SYDNEY, Australia – October 28, 2010

Oh Blog Di, Oh Blog Da…life goes on. So many fascinating experiences the hardest decision is where to start. How about 1770 when Captain Cook discovered Australia? Or 1788 when Captain Arthur Philip arrived in Sydney Harbor with his first fleet of British convicts to be followed by 162,000 more between that first landing and 1850? But what of the native Aboriginal tribes, who numbered about 300,000 at the time and had lived here they say for 80,000 – 100,000 years before the white man arrived?

I am fascinated by the Aboriginal culture, which still is such a strong part of Australia’s mystique. When Philip arrived, there were 29 tribes living in or around what is now Sydney. At the time there were 600 tribes, each with its own dialect, necessitating locals to be fluent in many languages. Today, only 1.5% of Australians are Aborigines.

The Aborigines believe in many spirits, not in one God. I was introduced to a very intelligent modern Aborigine who taught me much about his culture. Today there are only 250 Aboriginal cultures and languages left in Australia. Very important to this writer is Tingari – the spirit of creation.

Yesterday I spent the morning viewing Aboriginal art in the Art Gallery of New South Wales. Aboriginal art aims to tell a story and is infused with spiritual purpose and political activism. It is either brightly colored, often with undulating patterns that pulse and flow, or it relies on a palette of charcoal, black, yellow, white and red to represent the colors of rock. Sculpture aims to preserve the weaving tradition and we saw eel traps and fish traps made from sage grass, molded into sensual yet functional shapes. Bark painting are a common genre and necessitate the artist climb a tree in the wet season, carefully peel back the bark and dry it with hot coals and rocks. Another form of art is called “Mardayin.” These are paintings on canvas that interpret the spiritual body painting. Each has spiritual significance, such as criss-cross patterns or a type of pointillism common in the desert. Apparently, the Aborigines can read these patterns as a Scot can read a kilt.

Central to the culture is an instrument called a Didgeridoo. Only men can play the Didgeridoo, as only women can play the dancing sticks. It is not sexist, but a balancing of culture, I guess akin to division of labor. Didgeridoo is the name given to the instrument by the white settlers because of its sound. It is called up to 40 different names by the tribes; my new friends calls it Uluru. Boys start learning to play it at puberty, submerging themselves in water for hours at a time with only their noses exposed to learn to breathe without using their mouths. White ants, or termites as we call them, hollow out a tree. In search of the perfect Didgeridoo, Aborigine men tap on trees until they find an East leaning hollow one. They then cut it and shape it for musical use. The Didgeridoo is the oldest wood wind instrument in the world.

Like the Aboriginal visual art, the Didgeridoo’s purpose is to communicate with spirits and nature. As I mentioned yesterday, Australia is home to 20 varieties of poisonous snake. But the Kububara (not sure how to spell that one) birds eats these snakes so the Aborigines have learned to imitate the bird’s sound on the Didgeridoo to frighten snakes from the bush. Also, each of the nine distinct Aboriginal groups has its own tone so they can recognize each other as they approach. But my favorite Didgeridoo story relates to the Dingo, a feral dog species that originated in Indonesia 4,000 – 6,000 years ago. Dingoes do not bark, they only howl. And by imitating a Dingo’s howl on the Didgeridoo, Aborigines in the outback elicit howls of recognition in return.

On the subject of Dingoes…Aborigines believe that twins are a freak of nature and a bad omen. I’m not sure if this still goes on but they used to take infant twins to the desert and, you guessed it, leave them for the Dingoes.

Some trivia that underscores how fate can influence entire courses of history: Another rite of passage in Aboriginal culture is for a boy at puberty to have his incisors removed. As it happens, when Arthur Philip first sailed into Sydney Harbor the Aborigines were prepared to slaughter the intruders, But Captain Philip had lost an incisor during a shipboard brawl a few days before so instead of being killed, the sailors were welcomed as long lost ancestors of the Aboriginal tribes on the shore that day in 1788. Three days later, three French ships arrived in Sydney Harbor. Had they arrived first, the Australians might be speaking French today!

Did you know Australian’s invented the clothes line? Here it is called Hill’s Hoist and is a source of great national pride.

There are of course many dark periods in white Australia’s brief history, such as a bubonic plague in 1900 that practically wiped out the population of Sydney. Then there were the “Stolen Generations” of the 1960s, when white politicians stole Aboriginal children from their families and installed them in white homes and missions. The excuse was to “assimilate” them but many ended up as servants in white homes. Earlier, in the 1840s, there was a methodical expulsion of all Aborigines from the southern island of Tazmania. They were rounded up, exported, and often killed. All countries have horror stories such as these. I only wish I understood why.

Coming up next…the Koala sanctuary.