Social F*!#ING Media

A Post Script to my F*#BOOK friends

Just another Anonymous friend

Recently I shut down my f*!#book account... Again!

It was re-opened, reluctantly, because I was continually finding that information I wanted was only available via that particular platform. But now I've decided... to hell with that crap!

OK. For diplomacy and to suck up to those of you I didn't really mean to upset or insult or dump here's a quick explanation...  For my real 'friends'  ;)

Firstly if you discovered that you were 'unfriended' by me, never mind, you haven't actually lost a friend. Chances are we weren't really friends anyway, maybe just someone I wanted others to know that I know, or someone who asked to be my friend and I was too polite to say no... or someone I was friends with in the past who found me when I didn't really want to be found but I stupidly accepted a friend request out of curiosity to see what you were doing with your life since we last saw each other... Or maybe I added you just to increase the number of people in my friends list so I wouldn't appear to be such a Nigel. (Nigel no mates)... But if we were actually friends that's OK too because you would know that there is no such thing as being unfriended! That's just a dumb ass word made up by the pricks who invented the airless universe you may still be subscribing to. If you're feeling bored or lonely for someone to talk to take a look out your window, you might see me riding my bike around in circles waiting for you to come out and play...  If you get a cold empty feeling while you wait for your latest app to download come out and have a yarn. The back blocks are empty and there's plenty of places left to explore, we can pinch fruit from the neigbours trees, hide from the rain in a cave on the beach or just piff  a few yonnies at some tin cans at the side of the road...

Popularity? I'm sorry to say I'm not nearly as popular as I wanted you all to think I am. The majority of you weren't actually my friends, as if you didn't already know... To set the record straight, I didn't have many friends on faecesbook, I think there were about 60, which by internet standards is pretty low... The fact is though that I actually never had that many friends, not ever, not even a fraction of that number. Are friends so easy to find that you can accumulate them by simply clicking a mouse and posting a few flattering remarks? I tried but they weren't, not really.

Finding long lost friends. I happened to link up with a few people from my past, people I spent my youth with. I friended them and was reunited with all the ignorant, bigoted, racist small minded crap I was surrounded by 20 years ago!

I discovered my old Tech school in the pages of The book. A grim reminder of violence, abuse, criminality and a my disgracefully Bogan heritage. Flicking through the long list of old class mates I was astonished by endless images of V8 muscle cars, Southern Cross Tatoos, empty whiskey bottle collections and drunken party snapshots... 

Causes... All the worthy causes I followed. My account was packed to the rafters with worthy causes... I joined them all, every one of them representing something real in the world desperately in need of protection from the voracious appetite of greedy folks. I posted them on my wall where they added to the din among the plethora of everybody else's special charity. What ever happens with all those petitions and appeals?  

None of it's real!

So, I wrote you a heartfelt goodby letter, posted it on my wall and left it there for about an hour. Then I unfriended everyone and slipped quietly out of that particular matrix without disturbing the water of your consciousness. Gone. Maybe you noticed your friend count dropped by one and you felt a little self conscious or even paranoid that there are people out there who don't like you... Don't worry I would never be so cruel in any other world.

 

 Gill Gets the last word

Create!

Pondering the deeper questions....
How do you study creativity at a University that is devoted to producing minions for a desensitized industrialized, extractive resource dependent country that is devoted to diminishing beauty wherever it is found? In her attempt to get the qualification she needs to teach music to kids Sam is currently doing some kind of art unit at Uni. The idea of studying art in this way seems to almost stifle the very spirit required to create in the first place. I remember when my sister first went to Uni and she loved reading so she studied English Literature and was put of reading for years! Being force fed other peoples opinions about how a creation should be interpreted seems to completely contradict or eliminate the very force that creates!

Here are some questions recently posted on Learn Line that Sam submitted her answer to a week late and so will not receive a mark for! I liked her response to the questions and thought the irony of her not receiving a grade for this work qualified it as a free work of creativity in it's own right!

Q: What is creativity? 

Q: Who is creative?

Q: When and where are you creative?
Q: Why are you creative?

Kids impression of their Dad riding home from the volcano

Creativity is a whole brain /body /being process. I say process rather than skill as it happens when skills and a certain way of being are in alignment. The way of being could be thought of as immersion, or, as Cskisenmiyalhi calls it 'flow'. There is a sense of timelessness, of forgetting normal body processes such as hunger, a sense of deep connection with the unconscious and the mystery of life - like being on an exciting new frontier where you aren't really sure what's going to happen but stuffs coming out of you and there is a cathartic expression of deep person hood while at the same time loss of separateness from the space beyond our own bodies. As if we are all time and space and all time and space is us. This is not to be confused with playing video games, as, even though some of these things happen when we play video games, we are essentially riding someone else's creativity - not our own.
All people who have the capacity to lose themselves in their own quest or need to either produce or express themselves in a unique way are creative. Watching Bob Dylan write songs is an example of creative genius. Einstein on his quest for the theory of relativity was creative. Gandhi leading the revolt against English occupation of India was creative. Parents who explore new ways of relating to their children are creative. Mozart was amazingly creative.
I am most likely to be creative in unstructured time - also known as recreation - for a reason I think! I like to have a lot of unstructured time in my life to give myself the space to let any creative energy be released. I actually get pretty narky if my life gets too full of appointments etc. I don't do well in routine! There needs to be space in my head for something unexpected to come up from the unconscious, so getting the balance right between external stimulus and internal quiet is the key for me. I need to be led by my intuition - it's not a controlling thing. In fact, the more I try and exercise control, the more this seems to be counterproductive. I just have to let go and trust. In the meantime, any building of skills is always useful as well. Still need to practice that piano! So discipline does play a part too. I'm mostly creative at home, I think this is because it is my sanctuary and I am free to let go on a deep level. When I lived at home with my parents, it was restricted to my own room.
I'm creative because...I'm not quite sure. Maybe it is just a deep seated need of the subconscious to express itself, maybe it is a need to contribute to community in some personal way and be acknowledged? I'm not quite sure what drives my creativity...it's an interesting question to sit on and ponder.

(By Samantha F)

Visit and fellowship in Arnhemland

Thanks to good fortune I am currently employed in great job that occasionally requires me to travel to Aboriginal Communities in Arnhem Land. Recently I had the opportunity to visit the Island community of Milingimbi in North Eastern Arnhem Land. This was a special place for me to visit since it was the home of a man who had made a big impression on me before he passed away last year. He was a special person who had an enormous capacity for love and forgiveness he did a lot to create channels of communication and understanding between Yolngu and Balanda.


This has been my longest stay in an Arnhem Land community and the best chance I've had so far to experience the atmosphere in this unique part of the world.

Although my schedule was extremely busy and there were all kinds of logistical problems that I just hadn't counted on, I still managed to find plenty of opportunities to get about and meet up with some rather inspirational people as well as attend some local activities.

There's a lot going on over at Milingimbi at the moment and from my perspective I'd say much of it is very good.


(Stained window, Milingimbi Church)

Milingimbi is an old Mission settlement and there are several Clan groups living in the township. As with most other Aboriginal Communities Milingimbi is affected by the Federal Intervention and all it's restrictions and impositions, however unlike many other Communities Milingimbi had already been dry for some time before the Intervention and functioned fairly well without the new laws that were brought down upon them 2 years or so ago. (Of course Milingimbi has seen some benefits from renewed interest from Government agencies)


(Sitting in comfort on a rug on the sand)

While I was there I was fortunate to see just how well things can come together at the initiative of local people. Although my experience of Christianity is quite limited (actually prior to 5 years ago I'd had no meaningful contact with the religion outside of attending weddings or funerals) I'd have to say that the activities at Milingimbi are quite a phenomenon! There is a strong Christian Fellowship in Milingimbi that meets every night and I found the gatherings quite amazing! On my second night there I went along to the beach expecting maybe half a dozen loyal followers of the tradition handed to them by missionaries in the early 20th Century... What I found was a crowd of maybe 200 people, gathered together in fellowship, families, young and old people together. Singing, Dancing, Sharing stories. I saw a group of up to 30 young children performing a carefully choreographed dance, perfectly synchronized, later a group of about 8 young men performing their own dance, then more beautiful singing from the older ladies and on it went until late at night. People sitting happily with their family and friends, on rugs and mats as a gentle northerly sea breeze kept the sand-flies at bay and cooled the brows of some very enthusiastic performers.
What a BUZ!

Unlike many outback townships there were no sounds of drunken brawls, no screeching tires, smashing glass, abusive language or any of the behavior that might prevent families from venturing down Mitchel Street on any night... Just the sound of singing, happy chatter and the bark of an occasional dog as people wandered home after a night of warmth and fellowship.

It happened to be school sports week while I was there so lunch times were spent cheering the young athletes as they raced each other down the mains street. I'd heard about low attendance rates at Community schools but what I saw on Milingimbi seemed to contradict this story completely. In fact I saw kids turning up more than an hour early for school full of enthusiasm and ready to get stuck into the learning before their teachers had even arrived. The kids there really seemed to be engaged and interested in learning... The school seemed to have just the right ingredients. Music, Sport, some really involved teachers and a library full of Yolngu stories. The library even had a traditional hand carved canoe and one of the bark canoes from the film 10 Canoes. The Milingimbi School is COOL!

(Image if person now deceased has been removed out of respect for the family)


(Rev. Larry B------ with some home grown watermelons)

All these things were great but there was one aspect to this trip that really impressed me. While I was talking to Rev. Larry we got talking about gardening and all the benefits that come from growing vegetables in particular. Before I knew it he was imparting a whole philosophy on me that absolutely fit perfectly the concepts I'd been thinking about over the past few years. A program for providing young people with an environment where they can develop a sense of, community self worth and become confident independent thinkers. The Patch down in Leanyer is a great example of the enormous benefit this kind of education can improve the outcomes for students who are struggling with the regular curriculum.
Nature is a great teacher, by engaging with the natural processes of planting, nurturing and growing vegetables we can learn a lot about the skills we need in other aspects of life. Patience, care, observation, a little bit of sweat and the reward of reaping what we have sown... If for some reason the crop fails we learn how to deal with disappointment as we proceed to try again.
Larry has teamed up with a teacher at the school and they've been working with a couple of boys who have benefited greatly from the activities. The idea of a larger project has taken on and they've produced a short documentary in which Larry explains the philosophy behind the project which has an excellent name that I will publish when I know it's OK to do so.

It seems the school may even come on board and dedicate some land especially for the purpose of developing a larger training program around this philosophy! Since all the fresh fruit and vegetables on Milingimbi are imported, this project could have many flow on benefits for the community.

There's so much more I could rant on about but basically I have come home feeling recharged and optimistic about all the potential of this small community.