After breakfast on Tuesday, we went out into the bush to learn about the Aboriginals from a man named Con (Conrad). He has been studying their culture and working with them for many years. He gave us a talk about their history and culture and we had morning tea and bush bread. Then he showed us some of their food items. I only took pictures of the more interesting ones. The others were mostly seeds and spices.
The daytime high temperature while we were in Alice springs was about 110 degrees. It can get over 130 in January & February!
The daytime high temperature while we were in Alice springs was about 110 degrees. It can get over 130 in January & February!
The Aboriginals lived in small groups of 15 or 20 people because it was more difficult to find food in the bush for a larger group. Early on, they had inbreeding problems, so they figured out that they needed to marry at least 4th cousins to avoid problems. There are only eight first names in the Aboriginal culture. They are listed on the chart below. The boys' names begin with 'J' or 'C' and the girls' names begin with 'N'. When the Australian government started keeping records, they assigned each person a European name to keep things straight.
There were several Aboriginals there selling their paintings. Each painting tells a story. Buying a painting from them that cost $40 would cost three or four times that in the shops in town. Marsha didn't buy one here. She couldn't find one that "hit" her.
The last item in Con's program was a talk on Aboriginal weapons and how they were used. We got to try our hand at throwing a boomerang. There are two types - returning and non-returning. We threw the non-returning type which is difficult enough, but not as difficult as the returning kind. The returning kind was shaped so that it made a whistling sound as it flew and was mostly thrown over water to frighten birds into flight. When they landed on the shore, a non-returning boomerang or a net would be used to kill or capture them.
Next, we went to one of the offices of the Royal Flying Doctor Service. It's a service that has sixty offices and planes that fly over 80% of Australia to give medical aid to those who need it. You can read about it in the pictures.
After lunch, we went to the old Alice Springs telegraph office that originally connected Adelaide to Darwin in 1872. It was instrumental in the development of the Outback and made communication with the rest of the world more efficient.
We finished the day by doing a load of laundry: $5.00 to wash; $4.00 to dry! After that, it was a light dinner in the bar and a good night's sleep.
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