Fathers’ Day (September 1 in Australia)

On Friday, August 29, Ann and I went to a “Father of the Year” breakfast awards celebration put on by Brophy and the local Rotary Club. (Brophy is the non-profit community based organization through which I am doing volunteer work.)

The breakfast alone deserves special mention, as it consisted of baked beans, sautéed mushrooms, broiled tomatoes, sausages, hash browns, bacon, scrambled eggs, croissants, and fruit salad. I passed on the cold cereal course though.

The father figures being recognized, or the nominations from their children, were quite nice too. There were about 1000 nominations from area schools, with award winners selected in four school age ranges. The winning nomination stories from the son or daughter making the nomination were presented, along with children and their respective winning father, grandfather, or uncle being nominated.

The nominating stories were all unique, and they reflected individuality, but they also had in common expressions of being felt loved, cared for, and respected as an individual. They also for the most part included a reference to, or appreciation of, a fun or quirky parental attribute.

There were plenty of politicians present and speaking too. (Two mayors, a local minister of state parliament, and the state prime minister. A few school principals too.) Their ingredients for success, and the father gifts they memorialized, were the benefits of learning how to work hard and of being respected, and after that “everything else will sort itself out.”

I wandered back and forth between memories of my father, and of my fathering of my daughter.

My father did not learn how to say, “I love you” to me until well in to his elder years. I loved him, but it was not really until the being there with him and connections of his dying years that we felt close.  He did have a way of hand squeezing an I love you message though, something I was able to squeeze on to my daughter.

A strong father figure memory I carry with me from an early age is being at the beach in Stone Harbor, New Jersey, and building sand castles. Building sand castles, learning how to make dribble castles, with Bill Wood. Mr. Wood, of the Woods who lived next door in our hometown, and who would visit along with his wife most every summer. Dad and mom would be as one, off walking the beach, a cherished memory and love of another type that was beautifully modeled for me.

You can be sure my daughter learned from me at a very early age the complexities and nuances of building dribble castles. One of my special vivid memories with her is that of fun and quirky chasing and laughing through a maze of hay bales at Pumpkinland. She knows well the value of what it is to be included.

My daughter has learned, is learning, much more about hard work on her own than from me. But she learned of hard play, respect, and inclusiveness on my watch. And from her mom.

Kate is a life learner and teacher. 

I celebrate being her father every day.

Spring is in the air, or is that love?

Signs of spring from today's nature walk.

is it art?

eggceptional

snail love

hugs and kisses from down under

Artfull

Ann and I often have fun, add to our fun, while traveling with an “Is it art?” analysis/commentary upon the sights, sounds and discoveries we stumble upon.  (e.g., see prior Mailbox post with a few new deliveries).

Warrnambool, much like Chico, much like anywhere I’d venture, is an art adventure just waiting to happen. There is public and private art of all types and varieties, large and small, from landscaping, the cut of the grass, plants, shrubs, trees, sculpture, statuary, lawn ornaments, gardens up to architectural delights old and new, iron work, windows, roof lines, all framed by the interplay of the ocean with the special light, clouds, and sky of southern Australia. All of that and more, complemented by the full range of cinema, theatre, music, dance, galleries, and gatherings of community and communing.

The human, animal, and inanimate form a palate that each day uses to give us art. Art is like pornography, you know it when you see it.  All you have to do is open your mind wide and enjoy the view.

Today however became a purposeful art exploration, on a personal scale: we bought our first piece of Australian art.

It started with reading a bit in our local throw away paper, “Artist on a solo mission.” The exhibition at ArtLink was a fund-raiser to provide educational resources for children in rural Ghana. I decided to check it out, and as it turns out, “ArtLink is a Western District Employment Access initiative and the program provides people with a disability with a place to paint and the opportunity to display and sell their art.”

ArtLink, and its companion StudioLink for performance arts, “encourages people to identify as artists, cultural commentators and ‘change agents’: involved and valued members of their community, working in collaboration and developing creative capacity for life enhancement.”

The personal experience becomes Public Art at its finest.

I was the only customer while there, but four or five artists were working, along with a staff artist and the gallery director. I got artist introductions and a tour of both the public and back room areas, and I shared experiences of Far Northern Regional Center Art and micro enterprise development. Then Ann called after getting home from her work, and she soon joined us.

What a joy to see the art in creation, talk with the gallery director about the artists, talk with the artists, and work/play our way through the Exhibition, and those back rooms. A piece not on display eventually chose us. Its artist, Martin, was one of the artists in residence that day. We got to watch and discuss with him the development and direction of a new piece he was working on.

Here’s our new friend and housemate, “Boat Rack Against The Seaside.” 

Return to Melbourne

The morning after our stunning trip to the Grampians, we boarded the 7:10 am train for Melbourne. The train trip takes a little over 3 hours. I had two meetings scheduled with academic friends, and Andy and I wanted to explore Melbourne a bit more. We planned to visit some museums and, of course, eat some more.
This was not the fine dining that we had in mind - Taco Bill's. The menu looked a lot like Taco Bell.

Sunday afternoon we went to the Melbourne Museum and explored some of the natural history of Australia. However, the indigenous exhibit we went to see doesn't start until next month. Another reason to go back! On Monday, we visited the National Gallery of Victoria where there was a long line for the Monet exhibit. We skipped Monet and explored the rest of the gallery which is FREE! The water features outside of the gallery were very beautiful.

The water feature inside of the gallery was gorgeous as well. The floating dishes in this "pond" made beautiful music as they knocked into one another. Each bowl and plate were of different depths and thickness and the result was lilting tones. You can see some of the school kids in the back. They were everywhere in the city that day, adorned in their varying school uniforms. I've never seen so many kids, both boys and girls, in ties.

This was an actual taxidermy deer covered in glass globes of varying sizes. The glass globes glittered - the picture doesn't do it justice.

Before we left, we decided to go up to the top of the Eureka Tower. We posted about this building in an earlier post about Melbourne architecture. The observation deck is on the 88th floor - incredible views of the city in all directions. In this picture, you can see the National Gallery to the right of the great spire on top of the Arts Centre Melbourne. In between them, if you look really closely, you can see the white nautilus water feature from the picture above, but I doubt you'll see the seagull. In the background, on the other side of the Yarra River, are the sporting grounds where professional cricket and Aussie Rules Football are played.

On Monday, we were making our way up Collins St., against the 5 pm pedestrian traffic who were headed toward Southern Cross train station. We were about to be washed over by the wave of people coming down the hill toward us. It is not wise to get between someone who just got off work and their ride home.

We made that same trip today when we boarded a very crowded train back to Warrnambool. It was a lively trip home featuring a large and noisy group of senior citizens who had just returned from a tour of the UK, a prolonged stop at Geelong where a gentleman was removed by local police after he refused to give up his illegal open can of booze to the conductor, and after that a second drunk who was relocated to the back of the train to sleep it off. Sheesh!

We walked home from the train station, enriched by our trip to the city, but glad to be back in our cozy little Australian home.

The Grampians

Today we were hosted by our friends, Gaelene and Andy, on our first trip to The Grampians National Park. Andy described the day as "rich" and I couldn't think of any other word than SPECTACULAR.
The sky was a bit cloudy, but not much rain and temperatures were just right.

Out on the trail

Our first waterfall

Cockatoos doing the wild thing

Gorgeous rosella parrot

The top part of Mackenzie Falls

Crossing to get to the base of the waterfall

Gorgeous

Gaelene brought a picnic lunch. The caravan park has shelters with coin operated electric grills. Lamb chops and brats, just like we make them in Wisconsin.

Silly tourists taking pictures by the kangaroos

Can you see the joey?

Burned trunks after wild fires

Incredible rock formations

Andy and Andy, on top of the world

Koori Court

Welcome to Country: I wish to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land on which we stand and pay my respects to their Elders past and present.

So begins the Koori Court Stakeholders Training I attended last Friday, August 16. (The local city council meeting starts with a similar “Original Custodian Statement,” as do most public meetings or gatherings.)

Leaves from gum trees and candles were placed on the table before the Elders in attendance.

Per the Factsheet “Koori Courts in Victoria” (Warrnambool is located in the State of Victoria)….

·      Reasons for the establishment of the adult Koori Court: The need for a Koori Court arose because of massive Indigenous over-representation in the adult Criminal Justice System—more so than any other racial group. Despite Victoria having the lowest imprisonment rate of Indigenous offenders in Australia, it was estimated in 2001 at the commencement of the adult Koori Court pilot project that Koories were 12 times more likely to be imprisoned than other Victorians.

·      What are the aims of the Koori Court?  The Koori Court is essentially an alternate way of administering sentences so that Court processes are culturally accessible, acceptable and comprehensible to the Indigenous community.

What a wonderful concept, court processes that are not only comprehensible, but also culturally accessible and acceptable. 

The morning of the training was “A Journey Through History,” a two-hour overview of “the events, attitudes and particularly government policies of the past 200+ years that have shaped the relations between White and Black Australians.”

The presentation was led by two Koori Elders, and was illustrated with pairs of art panels with Koori history on one and the corresponding White history on the other. Very interesting and powerful how the art panels ultimately came together as one panorama.

Koori Court represents a similar coming together of cultures: Violation of White law being reviewed and evaluated, and punishment meted out, by the rule of Elders within a collective consensus driven process. White “crime.”  Koori “punishment.”

The afternoon was a round table discussion focusing mainly on Children’s Koori Court. There were Elders, Respected Persons, court staff, probation officers, a legal aide lawyer, a Magistrate, and staff from Brophy Family and Youth Services, through whom I am doing volunteer work. We sat at a table that went around the edge of the room, with the center of the room open. The room we were in was the one used for Children’s Koori Court. For court sessions, there are just chairs set up in a circle. In attendance would be those listed above, with prosecution and victim joining the circle.

Children’s Koori Court is voluntary, i.e. the accused Koori youth can choose to go to regular court or Koori Court. What is most interesting is that to go to Koori Court, the accused youth offender must first plead guilty. A foundational premise to the court, and Koori culture, is to acknowledge responsibility for your acts. Through communal discussion and deliberation, the role of the court thus becomes deliberating why the act was done, atoning for it, and bringing to bear White and Black community resources to address causation and prevention of re-offending.

The court is not focused on punishment. Interestingly though, many Koori youth offenders choose not to go, as regular court punishment is felt easier to take, or preferable, to facing shame before or from Elders and Respected Persons.

I was made very welcome. I look forward to joining the circle when court is next in session. Currently I am teaming up with a Brophy caseworker on two case files just assigned to her of Koori youth who have elected to go to Koori Court.

Gifts were given and received at the end of the day. We all received The Little Red Yellow Black Book. Not a sequel to Mao’s tome, but “An Introduction to Indigenous Australia.”

The Magistrate gave me his copy of the Victorian Aboriginal Justice Agreement: A partnership between the Victorian Government and Koori Community.

The Elder who served as the local Koori Court liaison has asked me to come back to the courthouse and meet with her again.

The Elders presenting gave everyone painted rocks. The gum leaf on the bottom signifies new beginnings.

I really like the picture Ann took of the courthouse with the Australian and Aboriginal flags. The red at the bottom represents the earth and the Koori relationship to it. The black above represents all Aboriginal people past, present and future. The yellow is the sun, the source of life.

Today I went to a conference on Rural Youth and the Law—Successes and Challenges. Stay tuned for more.

Foods I and II

Andy likes to write beautiful poetic narratives on life reflected in the beach; I like to write about baked goods...  I was reminiscing that in high school, I took the home ec classes called Foods I AND Foods II. (I also took Family Relations, for what it’s worth… Apparently I was preparing myself for the marriage that would happen 30 years later.) My favorite TV show here is The Great Australian Bake-Off. My sister Jan will like to know that one of the judges is Kerry Vincent, who has been on Food Network Challenge. The contestants are quirky and the music is great. This week’s competition featured the pavlova, a meringue dessert which originated in Australia (or New Zealand, depending on who you ask!).  

I’ve enjoyed getting to know the many pastries I have encountered here. Most cafes have a glass display case full of cakes and slices, usually with 4 or 5 gluten free options. Slices come in many different flavors, but all are what we would call a bar, like a lemon bar or a blondie. I've also seen sponge cakes flavored with passion fruit. I am a particular fan of this little beauty here.

It’s an Australian pastry called the lamington. Traditional lamingtons are covered in chocolate and rolled in coconut, and I look forward to trying one, but this one is a jelly lamington: sponge cake covered in strawberry jelly and then in coconut. All of my life, I’ve allowed myself, ONLY on long road trips, the guilty pleasure of Zingers. This, my friends, is a homemade Zinger. And it’s delicious. This was my second one, which I had to buy because I lost the picture of the first one in the death of my hard drive. Darn!

A uniquely Australian treat is the Tim Tam. There is a traditional practice of biting off opposite corners of the Tim Tam and then sucking your coffee through it like a straw. Andy attempted this one morning but didn’t have much success. We’ve only tried a few flavors, but frankly, I can’t manage to resist eating the dark chocolate mint ones. They are double the pleasure of a Girl Scout thin mint, if you can imagine that is possible.

Another common Australian cookie is the yo-yo. I see these in jars at many cafes. It’s two small butter cookies with frosting in the middle. I had wanted to try one, so I ordered one for dessert in a fairly fancy restaurant the other day, and the server raised one eyebrow and said to me, “You’d like a yo-yo??” as though I had just asked for a Twinkie or something. I could see a jar of them right in front of the cash register, so it wasn’t like it was a special order. He offered, "The panna cotta is lovely." I said, "No thank you, not a panna cotta fan." He said again, incredulously, “A yo-yo.” And I confirmed that was indeed my dessert order. I think he was only half joking in his pretense. Andy said I should take a picture of it, but I thought that would just give the waiter more fodder.

Also popular are French macaroons in vibrant colors. The other day we were at a little craft fair and there was a woman selling all kinds of interesting flavored macaroons, including licorice. If I liked meringues, I would have tried the licorice one. Instead, we got this heavenly thing called Persian love cake. It was made from almond meal, rosewater, some type of syrup, and had crushed pistachios and edible flowers on top. I didn’t get a picture because Andy and I literally ate it in 30 seconds. I'm sure that's why they call it love cake.

The only new candy bar I’ve tried, purely for scientific purposes, is the Cherry Ripe. I thought this might be something like the beloved Twin Bing of my childhood, but instead it’s more like a cross between a chocolate covered cherry and a Mounds bar. And it tastes better than it sounds.

1/3 of a Cherry Ripe

I have baked three things since living here. My morning glory muffins turned out great. I was able to find all of the essentials of baking in the cupboards including desiccated coconut, which I’ve never used before. Last weekend I made a strawberry rhubarb cake for our dinner guests. Our house comes equipped with a hand mixer and this totally charming old school sifter.

I’m not sure how many times I’ll want to wrestle with that hand mixer but it was a good team sport with my handsome house husband. Friday I used a potato masher to make Mexican wedding cookies. We were having guests over for Mexican food, which is quite uncommon here. We could only find black beans in a specialty market for $4 a can!

This probably won’t be my last post about food. I will have more to share. Fortunately, we walk all of this off nearly every day, either enjoying the beach or running errands. Thank god we don’t have a car.

Where's Wallaby?

Today Andy was the one to leave early for a day of learning about Koori court and left me home to tend the house and prepare for dinner guests. I thought I'd use the early rising as an opportunity to get out and do some wallaby scouting. The sky was bright blue and sunny, but the wind was definitely brisk. I walked down to the dunes and around to all of the prior wallaby-sighting spots, but to no avail. I watched the birds and listened to the wind. I also listened to the birds and watched the wind.

These lovelies took turns leading me along the path for a while.

I had to take a lot of pictures to capture this one. Look at that bright red spot on his head! It has a bit of the honey eater coloring. I got a local bird book from the uni library, but oddly, it doesn't have that many pictures so I am not sure what it is.

I also took pictures of some interesting dead trees.

The waves were blowing back in dramatic ways. After about 90 minutes or so of exploring new paths, I decided that perhaps the early bird does not catch the wallaby and I settled on to a bench to watch a surfer. After two or three closeouts, I started to return back down the path toward home, and then. there. they. were!

I doubled back and climbed 3 feet off the path (shhh!!) to get a shot of these two. 

And individual shots of the two, a little bit closer (and a decent zoom lens).

Where's Wallaby?

 I guess they're late risers and were just waiting for the sun to get a little higher in the sky.

Who dat?

I had seen three separate wallabies, and then, just before I left the dunes, these two were hanging out. The one on the right looked a lot younger.

I tried to get a closer shot of the littler one who watched me walk all the way up the path and out of the dunes.

Bye Bye for today, Wallabies!!