The end is in sight!

Dear All,

First of all I would like you to enjoy this picture which Carmel sent me from Melbourne.

Some of you have seen it. Don't know where it was taken but it is a beauty! It will enlarge if you double click on it.

No, it won't be the end of the world as the title of this blog might suggest - just the end of my time in Darwin. If you haven't heard already, I will be starting a new position as Pastoral Associate at Runaway Bay on September 21st and so will leave here in the early hours of Thursday 10th September. There is much to do, and the study continues (sort of!), so this blog will soon end too.

I came to realise that I was pushing against the current, so to speak, up here in my efforts to teach Theology within a culture where I have no language and no experience. I am an alien in the Aboriginal cultural scene and teaching within that culture was difficult for me, although the people themselves are lovely. So I am moving into an area where I believe I have some skills and gifts - at my tender age, I cannot expect to increase my physical capacities etc but rather the reverse, so, I am not pushing myself so hard and to so little purpose. However, the experience has been very enriching, I have grown a lot, and I have learnt a lot.

One of the things that struck forcibly me last week was the poor health status of the Aboriginal people as a group and how this impacts upon their daily lives. If I could be specific: the first group of 4 (3 of them sisters) had a sister in the last stages of a brain tumour; their mother had inevitable dialysis staved off for a few more months with some medical treatment, while their father was diagnosed with an untreatable illness during the time of their study. The second group of 10 came. One was profoundly deaf and one seriously so. Another had diabetes and advanced cataracts and need urgent help to get medication for the diabetes. Two spent different half days at the hospital waiting for treatment for health problems, and, on the final day we discovered that one person's brother is in the RDH and the family has been called in (by bus and plane) to hear what the Doctor has to say about the results of his surgery. One can only think the worst. Another member had an adult child involved in self-harm while they were in town. This is apparently 'normal'. I find it horrifying because only a one or two of them would be older than 50 and most are in their 30s. Staff tell me that with most groups they usually arrive with someone having just died at home or they leave to attend a funeral. All that constant early death and sickness and grief would have a huge effect upon the whole community. Next week we are expecting 20 students from Nugkurr, Numbulwar and Wurrawi. (Find those on the map! - Google Western Arnhem Land for Wurrawi). I will be teaching this week. The next week I will finalise all the paperwork etc. Then I will finish on 4th September and have about 6 days to pack up everything to travel.

Last week my friend Carmel from Melbourne came from Friday until Monday. Of course, I was at work Friday and Monday, but we 'made hay' on the weekend. Then on Monday an email arrived at work about the Indigenous Films on at the Deck-chair Cinema that evening: three 11 minute films then a Documentary on the making of Samson and Delilah. We walked down abotu 6 pm and bought out tea there for $10, picking out a couple of near-front deck chairs as our possy. Just as well we were early. As 7.30 pm approached, people kept coming down the aisles searching for seats and quite a few sat on the ground in the front. The three short films were quite different - one about an aboriginal baby born to a delighted father who found that his child obviously had a white father! Very silent and powerful. Then "On the Farm" about a young girl growing into her teens who 'sees' ancestors and such-like spirits (one aboriginal woman told me that aboriginal people see spirits all the time!); the third was about a woman and a rooster and it was very funny - based upon a true tale of a woman who, in tough time when she had trouble feeding her family, bargained for a rooster and hens in the hope of getting eggs. Then the rooster was found apparently dead in the chook-pen. In desperation she tried mouth to mouth and CPR and, loand behold, the rooster revived! It was done very well and was very comic. After these, we had the documentary preceded by a few words from Beck Cole, the producer of Samson and Delilah and the documentary. It was fascinating and showed them choosing the particular young chap and girl for the parts and then the things surrounding the shooting of various scenes and the responses of the young actors to the pressure. I took a couple of pictures which will give you some idea of the venue.

You can see that one of the charms of the Deckchair Cinema is watching the sunset. The seats and the set up are permanent. You can see the style of seats and the people at the front.

That might do for now - nothing much happening except the weather is really beautiful. The tourists have dropped off a bit now the school hols have finished, but there are still plenty around. And the hoons are still around - although they are not hooning here because there is a new law which can mean they get their cars confiscated! Last night they gathered in car park opposite in McLachlan Street and, about 10 pm all rolled out to go somewhere - I counted 26 of them (and I think I missed some) and they all had clear signs of being hoons! Never seen so many!

On that cheerful note I'll finish for tonight.

Love from Rita