Here is a link to some children's stories on youtube. If you look carefully you may see The Green Man himself, in a different guise, of course, if you know what he looks like. (Hint: The story has a definite canine feel)
Haiku is a form of Japanese poetry known for its simplicity and elegance. In English, haiku are written as three lines, with a syllable count of five, seven, and five on in the first, second, and third line.
In The Green Man's opinion nothing softens the blow of a systems failure better than an error message delivered in Haiku. Consider some examples:
Seeing my great fault
Through darkening blue windows
I begin again
-- Chris Walsh
I'm sorry, there's -- um --
insufficient -- what's-it-called?
The term eludes me ...
-- Owen Mathews
A file that big?
It might be very useful.
But now it is gone.
-- David J. Liszewski
and perhaps my favourite
Errors have occurred.
We won't tell you where or why.
Lazy programmers.
-- Charlie Gibbs
As anyone can see, this adds a sense of elegance to an otherwise exasperating experience. Now researchers at Kyoto have developed a computer program that can write Haiku on your behalf. It may be the dawning of a new era in error messages.
Existing Haiku courtesy of Salon 21
Each year at the festival a contest is held amongst the performers to see who can produce the most innovative and entertaining version of a song. This years theme is the Sound Of Music and last night was round one. Anyone who holds the Sound of Music dear to their hearts would do well to avoid these events where the songs of the movie are mutilated in the most hilarious ways.
I will avoid the detail of the bondage version Eidleweise, however here are the new words to Doh-A-Deer.
Doh, a large amount of cash
Ray, a flatish kind of fish
Me, half of a cats word
Far, three quarters of a smell
So, two thirds of a call for help
La, the french word for "the"
Tee, a little stick in golf
Doh, .....
Although the gross out entry must go to a Marlene Deitrich with
"You are seventeen going eighteen, I an 60 going on 70"
Over the last couple of years at the National Folk Festival there has been a rediscovery of the magic of the massed male voice. In the past we had the Spooky Men, a male a capella group from the Blue Mountains, this year there are two groups present, Voice Male and Bloke-apella. All three groups have two important things in common, they have discovered the power and vibrance of unaccompanied male voices on mass and all have a healthy disrespect for the gift that they have.
There is nothing feminine about these performances, they are all male. It is both invigorating and immensely entertaining to hear a group of men, in good humour, singing their hearts out, their voices untainted by instrument or female voice.
The bit I just don't get however is how the baritone, who you expect to be size of a small tractor, is always this skinny little guy. Small of stature, big of voice; that's yin and yang for you I suppose.
The Green Man is once again at the national folk festival in Canberra. The NFF is one of the premier folk music events of the year and is a marvellous conglomerate of music, dance and culture. At the NFF the cultural fringes of Australia are not only tolerated but celebrated.
A witch seeks advice on the best wine to go with her curry from the Hare Krishna food stall.
two rabbits have settled on a Guiness
workers on the way home from the fields engage in a spontaneous morris dance in the main street of the festival.
three women of the little known but devout sect of upturned wheelie bin worship
a young faerie gets her first set of balloon wings
the Hurdy Gurdy and the Pipes, it's a combination you just don't hear enough these days
a boy meets a horse that only eats chocolate
Just another ordinary day at the festival really.
Do you have trouble deciding whether to get a leather or metal watch band? Fear not the choice has now become superfluous with the watch piercing. ModBlog, a blog dedicated to body piercing and related forms of bodily mutilation have released pictures of the new wrist watch attached to your wrist in a way normal watches just aren't.
Karl Kemp, owner of Karl Kemp & Associates, an antiques dealer, at 833 Madison Avenue near 69th Street is suing a homeless man who is camped outside his shop for US$1 million. He claims that it upsets his clients to be confronted with one of the great unwashed when they are preparing to waste large amounts of money on some meaningless bit of old stuff so that they can prove to their friends how wealthy they are.
He says
“It’s nothing against him, I want him to be safe and not to be an obstruction to us.”
Well here is an idea Karl, how about spending the $50,000 you are currently giving your lawyers to sue him on some cheap accomodation he can utilise.
Well the Nigerians may be actively engaged in scamming billions of dollars from the rest of us (In 1999, Howard Jeter, the U.S. State Department's deputy assistant secretary for African affairs, claimed that "Americans lose $2 billion annually to white collar crime syndicates based in Nigeria.") but at least we know that they are going to be forgiven for these fiscal indescretions. As far as church attendance goes, only Ireland comes close.
At 89% attendance the Nigerians truely are a church going nation, they have a church attendance more than double that of the USA (you heathen lot). As for Australia we only made it to 16%, which from The Green Mans anecdotal experience is fairly generous. This means that 84 percent of Australians don't attend church, which in a strange example of synergy, is also the average age of church attendees in Australia.
The full list of countries is listed below.
#1 Nigeria: 89%
#2 Ireland: 84%
#3 Philippines: 68%
#4 South Africa: 56%
#5 Poland: 55%
#6 Puerto Rico: 52%
#7 Portugal: 47%
#8 Slovakia: 47%
#9 Mexico: 46%
#10 Italy: 45%
#11 United States: 44%
#12 Belgium: 44%
#13 Peru: 43%
#14 Turkey: 43%
#15 India: 42%
#16 Canada: 38%
#17 Brazil: 36%
#18 Netherlands: 35%
#19 Venezuela: 31%
#20 Uruguay: 31%
#21 Austria: 30%
#22 United Kingdom: 27%
#23 Argentina: 25%
#24 Chile: 25%
#25 Spain: 25%
#26 Croatia: 22%
#27 Hungary: 21%
#28 France: 21%
#29 Romania: 20%
#30 Australia: 16%
#31 Switzerland: 16%
#32 Lithuania: 16%
#33 Czech Republic: 14%
#34 Korea, South: 14%
#35 Taiwan: 11%
#36 Ukraine: 10%
#37 Moldova: 10%
#38 Bulgaria: 10%
#39 Georgia: 10%
#40 China: 9%
#41 Armenia: 8%
#42 Serbia and Montenegro: 7%
#43 Belarus: 6%
#44 Azerbaijan: 6%
#45 Latvia: 5%
#46 Norway: 5%
#47 Denmark: 5%
#48 Finland: 4%
#49 Estonia: 4%
#50 Iceland: 4%
#51 Sweden: 4%
#52 Japan: 3%
#53 Russia: 2%
Weighted average: 26.2%
Well I think that is how you spell her name.
Anyway, for the first time in American history more adult women are single than married. Yep, 51% of all adult women in America have no male partner. By way of comparison 35 percent in 1950 and 49 percent in 2000 were living without a "husband" of sorts. Whilst this is, in part, because women are living so much longer than they did and also so much longer than men, it is also because they are less likely to put up with, to use a sociological term, a "crap marriage".
Race plays a part in this. If you are an asian woman then you are much more likely to be married (60%) than a black woman (30%), with anglo-saxon (49%) and hispanic women (55%) falling somewhere in the middle.
So is this reflected in the male population? Well to a certain extent but men leave marriage by two methods, divorce and death, the latter meaning that the percentage of men in a marriage is significantly higher than women.
In the Hindu religion the goddess Durga is an incarnation of the Devi or Mother goddess. She manifested when evil forces threatened the very existence of the gods. To enhance her power all the gods contributed to her radiance. She is considered a potent force for good and in one incident she killed the mighty Mahisha.
This event is being celebrated in the Great Court of The British Museum as part of the "Voices of Bengal" exhibition where Bengali artists are constructing a spectacular image of the goddess Durga killing the buffalo-headed demon Mahisha. If you are fortunate enough to be in the vicinity you can watch them construct it using traditional techniques using straw, clay and paint. For the rest of us images of the construction are available on the British Museum web site Click Here
As regular readers of The Green Man will know, he is not that interested in religion as a topic on the blog. That said this could not pass without a mention.
The photo below is of a church in a shipping container. Just load it onto a truck and take it where you wish. When the photo was taken it was located at Sildajazz music festival in Haugesund, Norway, obviously for use by those Christians tempted by that heathen jazz music.
Being the size of a shipping container it was not particularly suited to a large congregation but quite suitable for a quiet personal visit although one would suspect that it does raise some territorial issues with the indigenous churches.
For thousands of years the Sámi have been herding and domesticating reindeer. Here is a photo of a reindeer with full Sámi adornments standing patiently while his photo was taken. The indignity of having to wear said adornments vastly surpassed by the indignity of being stuffed.
When some people enter academia they are looking for a quite uneventful life, University of Toronto sociology professor Robert Brym is not one of those people. His latest research investigates Palestinian suicide bombers, their rationale and motivation. No matter what he found he was guaranteed to upset a few people and it is a fair bet that some of them will be Arabs and some will be Jewish.
It seems that the Hamas campaign of suicide bombing attacks against Isreal may well have been strategic in motivation however the motivations of the inidividual suicide bombers are quite different. To convince a human being to give up their life for a cause is a substantial achievement and it appears from Dr Bobs work that arguing strategic advantage is not going to deliver the suicide bombers. Suicide bombers are primarily motivated by a desire for revenge. By examining events that preceded each specific attack, he found that particular Israeli actions such as specific killings prompted most attacks.
He writes
For the most part bombers gave up their lives to avenge the killing of a close relative, as retribution for specific attacks against the Palestinian people or as payback for perceived attacks against Islam."
It is, of course, in the interest of the propaganda machine to portray these poeple as crazy, irrational and sick or that their culture led them to behave in ways that were crazy. It is far more difficult to view them as making a rational choice that was made to seem appropriate by the actions of others, in this case the Isreali army.
So what would happen if Isreal were to suspend all extra-judicial killings? What would happen if Isreal, a wealthy state by any measure, was to pour aid into Palestine? What would happen if Isreal were to offer the hand of peace in the certain knowledge that it would be bitten?
We can all speculate safely on those questions because it is pretty sure that they are entirely hypothetical. Isreal seems set on a course of quashing the suicide bombers through military action which is guaranteed to breed a whole new wave of suicide bombers.
So who's fault is it? The correct answer is, of course, "Who cares?" All right minded compassionate people want the confict to end and, like in all similar situations, there are guilty parties on all sides.
Sadly, The Green Man thinks that the situation is hopeless because the strength and wisdom that it would take to break the cycle is far beyond those who, driven by power, seek office in parliament.
Some may say it is evidence of the onset of senility in The Green Man but, over the years of attending the National Folk Festival, Morris Dancing has moved from a quaint English idiosyncrasy to something that is rich in culture and tradition.
This is the time for Morris, it is an integral component of the Northern Hemisphere spring and ancient Pagan fertility rituals are kept alive in the attire and dances, well not all of them obviously otherwise it would hardly be suitable for public performance. Still one can only speculate what goes on in private, secret Morris business no doubt.
The origins of Morris are lost in time although the name is thought to be a corruption of Moorish Dancing. This is from a time around the 12th and 13th centuries when the Muslim Moors were the dominant and enlightened culture in Europe and the Middle East. As well as music and dance they were pioneering medicine, mathematics and the sciences.
The photos are of Molonglo Mayhem Border Morris, a Morris group from Canberra who are keeping alive the traditional Morris from the Welsh border region of England. Those of you who are aware of Morris will note that their costumes are quite different from those that you may be familiar with. Whilst the dances have a commonality across the English countryside each region developed their own style of dress.
On a related matter it is good to see that President Bush is keen on the perpetuation of Pagan fertility rituals himself and that the fertility egg hunt will once again take place at the White House.
Consult the history books that have been, and probably still are in use in most schools and you will see references to the guy called Costello. The history books say that he set forth from New South Wales to conquer the lands almost single handedly, facing down the savage natives and returning triumphant to New South Wales. This was based on his own account and based on this the government of the day granted him 25,000 square miles of the land that he had conquered.
Review of other journals that recorded the oral history of the local aboriginal tribe, the Kawiwali, show quite a different picture. He in fact set out with three other white men, all hopelessly ill equipped for the territory that they were entering. Some time into the journey they had reached a stage of desperation whereby they were about to slaughter one of their horses for food. The local Kawiwali supplied them with food and water and advised them to return south. Ignoring this advice they continued on until, once again, they were in need of rescue. Once again the Kawiwali obliged, this time insisting that if they wished to survive they should return south. Yet again they ignored this advice and for a third time found themselves in desperate circumstances. By this time the Kawiwali had had enough of these serial pests and escorted back to NSW.
He seems to have been quite the conquering hero doesn’t he?
Of course, his version, that made it into the text books at the time, suited the objectives of the government of the day. The portrayal of the indigenous occupants as compassionate and having superior skills in survival was at odds with image of them as primitive savages who can only benefit from being stripped of their tribal ways and introduced to western civilisation.
Footnote: Whether this Costello was any relation to our erstwhile Federal Treasurer is a investigation for the future.
Yes this year The Green Man is posting live from the National Folk Festival in Canberra courtesy of a broadband network kindly provided by the National Library of Australia and fortuitously stretching as far as the Guinness Tent.
It appears that juries that contain a diverse cultural mix are better at making decisions than homogenous groups. Well that is the conclusion of Samuel Sommers of Tufts University anyway.
Dr Sam, who happens to be white himself, conducted a study on decision making on two types of juries. The first consisting of 6 white jurers and the second where two of the jurers were black. We learn from this research that the white jurers were more objective in their assesment of the case when blacks were present. They made less errors in their recall of the evidence, took longer in their deliberation and raised more factual information. They also expressed more leniency towards the black defendant.
He seems to have missed the obvious inclusion of one containing six black jurers. Consequently we don't know how the behaviour of the black jurers alters in the presence of whites. Also it reflects America's obsession with the Black/White divide, diversity is, of course, much greater than this. Presumably he is concerned with practicality and that all black juries are a rarity, never the less from a academic perspective it seems to present less than the complete picture.
Cartoons can provide consise and incisive commentary on contemporary issues and, as such, they provide an intriguing historical perspective on our attitudes to an issue over time.
From the days of "Terra nullius" Europeans have had a troubled and often discordant relationship with the Australian Aborigines. Gary Foley, a long term activist for Aboriginal rights has compiled a comprehensive collection of cartoons depicting the changing (or perhaps not) view of aboriginals in the mainstream Australian media. Click here to see them all
Here is an image from the new campaign by the Australia Government seeking visitors from other countries to Australia and the campaign has generated a degree of controversy world wide. You can view the television ad here
England banned it because they didn't like the word "bloody" and now Canada is banning it because they don't like the word "hell". Apparently you can say the "hell" in front of the children. Who can guess what America will find offensive about it? Hopefully something, all this controversy is better publicity than the advert itself.
The advert, of course, highlights a cultural gap between Australia and the rest of the English speaking world because there are few Australias that would think anything of it. It is a common expression in the context within which it is used in the advert.
To the right we see a image of a hula dancer that is compatible with the image of the hula as it has been packaged for consumption by the mainstream media and for the tourist trade in Hawaii.
How beautiful and gentile she seems and how much the antithesis of the traditional hula warrior maiden. As mentioned several posts ago The Green Man was fortunate enough to attend a concert that was the closing celebration for the WIPCE (world indigenous peoples conference on education) and, as part of this conference, many of the attendees performed. These people however were not interested in packaging their culture for the consumption of the tourist trade. They were interested in the preservation of elements of their cultures as they existed prior to contamination by the west.
There were performances by plains indians from North America, Sammi from Norway, Australian Aboriginals and a huge contingent from the Pacific Islands and of all these fascinating performances The Green Man found the Hula from Hawaii the most intriguing and captivating, not the least because it was so much at odds with the image of the Hula that has been fed to the west by the mass media.
The first and perhaps the most important thing to note is that the Hula was not intended for entertainment. It was a manifestation of the spiritual and social structure of the Hawaians and the ones who performed it were not cute post-pudescent teenage girls with carefully groomed hair and nails. It was performed by shamans and warriors, both men and women.
These men and women were powerful and ferocious and the performance was intended to display their commitment to their land and their culture. The concept of someone being entertained by their performance was the furthest from their minds. And so it was with the Hula performers that performed at the WIPCE closing conference.
There are few performances that can match the Haka for emotional intensity and ferociousness but a traditional Hula is one.
oohh and Happy New Year, whilst remembering that happiness is not a destination but a mode of travel.
An older part of the fence
And a part that is somewhat newer.
The new Superman, Brandon Routh, it seems, is more super than most of his predecessors and is quite capable of filling his underpants, even when they are on the outside in a way that is making the movies producers not nearly as comfortable as he clearly is.
Producers are worried that the size of the new Superman’s manhood…that is, his bulge is so big that it will put cinema audiences off.
Bosses on the film are considering using digital technology to cover up the lunchbox in the new film ‘Superman Returns’.
Speaking to The Sun, a source said: "It's a major issue for the studio. Brandon is extremely well endowed and they don't want it up on the big screen.
"We may be forced to erase his package with digital effects."
The Green Man is in New Zealand as a tag along at whip-see (well WIPCE actually). It stands for World Indigenous Peoples Conference on Education and Mrs Green Man is attending. What better excuse for a trip to NZ or Aotearoa as it is known in Maori.
Aotearoa being Maori for "land of the long white cloud" or is it "land of the wrong white crowd"; something like that anyway.
The WIPCE conference had delegates from indigenous peoples from North America, Africa, Europe (Saami from Norway) and the odd Moari and Koori. It looked most interesting although there was a notable absense of some significant indigenous groups, such as the maya from Mexico and Central America.
The conference had many interesting speakers although The Green Man did not get to see that many, not being a delegate, and it was clearly a valuable exploration of educational issues for indigenous cultures across the world however the indigenous are often amongst the poorest in a community and government funding is required for many to attend. One sad irony was that indigenous cultures most in need of education are the ones with little government support and they, of course, could not afford to attend.
Still it was a worthwhile exercise never-the-less culminating in a concert that was truely magnificent. I will post some photos later but most are on print so you will have to wait for them to be developed.
The highlight of the evening for The Green Man was the hula performed by dancers from Hawaii. If you think you have seen a traditional hula at the tourist resorts or on TV then you are quite mistaken. It is awe inspiring, the women are wild and war like. No cute little girls with flowers behind their ears in this performance.
Ngan Girra is an indigenous festival held each year at Mungabareena Reserve located on a horseshoe bend in Murray River at Albury on the Victoria/NSW border. 
It is easy to see how this would have been a popular spot for gatherings and celebrations of the local Wiradjuri. The bend of the river defines a circular area about 500m across. At this point the Murray is swift and provides an excellent natural semi-circular moat.
It is run by Koories primarily for the benefit of the local Koorie community but it is open to all and an excellent opportunity to immerse yourself in contemporary Aboriginal culture as well as for the Koorie community to focus on the preservation of their heritage.
There was a wide range of stalls selling tucker, some indigenous, some not. The Green Man found the crocodile burger an interesting experience. It has been described as a cross between chicken and pork which turned out to be a fairly accurate description. It has the look of chicken but it has a lot more texture to the flesh, as you would expect from a larger animal. It has to be said, of course, that the word indigenous has been used fairly loosely in this instance since the nearest live crocodile not in a zoo is approximately 2,000 kms away. But then the term "burger" was used pretty loosely too. It was essentially a large chuck of crocodile between two slices of white bread.
As well as food there yidaki making and playing. (That's a didgeridoo to those of you ignorant of Wiradjuri.) Yidaki were not traditionally made in this area, they are a central Australian instrument however native traders introduced them and over the years they became incorporated into the culture of the Koories. There were many yadaki to be found and a number of eager students for the yidaki master class that was being conducted under the shade of a large Murray River Red Gum by one of the dance troup that had come down from Arnhem Land in Northern Territory.
It is a simple instrument and easy to play badly but to master it is a significant challenge as the students attempting to follow along were discovering.
The Green Man hypothesised that his musical ability on the yidaki would probably be equivalent to his musical ability on western instruments and accordingly did everyone a favour by not even attempting to play one.
There was also an area where flint knapping was being taught and this was much more to The Green Mans inclination however it never seemed to be happening at a convenient time. Never mind, next festival perhaps.
If this had been organised whites the place would have been marked out and stall holders would have been organised into where they were supposed to go and what facilities they had etc. Here everyone seemed to arrive when they felt like it, set up where they wanted to and help themselves to whatever facilities they could lay their hands upon. There was no stress, no tempers, everything seemed to get set up and the whole thing ran at least as smoothly as a more "organised" event. This lack of angst was perhaps the most striking cultural difference. Even though there was a large number of people in attendance the whole event had a languid relaxed feel, everyone had time to stop for a chat. It makes such a pleasant change from existing in a highly organised society that is bristling with rules and expectations.
The web site for Taungurung Clans is now up and running. Visit it here.
Well solar flares may be interesting but not as interesting as intergalactic battles.
Lara Croft has done wonders for the sci-fi community. There was a time where the most excitement you could find in the bar at DragonCon was an informed discussion on the dangers of light-speed with a wookie.
The tomb raider has changed all that. Suddenly the chances of scoring with someone possessing the usual number of human appendages in the correct places and who is FEMALE have sky-rocketed.
Here we see Gen. Veers laying a line on one of the Lara Crofts who, to the annoyance of several Leias, were in high demand at the bar of the downtown Atlanta Hyatt Regency.
Somewhere upward of 20,000 fans descend on Atlanta for this event every year, filling three massive hotels to share everything from their comic-book collections and home-brewed Lord of the Rings fan fiction to gigantic Transformer costumes they've spent months creating for the Masquerade Ball contest
You have missed Dragcon for this year however you can put their web site on your favourites for next year. www.dragoncon.org
Hard as it is to imagine now, within the lifetime of most of the readers of The Green Man (less than 40 years ago) Australian Aboriginals were not recognised as citizens of Australia. They were not allowed to own property and any money they earned was administered on their behalf by whites.
In 1966 Vincent Lingiari and other members of the Gurindji worked at Wave Hill Station 600kms south of Darwin in the service of Lord Vestey. Lord Vestey, known as Lord Spam to his friends, was at the time one of the wealthiest men in the world, owning land in Australia, South Africa and South America. His business was the production of beef for the world market. One of the ways that he got so rich, presumeably, was by utilising workers who he did not have to pay. Before 1968 it was illegal to pay an Indigenous worker more than a specified amount in goods and money.
Not only did the Gurindji work on his outback station whilst receiving practically no payment, (salt, beef, bread and tobacco, and six dollars a week at a time when average weekly earnings were around $90 per week) government benefits for which Lord Vestey's Gurindji employees were eligible were paid into Lord Vestey's account.
Vincent Lingiari had had enough and lead a walk out, literally. The Gurindji walked off Wave Hill to Wattie Creek and there they camped. Initially it was dismissed as a stunt and the general consensus was that they had no chance against one of the wealthiest men in the world.
This was not a strike that was born of a minor grievance, these people had been robbed of their land and, to add insult to injury, they were being used as virtual slaves to exploit it. From an initial dissatisfaction with their conditions the Gurindji the grievances soon crystalised on the issue of land, they wanted some of theirs back. They were convinced of their cause and determined to see it through.
To quote Vincent Lingiari
They said, "Hey! You're stealing another man's country." And I said, "Well, what was before Lord Vestey born and I born? It was blackfella country."
For eight years they sat at Wattie Creek. As the years past their determination transformed them into national matyrs. Frank Hardy, a local author and activist picked up their cause and ensured that it was kept in the press. They were a festering sore on the side of Australia's indigenous policy. International attention became more prominent as each year past until in 1975 the government finally took a small but significant step in recognising the human rights of the Gurindji and their right to the land that their ancestors had occupied for 40,000 years.
I will leave Kev Carmody to finish the story.
The Whitlam Government started to, like, negotiate with Vesteys to get a portion of the Gurindji land back for them. The conclusion was, in 1975 it was symbolically handed back. You'll notice Gough pulls the old man's hand up because he can't see too well. The old man...he doesn't smile when Gough lifts his hand up. As soon as that sand hits his hand, you can see he grinned. "Got 'em!" (Laughs) "I got it." There's a painting done by Peter Hudson. It's Vincent Lingiari, it's Frank Hardy at a typewriter, and it's me standing there with no shirt on, and Paul Kelly. You know, the painting does depict the people that have told this story. And it's about a remarkable struggle led by a remarkable man.
Paul Kelly wrote a song this epic struggle and Kev Carmody sang it. I have included the lyrics below. If you enjoy Kev Carmody's singing and want a copy of the song then click on the album to buy it.
Gather round people let me tell you're a story
An eight year long story of power and pride
British Lord Vestey and Vincent Lingiarri
Were opposite men on opposite sides
Vestey was fat with money and muscle
Beef was his business, broad was his door
Vincent was lean and spoke very little
He had no bank balance, hard dirt was his floor
From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow
Gurindji were working for nothing but rations
Where once they had gathered the wealth of the land
Daily the pressure got tighter and tighter
Gurindju decided they must make a stand
They picked up their swags and started off walking
At Wattie Creek they sat themselves down
Now it don't sound like much but it sure got tongues talking
Back at the homestead and then in the town
From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow
Vestey man said I'll double your wages
Seven quid a week you'll have in your hand
Vincent said uhuh we're not talking about wages
We're sitting right here till we get our land
Vestey man roared and Vestey man thundered
You don't stand the chance of a cinder in snow
Vince said if we fall others are rising
From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow
Then Vincent Lingiarri boarded an aeroplane
Landed in Sydney, big city of lights
And daily he went round softly speaking his story
To all kinds of men from all walks of life
And Vincent sat down with big politicians
This affair they told him is a matter of state
Let us sort it out, your people are hungry
Vincent said no thanks, we know how to wait
From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow
Then Vincent Lingiarri returned in an aeroplane
Back to his country once more to sit down
And he told his people let the stars keep on turning
We have friends in the south, in the cities and towns
Eight years went by, eight long years of waiting
Till one day a tall stranger appeared in the land
And he came with lawyers and he came with great ceremony
And through Vincent's fingers poured a handful of sand
From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow
That was the story of Vincent Lingairri
But this is the story of something much more
How power and privilege can not move a people
Who know where they stand and stand in the law
From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow
From little things big things grow
This is more the domain of Signposts but for some bizarre reason it caught my interest.
Professor Bradley Mclean of biblical studies at Knox College, University of Toronto has been musing on why Theology and Classical Biblical Studies are suffering intellectually and he proposes that the problem arises because academics
use the same basic paradigm handed down to us by 19th-century historicism and romanticism without questioning this approach. We forget that the conditions, social biases and political pressure of the times that these intellectuals lived in colour the way they looked at classical and religious knowledge
further he says
The reason biblical and classical studies have had difficulty attracting the curiosity of the media and the general public is that we as scholars don't realize that the way we approach these subjects was abandoned by so many other researchers in other fields of study such as linguistics, psychology and philosophy. The manner in which we study the classics and biblical texts should have died a natural death the way it did in other fields in the early 20th century but, curiously, it didn't.
The result of this is that these classical studies have lost their connection with the real world and society generally regards studies in these areas to be limited to religious fanaticism rather than intellectual pursuit, which after all, should be underlying tenet of all academic activity.
Obviously this point of view will offend those clinging to, what he terms, "reverential antiquarianism" and there will be much angst and conflict if studies in these areas are to be aligned with current academic practice and to regain the relevance to society generally.
Tribal drumming at the National Folk Festival in Canberra. Hang on what are all those women doing in there. Isn't drumming secret mens business. geeeze these new age women, can't keep their noses out of anything.
Thursday night the The National Folk Festival was opened in an auspicious fashion this year with chanting by Buddhist Monks fresh from Tibet and unsullied by western decadence. Each morning of the festival a session was held of chanting and meditation at the luxurious time of 9:30am. (Perhaps they had become a fraction sullied afterall, in Tibet these sort of things usually happen at 5:30am)
On the first morning The Green Man showed up at 9:30 only to find that there was an exceptionally large number of festival goers wishing to subject themselves to the lower body pain that invariably accompanies a westerner sitting cross-legged on the floor for half an hour. Never mind it was time to squash up with the other attendees and focus. (There were some chairs but these were long gone)
Pick an object and focus. When your mind wanders bring it back to the object and your mind will wander because you have weak western minds.
These were our instructions however I am not sure everyone entirely grasped the concept because the woman sitting next to me was focusing on her program deciding what she wanted to go to next.
There are, of course, a select group of people who seem to be almost exclusively women, some middle aged but mostly in their early 20's who are completely awed by the experience. It is mildly amusing since most seem not to have a clue what it all means but are confident it must be deeply spiritual, which indeed it is.
Click here for a sample of the chanting, it is from the gelug chanting tradition.
All that aside and, apart from being a bit naughty and spending some time observing the other participants, The Green Man found it a refreshing way to start the day even if it did take an hour or so for the legs to start working normally again. It did however clash with the Poets breakfast which meant that GMs usual sport of presenting poems that take the piss out of the bush poets had to be abandoned this year.
After the chanting it was off to the mandala for the monks. The mandala is constructed from coloured sands which the monks apply using finely tapered bronze funnels. It takes about 240 monk hours to construct and at the end it is swept away. It symbolises the impermanence of things.
Prior to the arrival of the europeans Australian Aboriginal technology was one of the simplest in the world. This image intrigued me purely because of the juxtaposition of the simple with the complex.
If you would like to hear something of what it sounded like here is a clip from Yothu Yindi.
"The time had come" The Green Man said "to speak of many things, mostly aboriginal"
And where better to do it than Camp Jungai. So it was that The Green Man abandoned the blog to the comment spammers for the weekend (490 comments over the two days) and headed off light of spirit to the said Camp Jungai. Along with the usual cultural activities that The Green Man indulges in, such as, eating far too much and reading the newspaper, there was a notable high point on the weekend which was a talk by the lovely Dr Jane Lydon on early photography of aboriginals, particularly at Coranderrk Aboriginal Reserve.
Below is a photo entitled "The Yarra Tribe Starting For Acheron, 1862" by Charles Walter.
What makes this photo so interesting is that it is a set piece depicting a story. Photography was only about 20 years old at this stage and this style of photography did not become common until quite some years later. It is distinguished from the other photos in the collection by this characteristic and Dr Jane asserts that the reason for this is probably that it was orchestrated by the aboriginals themselves. She suggests that in exchange for posing for the more portrait style photographs that make up the rest of the collection the photographer, Charles Walter, agreed to take one whose composition was determined by the aboriginal group.
This photo gives us a glimpse of early aboriginals utilising a new media to represent a story in a similar manner to the approach that they used in their paintings on bark.
To the left is a drawing of two spirit people drawn in 1918 by an unknown aboriginal artist. It is easy to see the extension of this approach to depicting characters and stories to the photo they composed above.
On the left of the composition is Simon Wonga who is leading the expedition. Third from the left is a Mr Green who was the white overseer of the Coranderrk Reserve and was accorded a position of authority by Simon but he was not leading. A second row can just be seen behind the first which is a row of women who had their own line with their own hierarchy.
I will post more on this topic since I am greatly interested in it and so, naturally, all of you will be as well.
150 years ago today the Eureka Stockade was stormed but government troops.
S.D.S Huyghue, Eureka Stockade 1882, watercolour
Collection: Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
30 miners and 3 troopers died. It was generally considered that the government response was an over-reaction and that a negotiated resolution would have been possible. Thirteen of the ring leaders were charged with Treason but were subsequently found innocent at trial.
The brutality of the government response engendered a wave of support for the miners and the principal instigator, Peter Lalor, was subsequently elected to parliament where he served as a member of the conservative government for many years.
Read more about Peter Lalor in Eureka Times
Visit the home of the excellent watercolour above, the Ballarat Fine Art Gallery
Spies for Resident Gold Commissioner, Robert Rede, report to him that the rebels have constructed a stockade at Eureka consisting of timbers whose original purpose was support poles for the mines. Within this stockade had assembled a band of rebel who declared that they would resist any further attempt to collect mining taxes.
The rebels, whilst fired with enthusiasm and bravado, are largely a disorganised bunch and little real preparation is made to organise their defences or to plan for an attack by the authorities.
At 11:00am on November 30th, 1854 the Southern Cross, the flag of the Eureka rebellion, was raised for the first time on Bakery Hill in Ballarrat.
At the same time in Melbourne, 150 years later descendants of those rebels raised the flag on Melbournes largest flagpole at Haymarket. The picture above is of Glenn Withers and his great-great-great-grand mother, Anastasia Withers. Anastasia was one of the women who sewed the first flag.
At a mass meeting on Bakery Hill on Wednesday, November 29, 1854 the blue "Southern Cross" flag flew for the first time behind the speakers. The Reform League’s delegates reported their failure to obtain any undertakings from Governor Hotham, other than the promise of a Commission of Enquiry, which was perhaps seen as a delaying tactic. With the patience of the miners running out, and the mood of moderation beginning to darken, the meeting voted in favour of burning licences and general resistance to the arrest of unlicensed miners. So it was that the miners of Ballarrat rose up against the unjust taxes, in the form of mining licences, that the government of the fledgeling State of Victoria was imposing upon them and one of the most defining periods in Australian history began.
Today, 150 years later, the descendants of the protagonists of this battle, that resulted in the death of 22 miners on the Eureka Stockade and 4 Government troopers, look back on this defining moment in Australian history.
Most countries can point to civil wars that killed thousands of soldiers and civilians as defining moments in their history. For Australia this, relatively minor skirmish was the defining moment in our nationhood. It distinguishes us from England that seeded our caucasian population and from the jingoism of America. Whilst Australia has been present at most major wars, we are not a nation that values conflict or looks to war as a solution to our problems. The leader of the Eureka rebellion, Peter Lalor (that is his descendant on the left), was later elected and represented the interests of the disaffected miners in the Victorian parliament. Like so few countries we settled our differences by largely peaceful and democratic processes. Perhaps the most precious aspect of Australian culture, and one thing that distinguishes us in the world, is our reluctance to resort to violence to address internal conflicts.
Australians also have a distinct distrust of authority that lives on from this time. With the current ethical and moral standards demonstrated by the worlds most powerful individuals it is hard to see how this is such a bad thing.
For those of you who are completely ignorant of the Eureka rebellion, there is a consise summary here.
Some time ago The Green Man posted an article on Stonehenge and the angst that had developed between conservators and modern Druids over the useage of the site, see here.
Jenny Blain, who is one of the authors of the study that was quoted has emailed The Green Man. This is a disconcerting experience and necessitates a quick trip back to the article to see what was actually written. Fortunately it was a sensible post, unlike a significant number of them, and she
