24 October 2005
Dancers off to Croc Fest
... emotional moment
We went down to the school in the evening so that Banjo could say goodbye and see Bindi depart with three other teachers, several parents and 39 children – on their way to Croc Fest in Alice Springs, a bush equivalent of the 'Rock Eisteddfods' in the city but also with a big focus on healthy lifestyle and discovery of the world and its opportunities.
The first time Banjo has been at home without Mum or Dad for any time.
In 2003 Bindi took a group from Nganmarriyanga to the first Northern Territory Croc Fest in Tennant Creek... on that occasion, Matumba drove. Then she went with the Ngukurr group to the Katherine Croc Fest in 2004 (about 300km away, a drive in the park, more or less); this year they have gone to Alice Springs, 1400km away, so with subsidy, a big red coach came out here, maybe the biggest and brightest vehicle seen here. Departure 7pm, arrive somewhere near lunch Tuesday... performance scheduled Thursday evening, then 1400km again coming back home on the bus during Friday.
Helping Mum count the passengers
We had been focused on Banjo's understanding of Mum's departing (leaving behind a wall of letters Dear Banjo for every day, blutacked to the wall, one less up there every day till mum is back) and on the amazing experience ahead for children most of whom have not been away from their 'country'. Fares paid by families, they are off on an adventure, all very serious and very well behaved!
We shared this with some other families gathered near the bus. But it was not until the bus slowly moved to the gate
... and turned left to begin its run that we realised (not possible to see in this picture) that many hundreds of people (in a community of 1400) were lining the road, way down the road. And especially at the gate, a great gathering of mothers lifted their voices in an emotional ululation such as is better known to us in the cities as a sound made in the Arab world by grieving women, but it seems a universal utterance of undiluted emotion, uncluttered by words... It was all unexpected and very moving.
There was a second bus
... carrying the dance team from Numbulwar, more remote (to people to whom this is not the centre of the world) community, northeast from here, out on the coast... The coach company had not been prepared to take the bus there, so through the day the Numbulwar school's Toyota 'troopie' had ferried them to Ngukurr.. so their journey was even longer. It's remote but there is a doctor post out there!
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All that was at the end of a searingly hot day, relieved in the afternoon by a dusty wind from the desert to the southwest, at first like a blast furnace, eventually at dusk turning cooler.
In the morning, the mosaic garden builders at school were confronted by cement drying in the mixer.
Coming home at midday I had an experience few would expect and if I begin expecting it again I may die a disappointed man (as the people of Naples say: chi vive di speranza muore disparato).
I was approaching the house under a tree. There was a scuffling among crows somewhere above me. A crow threw a toad and the toad flashed directly in front of me, landing with a loud flop on its back. I would say its arms were outstretched... but there was not a lot of arm at any corner of the toad any more, other than naked bone.
I calmed from a moment of paranoia, of the kind one gets in Canberra in relation to magpies and their capacity to attack at this time of year.
I realised that the crow was simply done with the toad... Not actually throwing a toad at me, though crows in their smartness might do such a thing if they felt the need. Just eaten what was possible and chucked the rest away.
The cane toad is perhaps Australia's greatest pest. As its population spreads west from Queensland and through the top end of the Northern Territory and into Western Australia, carnivorous species die, because the cane toad exudes a lethal poison from glands at the back of its neck. The crow is smart and a great survivor. The crow flips toads on their back and eats the good bits... And then throws them at passers-by like me?? :-)
Banjo's lovely gentle dog Mushu allegedly eats cane toads - and lives, and is shiny-coated healthy.
Mushu also steals dirty diapers from garbage bins and brings them home to eat... hmmm, another story altogether.... I am wondering if this dog contains useful genetic material for the war on cane toads... but she seems to have other appetites which may complicate a project to which she were contributed.