia's national airline) plane to cross the Pacific.  I had plenty of room as no one else was in my row and I spent the 16 hour flight reading most of a Bill Bryson book about his travels in Australia, watching a few movies (Spotlight and Zootopia), and sleeping!  And despite most of the old hack jokes about airline food, it was surprisingly decent, which I guess is far from delicious but more than one might expect.

Flight status from somewhere in the Pacific over Fiji.

Because of the magic of the international date line, I arrived in Sydney Australia having traveled time, essentially missing the 4th of June entirely.  I got off the plane at 6 am on Sunday, June 5th, feeling very much the same as I had when I left, and immediately went to the ATM to get some new colorful bills!  You can use the ATMs here with American cards and all of the currency exchange is done for you, so the $200 I took out was actually maybe $148 or so I believe due to the exchange rate that is in my favor (although everything costs a bit more in Australia anyways).  After clearing customs and transferring to a domestic flight, I was quickly on my way to Canberra, Australia, their capitol city, where my orientation will occur.

Some Australian currency - COLORFUL!

When I arrived in Sydney I was greeted with a steady soaking rain, which is not normally an issue inside the plane or airport until you witness your baggage sitting in said steady soaking rain with no cover at all whatsoever and airline employees in no hurry to get it on the plane.  Not really a complaint, but I did find it odd that everything was just left uncovered, and my bags and some things are still a bit damp.  I got a cab to my hotel in Canberra as soon as I arrived and the cabbie, from the Congo, talked my ear off about Trump and we laughed a LOT at the hilarity of it all with these crazy people in countries worldwide so power and money hungry wherever you go.  The rain continued ALL DAY LONG in Canberra, but I rested from my travels in my hotel room and hope to make it out to see the city a bit today (Monday) before orientation begins.  It is cool to see where the stormwater runs here, but all of this rain has been accompanied by coastal flooding in Sydney which is dominating the news today, so I hope they get some respite though it looks wet all week.

I will try to update the blog regularly with fun, updates, and pictures.  Stay tuned!

Hotel room - Canberra - with CRAZY ceiling and the Australian Today Show - miss you, Hoda and KL