Australia: Distant Encounters

Australia is far-flung and until the airplane overcame the tyranny of distance Australia was terra incognita. We went there in 2012 to visit relatives and friends on our way back from New Zealand.

Aboriginals

Aboriginals of Australia are one of the oldest living peoples of the world having occupied the same territory for 50,000 years, longer than any other people. They believe their ancestors brought the world into being by naming the landscape and the creatures that inhabit it. They sing to keep the land alive and their songs are stories of ancestor figures and a GPS to help guide them over vast distances.

In Perth we attended the 60th Perth International Arts Festival that aimed to reconcile the Nyungar guardians of Mudurup Rocks at Cottesloe with modern Australia. In Sydney and were treated to a spectacular exhibition of Aboriginal art and dance depicting places along the Canning Stock trail in Western Australia.

Family and friends

In Perth we visited Scharlie’s brother Hyung Shik, who had been adopted as a young man by her parents. We swam various times in the shark-infested waters of infamous Cottesloe beach and went down river to Freemantle.

In Melbourne we visited friends from college days and stayed in their house on the Mornington Peninsula where we saw kangaroo and Napoleon’s death mask, but failed to see a Koala bear. We had met Andrew on the plane from Singapore and he introduced us to the National Gallery in Melbourne where he is a Trustee and showed us the recently acquired Corregio Madona and Child.

Published 7 Aug 2017, 4 pages, ISBN 9780995768055