Girls with green hair

Awe struck by the number of girls I see with green hair lately....
Seems like everywhere I look there's more green.

Having recently commented on the green cycle path that caught my eye on Monday morning I called in at the local supermarket and came across a couple of young ladies with green hair. I hadn’t intended to focus my attention on the colour green but for some reason, maybe the unusual tone, the colour green has caught my attention. I lingered outside the shop for a little while, procrastinating over whether or not I would dare to ask if I can take their photograph. Predictably I got on my bike and cycled away… Unpredictably, when I reached the street I decided I really wanted to take their photo, so I turned around and tentatively approached the group of half a dozen girls and ladies who were still waiting outside the shop. As they were chatting in a language which I recognized as Yolngu matha I approached the older of the two girls and explained awkwardly that I am collecting images of green things and I liked the colour of her hair. They all stared at me like I was mad…. (Standing in my shorts, thongs, green safety vest, flabby gut protruding, straddling a rig of my long bike, towing some other bike which looks like it could have been stolen) So we get into a brief conversation which begins awkwardly, (as it should given the unsolicited approach by an older man) I discover that the group are Yolŋu from Galiwin’ku… Well after about two minutes of exchanging relational connections, I discovered that I was talking to my Gutharra, Gaminyar, and Mukul Bapa. (Adoptive family references) "Hey no problem Mari." I’m sure they all still thought I was mad but with extended families as big as Yolŋu have there’s no shortage of mad adopted misfits. Hoping to get a decent shot I am hurried with the demand “Bundi, bundi, bundi” (quick, quick, make it snappy) So it was that I quickly took this photo, which does not do the girls or their hair any credit at all but I will treasure as a moment not lost but taken without regret. Rewarded with moments of green. 

Drawing by Alison Dowel

Then at home I discovered this beautiful green haired Folkie Punk-rock guitar playing superstar kid!